Bridgman Pottery
A Memphis potter who forms, glazes and paints every piece by hand.
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Why Southern Crafted
Makers museums collect.
Work by some of our makers is held in places like the Smithsonian.
Made to last generations
Small-batch and handmade, for everyday use and then for handing down.
Made in the South
100% of the artisans we carry work here in the South.
Free shipping over $300
Easy exchanges, too. Fragile pieces like glass and art ship at cost.
The mould is a real oyster shell
Bridgman doesn't sculpt an oyster shell out of clay. She presses a real one in, pulls the mould from that, and fires what comes out — which is why the wells have the ridging and the lopsided outline of actual shells, and why the rim of each plate wanders a little. The deviled egg plate is made the same way, from a vintage pressed egg tray rather than a shape she drew.
There's a hook on the back
Every oyster plate has a hook built into the back, which tells you what she expects you to do with it. Beautiful serveware usually lives in a cabinet three hundred days a year. Hers hangs on the wall between dinners and comes down when people come over. Her own line on it: “I want everyday life to feel as special as the celebratory occasions we usually save our nice things for.”
Not a platter. A tomato platter.
Oysters, tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus, sardines. Her range is almost entirely garden and sea rendered in porcelain — the tomato platter is a tomato, the strawberry dish is a strawberry. Each one hand-painted in underglazes and cobalt washes, which is the part Garden & Gun singled out as “painterly flair.” Put two on a table and they look like they were always meant to sit together.
Melissa Bridgman
Melissa Bridgman is a potter in Memphis. Before the pottery came a Master’s in Southern Studies from Ole Miss’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture — she spent years thinking about this part of the world academically before she sat down at a wheel and started making things for its tables. Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Southern Home and Okra have all written about her since.
She was also the first maker who said yes to us, back when Southern Crafted was still an idea. We have carried her work ever since.
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Our Retail Location
114 Bull Street
Savannah, GA
Monday, Thu-Sat: 10:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday: 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Our Company
Our Company
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