Mollie Jenkins took her first pottery class as a senior in high school and quickly got hooked on the process of throwing clay on the wheel. She majored in ceramics at Auburn University, and after graduation established Mollie Jenkins Pottery in Nashville, before moving her base of operations to her hometown of Columbus this summer. The twenty-four-year-old turns out cups, plates, and bowls in earthy glazes and classic, organic shapes, and in 2016 she added lamps to the mix. “My mom had some spare lamp parts lying around the house,” Jenkins explains, “so I figured I’d give it a whirl.” She likes to keep her operation regional, ordering the shades from Mississippi and wooden bases from Georgia. She also takes custom orders, tweaking the height and shape, adding an acrylic base, or playing around with the drip pattern of her signature aqua-blue glaze.
>Ceramic lamps, $350-$850 from molliejenkinspottery.com
MORE MADE IN THE SOUTH:
>Home category and overall winner: Alabama Sawyer
>Home runner-up: Mollie Jenkins Pottery
>Home runner-up: ME Speak Design
>Home runner-up: Moore & Giles