Our kiln room is filled with many treasures. On any given day, you might come across a colorful garden gnome, a lovingly sculpted dog bowl, or a soon-to-be Christmas tree ornament. It’s not often, however, that we find the makings of a marriage proposal on the shelves (or, at least, nothing so clearly intended for such a purpose).
So we knew we had a story to track down when we spied a small ring dish on the crowded kiln room shelves this past fall stamped with the question, “Marry Me?”
Our ceramics director managed to track down the artist in roughly ten minutes – an impressive feat given all he had to go by were the initials “B.W.” inscribed on the bottom of the dish. His sleuthing led us to ceramics student Britt Walsh, who had been taking classes here at Spruill for about 2 ½ years. With the artist’s identity secured, we set about arranging a conversation.
Britt, who (spoiler alert) is now happily engaged, created this ring dish at the request of her soon-to-be fiancée Zoe, whom she met a few years prior at a cat café in Grant Park.
“She’s very anxious. She does not want to lose things,” Britt said about her fiancée, who had asked for a dedicated dish to keep her future engagement ring in while not wearing it.
Britt took Zoe’s request a step further and decided to create a proposal-themed ring dish that could be integrated into the big moment itself.
“I have these really fantastic little tiny stamps, like letter stamps, and that’s how I did the “Marry Me?’” Britt said. “And I was prepared to do it as many times as necessary until it turned out perfect.”
To make the letters stand out, Britt filled them in with black underglaze before glazing the entire piece in a “greenish blueish celadon,” which she said is the only glaze transparent enough not to cover up the letters entirely (the color was also chosen to match Britt’s and Zoe’s engagement rings, which each boast a beautiful green stone). Britt also stamped onto the dish a tiny acorn detail – which she uses frequently as part of her signature.
Finished ring dish in hand, Britt proposed after ceramics class on a Friday morning. Rather than puzzle through how to smoothly pull the dish from her pocket (while keeping the ring perfectly in position on top of it), Britt presented it to her fiancée a few moments after popping the big question (to which the answer was “yes,” by the way!).
Though they haven’t officially set a wedding date, Britt and Zoe plan to get married next March somewhere around Atlanta – ideally in an outdoor setting, Britt told me. We can’t wait to see the photos!
