Each of these scripture pottery gifts from April Dupuis’s Flourish collection begins with a verse. Fear Not is made after Isaiah 41:10. Consider the Lilies comes from the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:28-29. Field of Praise rises out of Isaiah 42:10-11, a song of praise from the ends of the earth.
Flourish is a series of hand-sculpted ceramic relief works from The Potter’s Hands Studio in Oxford, Mississippi, drawn from the promise that dry places are made to bloom. Because each one carries scripture, they are often chosen as gifts of comfort alongside the studio’s memorial pottery. Here are the verses behind four of them, and how each verse shaped the clay.
Fear Not, after Isaiah 41:10
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)
Isaiah 41:10 is one of the most loved promises in the Bible. It does not promise that hard things will not come. It promises that God will be there in them, holding on.
The Fear Not ceramic relief panel ($70) is the plainest work in the collection, on purpose. Where other pieces carry gold, glass and frames, this one carries none. A cluster of hand-sculpted dogwood blossoms runs down the right side of a thickly worked white ground, pressed into broad palette-knife strokes. It is left open, meant to lean on a shelf or mantel as readily as hang.
The dogwood was a fitting choice. It is a small tree that blooms early, often while it is still cold, and it carries its own long-told story in the South. Many of us grew up hearing the old legend that ties its four petals to the cross. A bloom that opens before winter is fully gone is a good picture of a God who says, “Fear thou not.”
Because it is small and quiet, Fear Not is a natural sympathy gift for a friend in a hard season.
Consider the Lilies, after Matthew 6:28-29
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 6:28-29 (KJV)
These are the words of Jesus, spoken on a hillside to people worried about what they would eat and wear. He points them to a wildflower. It does not strain or strive, and still the Father clothes it in more beauty than a king’s robes.
Consider the Lilies ceramic wall art ($125) is the quietest piece in the collection and, by the studio’s own account, the hardest to make. A single bloom opens across the full width of the panel, worked white on white in thick palette-knife relief. With no color to carry it, everything depends on relief: how deep the knife goes, which way the stroke runs, where light catches an edge.
Small hand-sculpted clay blossoms cluster at the edges, and strokes of gold and silver leaf sit at the corners. The gold is Solomon’s glory, kept at the margins. The flower is white. It is presented in a white shadowbox frame.
Lilies have long been part of April’s work. In her own words, she carves “lilies for their openness.”
Field of Praise, after Isaiah 42:10-11
Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth… let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice.
Isaiah 42:10-11 (KJV)
Isaiah 42 calls all of creation to sing: the sea, the islands, the wilderness, the villages. Even the dry places are invited to lift up their voice.
Field of Praise ceramic relief wall art ($400) is the tallest work in the Flourish collection and the most vertical. Everything in it rises. Strokes of ochre and white run the full height of the panel like a standing field, with wheat heads climbing through them in palette-knife relief.
Glazed clay blossoms are set across the field in a loose diagonal, higher up than the eye expects, so the piece reads as a field seen from inside it. Each blossom was formed by hand, petals shaped one at a time, centers pressed with texture, then glazed and fired before being set in. Small sculpted seed discs gather along the lower edge, and it is finished in a gold leaf frame.
Its tall shape suits a narrow wall: between windows, beside a doorway or at the end of a hall. It is a piece of praise for a home that wants to keep singing, even after a hard year.
Springs of Water, after Isaiah 42
I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not.
Isaiah 42:15-16 (KJV)
This passage is about God leading his people by roads they could not have found on their own. For anyone walking through grief, that is a real comfort. The way forward may not be the one you expected, and you are not walking it alone.
Springs of Water ceramic relief wall art ($125) works wheat and pampas fronds in gold and silver leaf across a pale textured ground. The grain heads are painted and leafed by hand, gold laid over the strokes and silver broken across them, so the surface catches light differently from every angle. Hand-sculpted white clay blossoms and seed pods sit in relief behind glass, in a white shadowbox frame.
Grain is what dry ground produces when water finds it. The piece holds both at once: the wheat already standing, and the light moving through it.
Why scripture belongs in clay
The Bible is full of potters and clay, and April’s faith runs all through her work. Her motifs draw on Southern gardens and faith, and she still helps lead worship at her church. The Flourish pieces put that faith on the wall, where a verse can be read again on an ordinary Tuesday.
Each one is built in clay, textured and sculpted by hand. No two are alike, and none are reproduced. If you would like a verse carved into a personal memorial piece instead, scripture verses for memorial and sympathy gifts gathers passages families often choose.
Questions people ask
What verse is the Fear Not panel based on?
Fear Not is made after Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God.” It is a small, unframed relief panel with hand-sculpted dogwood blossoms.
What verse is behind Consider the Lilies?
Consider the Lilies is made after Matthew 6:28-29, where Jesus says to consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, and that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Are the Flourish pieces reproduced or made in multiples?
No. Each piece in the Flourish collection is built in clay, textured and sculpted by hand. No two are alike, and none are reproduced.
You can see the Flourish pieces and other one-of-a-kind work in the shop. For a piece made with a name and a verse of your own, start a commission whenever you are ready.