When Marie Rhodes was just a little girl, she had an annual habit — when the weather turned nice — of heading outdoors to play in the dirt. “She’d always be out there making mud pies and catching frogs,” said Rhodes’ mom Jeanie, reflecting on a time in her daughter’s life that, really, wasn’t all that very long ago.

“They’d have to drag me back inside the house!” said the homeschooled high school junior. “I’d stay forever out there, just clawing in the dirt. and I remember there was this one toad that I’d always see outside — and we swore it was the same one that came back every year, even though it probably wasn’t really the same toad. But to me it was, and we named him ‘Sid.’ So when I started my pottery shop, we were throwing around names trying to think of what to call it, and I was like, ‘What about ‘Mud Toad Pottery?’ and mom was like, ‘That’s so cute — let’s go with it!’”

It’s an apt shop name for a girl who, even before taking up the potter’s craft less than two years ago, already had an established history of making frog houses with her bare feet happily planted in the dirt. In a way, it circumscribes Rhodes’ present-day penchant for sculpture and clay: Though the Good Hope native admits she dabbles occasionally in painting and crochet, it’s pottery where her creative talents have truly taken off … never mind the fact she’s only been at the wheel for a mere 20 months or so.

“I’ve been homeschooled since COVID hit in 8th grade, and I started pottery in April of 2022,” she recalls. “Really the only way I would ever be able to do pottery is because of homeschool. I begged Christy Brock, my first teacher, to give me lessons, and from there I met more people who were into it; I got involved in Empty Bowls, and now, well — here we are!”

Here we are indeed: After eventually obtaining her own potter’s wheel at home and, crucially, getting her own on-site electric firing kiln, Rhodes’ progressed from a clay-spinning beginner to an award-winning artist. In October, two of her speckled stoneware vases (including her eye-catching “Wonky Vase,” so named for its eye-catching asymmetrical lean) claimed best-in-show honors at Birmingham’s 17th Annual Mr. Painterman “Rhythms of Color” Art Festival and Student Art Competition, even as she took home the top pottery prize (for a second consecutive year) at the Cullman County Fair.

There’s a seriously disciplined craftsmanship baked into Marie’s most formal work: Decorative raised dots adorn her textured pieces with a rigid geometric orderliness that seems to defy their human-handed origins, while symmetrical details — all similarly applied by hand — align with near perfection. Yet Rhodes is a versatile artist whose pieces also show off a whimsical side (like her series of duck-billed vessels whose aesthetic inspirations fall on the decidedly folksy side of formality). and she’s knee-deep in a side project of throwing made-to-order mugs — dozens upon dozens of them — for the Cullman Lions Club, who requested her talents to craft a line of bespoke commemorative pieces to give to members and featured speaking guests.

How did she get so good at it all so fast? Well, the short answer is that Rhodes is just instinctively gifted at seeing the latent three-dimensional potential in formless clay. The longer answer is that pottery is a never-ending learning process; one that ever bears new lessons even for a committed artist — and that the deeper into it you go, the more there is to learn.

“The clay itself is a teacher,” she confesses. “I could go on for hours talking about the different clays and how they respond. There’s so much that can go wrong.

“To do pottery, you have to be hard headed and really stubborn. You’re going to get frustrated, and when you start out, it’s so easy to get discouraged. It’s not going to do what you want it to do — but honestly, you’ve just got to do it: To not be afraid to try something that’s considered risky; something that could collapse; something that just won’t work. Because even when that does happen, you’ve learned something … and the great thing about pottery is, you can throw stuff and break it if you just don’t like it!”

Rhodes credits Brock and her other mentors — longtime local potters like Lynn Jetton and Sandra Heaven (whose Meek High School studio space Rhodes leaned on heavily until her own home studio space came together) — with guiding her on a still-unfolding journey into an endeavor she now considers a lifelong pursuit … and, perhaps, even a career. The business side of promoting and selling her work comes with its own separate lessons about how to convert creativity into an actual profession. But in the short time she’s been at it, Rhodes has tackled those kinds of early entrepreneurial challenges with the same curiosity and enthusiasm she devotes to the art itself.

“I’d tell anyone thinking about selling their work at festivals to start at Hanceville,” she says, citing terrific experiences opening her own vendor’s stand at the city’s 2023 Irish Festival, as well as the Grilled Cheese Festival in May and the Mud Creek Arts and Crafts Festival in October. “It’s small, but it’s a great environment and the people are so friendly. Nearly every festival I’ve been to [including other events in Marshall and Blount counties], I’ve sold probably about 60 percent or more of what I brought.”

In all, Rhodes has thrown more than 800 pottery pieces, a tally that includes a sizable contribution of vessels for Cullman’s annual Empty Bowls food bank fundraiser — a charitable, pottery-themed dinner event whose organizers welcome a fresh injection of youthful energy and artistry.

“A lot of the more prolific older potters for Empty Bowls have, sadly, either passed away or scaled back their involvement because of declining health,” Rhodes said, fresh from attending a planning session for the event’s 2024 installment (scheduled for Feb. 19), which is targeting at least 1,000 handmade pottery pieces to send home with dinner-buying donors. “Right now we have maybe 350 bowls ready, which means we’ve got a long way to go in a short amount of time — so it’s a lot of work for everyone!”

At least Rhodes now has a home studio space where she can turn out work at her leisure — though in truth, the messy business of pottery making has a way of taking over the whole house. It’s a joyful and industrious sort of mess, though: There’s always a pair of family dogs hanging about while Rhodes is at the wheel, as well as a cat (named “Potter,” of course) who nuzzles her feet while she’s working.

“Everyone is supportive of what I do,” says Rhodes, dispensing credit to her patient 19-year-old brother John, her dad Mark, and especially Eddie Sandlin, her grandfather, for helping her embark on an artistic journey that’s still in its earliest growing phase. “My grandpa’s the one who bought me my kiln and helped me set it up, and he’s been to every festival that I’ve done — from the time I get there to the time that I leave — to help me set up, get going, and then pack up.

“A lot of people at the festivals are shocked at my age and how long I’ve been doing this, and I’m insanely lucky to have parents who let me take up so much space in the house — just to do something that I love.”

“It does kind of take over the place,” jokes Jeanie, who’s never balked at Rhodes’ off-kilter artist’s schedule, which can find her working well into the small hours of the night. “When Marie gets busy, things can get pretty crazy inside our house … but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Find Marie’s work at Vintage Magnolias in Hanceville (111 Commercial Street NE), and view her latest pieces and scheduled festival stops on Facebook at Marie Rhodes.