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| Welcome to my website! |
| The 3rd National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition presenting in the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the US National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. has accepted 7 of my bonsai pots to be in the exhibition and sale. The exhibition will be in conjunction the American Bonsai Society Annual Learning Seminars, the theme is “Capitol Collections: Collecting in the 21st Century”. I am honored to have my pots in this premier national show. Years ago I lived in Miami where I grew all kinds of wonderful plants. I grew lychees, longans, carambolas and many mango trees, lots of pineapples and of course strange succulent plants like pachypodiums and adeniums. I also was a member of the Miami Bonsai Society. I am now a member of the Atlanta Bonsai Society and my hometown Tennessee Valley Bonsai Society. I have been making plant containers for years and now I am concentrating on bonsai and kusamono containers. I have been firing my wood kiln and also my cone 10 reduction kiln to achieve the desired results in bonsai pottery. I am mixing my own clay using Lizella, fireclay and ball clay to make a dark clay perfect for bonsai containers, in some batches I add interesting materials like chicken grit and metal filings that melt at 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit marking the pots with inclusions. I also am growing different types of bonsai trees using conifers like Virginia pines and Parsley hawthorns that I have collected on my property. The privets I have collected on my property are developing into good bonsai trees. I have a greenhouse full of cactus and succulents that I have propagated. I make a wide range of work in stoneware for use in the home. I am always exploring the application of simple ash glazes to enhance the ever evolving forms of my pottery. My work is available at my studio on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. Thank You Mark Issenberg |
 The home of Lookout Mountain Pottery has been a local reference point for Southern Appalachian Arts and Crafts since 1947, when Fannie Mennen, a local printmaker, founded the Plum Nelly Clothesline Art Show. The name Plum Nelly is derived from contractions of the phrases: “Plum out of Tennessee” and “Nearly out of Georgia.” Featuring local artists and craftspeople, the show is but an historical footnote now. Today, potter Mark Issenberg has returned to contribute to that former inspiration. |
| Mark Issenberg Mark Issenberg creates fine ash-glazed stoneware near Plum Nelly where he first studied ceramics as a young man under the legendary potter, Charles Counts.Later, Mark went on to receive a degree in Fine Arts and served the City of Hialeah, Florida for eighteen years as a fire fighter. Always maintaining a close relationship with fire, upon retirement Mark returned to the source of his greatest influence and inspiration. Today, Mark is an award-winning potter. His functional and decorative pieces are widely exhibited throughout the South and East. Mark is a long term member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, whose mission is to discover, preserve and promote knowledge and appreciation of traditional and contemporary crafts of the Appalachian region. He is a member of Potters Council dedicated to meet the needs of studio potters and ceramic artists by providing forums for knowledge exchange and professional enhancement. |
Studio Location – 3165 Plum Nelly Rd, Rising Fawn GA 30738 |
| Lookout Mountain Pottery, constructed and completed in 1999, and adjacent to the original Plum Nelly Clothes Line Art Show, is open to the public. For your personal tour of the pottery shop, grounds and for a breathtaking view of North Georgia from the bluffs above Rising Fawn, call or email or come by any time, we are always open. Don’t forget to wear your walking shoes and bring your camera. |
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