They had fallen in love with the house because of its nicely proportioned rooms, original moldings and details like a butler’s pantry with a zinc double sink and wooden countertops. But the house was still not big enough for the family, so they bumped out the kitchen, added the mudroom and turned the garage into a family room.  “So we have no garage,” Ms. Palmer said. “It’s no big deal unless there is a big snowstorm.”  Ms. Palmer still had to work in the basement, and she was feeling cramped. “My husband decided to find an old building for me,” she said. He found a disassembled 1790 house from Bethel, Conn., that looked like a barn and was perfectly sized for their site, and they had it reassembled on their property.  “Only the post-and-beam frame was usable,” Mr. Palmer said. “There was literally a barn raising, but it was done by crane.”  At the same time, they built next door to it what looks like an old icehouse out of antique planks to house a gas-fired kiln.  “This is where I do my unglazed porcelain pieces,” Ms. Palmer explained. “They become vitrified, which means they become like glass.”  She recently made a special collection of these pieces to be sold at the new visitors’ center for the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan.  She has two electric kilns in the studio along with two wheels — one for porcelain and one for earthenware — and dozens of pieces that are either prototypes or rejects. There’s a photography corner where there is wonderful natural light. “I take pictures so I have an archive of all my one-of-a-kind pieces,” she said.  “I was only supposed to have the first floor, and the upstairs was going to be a family hangout room, but I have taken that over, too,” she said sheepishly. The children’s Ping-Pong table holds jumbo rolls of bubble wrap, kraft paper and other postal supplies. “I do all my own shipping,” she said.  Actually, she handles the shipping only for the more expensive one-of-a-kind pieces she makes while listening to books on tape. (“I just finished ‘Anna Karenina,’ ” she said. “Tolstoy teaches a lot about organic farming.”)  Her secondary line, the Frances Palmer Pearl Collection, is a year old and is manufactured at the Buffalo China factory, which has been in operation since 1901.  “I decided I should knock myself off before somebody else did,” said Ms. Palmer, whose Pearl Collection platters, vases, bowls and plates are at once ethereal, useful and decorative. “I approached them to see if they would be interested. I initiated the whole thing.”  The collection has the eccentricity of her handmade pieces but is as durable as diner china because the pieces are made the same way. The company makes molds from her hand-thrown prototypes, and because each piece is finished by hand, no two are exactly the same.  “It doesn’t chip, and it goes in the oven,” Ms. Palmer said. “My slogan for the line is ‘Art With Low Maintenance.’ It is still not inexpensive. A dinner plate is $50. I love that it’s made in America.”  The china has a global appeal, and it’s used in the dining room of the American Academy in Rome. “I had to send 60 platters over for a big party,” Ms. Palmer said. The honoree was Alice Waters, the restaurateur and cookbook author who helped found the academy’s Sustainable Food Project.  Unlike many people who work at home and procrastinate by doing housework, Ms. Palmer keeps to a rigid schedule. “I am very disciplined,” she said while making pizza dough for lunch back in the kitchen. “I get up and work every day. I am very structured about my time. I cook dinner most nights, but when I am busy, my husband will. My boys are good cooks, too. They know how to go grocery shopping. I want them to be independent.”  When she needs a break from her work, Ms. Palmer tends the garden outside the studio door. “I gave up vegetable gardening because farmers’ markets are so easy and accessible,” she said. “I focus on flowers — sunflowers, zinnias and dahlias. I have 50 different types of dahlias I grow for cutting and putting them in my vases.”  Her vases and bowls are displayed discreetly in the living and dining rooms. Mr. Palmer selected soft paint colors that would be a good backdrop for his wife’s work. “I wanted the walls to be unassuming and soothing,” he said.  He doesn’t envy his wife’s set-up but thinks it is ideal for her. “She can work all night and sometimes does,” he said. “It suits her personality.”  She can’t imagine running her business and life any other way. “I couldn’t work alone all day if I didn’t know there were people coming home at the end of it,” she said. “The wonderful part is that the train station is 10 minutes away, so I can get to the city. But I couldn’t live in New York again. I need room for my work, and I need my garden.”  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page RE1 of the New York edition with the headline: An Ancient Studio for an Even Older Craft. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Inspired by a Bloomsbury Group painter, a ceramic artist makes space for work in a historic town with a rural ambience.