thumbs up! 
Potter sells work at Gosport artfest for hospice that once helped her

2008 Virginian Pilot, Beacon featured artist, May 5 p10, Cindy Butler Focke

Ronda Borberg-Shulenburg’s world turned upside down almost 17 years ago. Her daughter, Elise, was born with a chromosomal abnormality called Trisomy 18, which took her life before she was 3 months old.

Today, Borberg-Shulenburg, 50, an accomplished potter who lives in Thalia, is among 130 artists participating in the Gosport Arts Festival in Portsmouth. The festival benefits Edmarc Hospice for Children, which she said helped her heal after Elise's short life ended just after Christmas 1991.

"When we brought Elise home from the hospital, we tried to conduct things as normal," said Borberg-Shulenburg, whose older daughter was 2 at the time."They had nurses come at all hours. They were a support system. There wasn't anything we could do and they were tremendously helpful," she said. She praised the group’s bereavement program, which included meetings and special activities designed to include and help surviving siblings.

Since her daughter's death, Borberg-Shulenburg has volunteered for the nonprofit organization, which Provides local in-home Patient care to terminally ill children and supportive services to the families. In 1994 and 1996 she was named their Volunteer of the Year.

Executive director Debbie Stitzer-Brame commended Borberg-Shulenburg for Participating in this weekend's art show, which has brought about $22,000 to the Portsmouth-based group over the past three years.

Borberg-Shulenburg, a Cox High School and Old Dominion-University business school grad, said her fondness for Pottery began in grade school and was a hobby until she was laid off from her job in computers at Virginia Natural Gas in 2001 after 22 years with the company.

She began to devote more time to her children and her artistic passion of creating porcelain clay pottery.  "It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me," she said. Now she owns a business, Options in Pottery, and is part owner of Blue Skies Gallery in Hampton.

Her pottery studio is behind the home she shares with her husband of 12 years, Karl, and daughters Emily, 15, and Lauren, 18.

Overlooking the Lynnhaven River, the studio provides a serene setting, with a wedging table to knead the clay and a manual kickwheel to mold it into what she calls "functional porcelain artware," such as chip and dip bowls, berry bowls and vases. She etches intricate floral motifs into the clay and uses shells, crabs, starfish and other objects to impress designs into the pottery.

Some of Borberg-Shulenburg's works will be on display through June at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, and for sale at the Gosport Arts Festival, which concludes today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on High Street in OIde Towne Portsmouth.

For information on Edmarc, visit www.edmarc.org