Shuttle Bus Studios is the vision of potter LeeAnn Dodde. After graduating from Adrian College in 2007 she headed west, chasing the dream of becoming a full-time artist. Life took her from the mountains of Aspen Colorado where she kept her interest in clay alive attending classes at Colorado Mountain College, to the depths of the Grand Canyon where she lived and worked for 7 years at Phantom Ranch, located at the bottom of the natural wonder.

 

Phantom Ranch is only accessible by a 7-10 mile hike, mule ride, or several days boating down the Colorado River, if you have been, you know the struggle and beauty of the place. LeeAnn spent a large portion of her spare time throwing pots in her small bedroom on a tabletop wheel which was packed in, like all supplies to the ranch, on a mules back. Her greenware pots were delicately packaged and loaded onto a mule for their 7.5 mile ride out of the Grand Canyon. She hiked out behind, collected them on the rim and transported them to her home in Prescott Arizona where her weekends were spent glazing and firing the surviving pieces.

 

In 2018 she purchased a used Grand Canyon Shuttle Bus and turned it into her home studio. Her one of a kind pieces are now created inside the rehabbed bus, which originally showed visitors the grandeur of the Canyon that will forever hold a piece of her heart. She has turned her dream of a unique studio into reality.