Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts invites visitors to their 32-acre campus in Newcastle for Salad Days, an annual celebration of local food and handcrafted ceramics. This art- and craft-filled festival features a picnic buffet of fresh salads prepared by area chefs, and guests enjoy their meals on handmade ceramic plates they can keep.

Ceramic artist Christina Bendo has created more than 550 plates decorated with flowers and foliage to choose from. The plates are made of clay that was dug from Maine riverbeds and processed in Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts’ studio. “I seek to evoke a connection to place by using site specific materials and motifs in my work,” explains Bendo. “I was excited to work with Watershed clay because it carries the history of the region and community.”

In addition to getting a delicious lunch and handcrafted plate, visitors will have the opportunity to watch pottery demonstrations by master ceramic artists, tour Watershed’s grounds and historic art studios, listen to live music by Jerks of Grass, and win fabulous ceramic pieces in the art raffle.

Guest will also find one-of-a-kind works in a pottery sale featuring more work by more than twenty artists from around the country. The sale provides a rare opportunity to purchase exquisite pieces by nationally-known potters and to support a number of Maine ceramists as well.

Pots on Wheels!, a mobile clay education project that brings pottery lessons to communities around New England, will offer visitors a chance to try their hand at creating with clay. After making a piece, guests can choose a finished work from the POW! project gallery to keep. Other arts nonprofits sharing information about their organizations at Salad Days include the Maine Craft Association, the Society of Arts and Crafts, and Studio Potter magazine.

Funds raised during Salad Days support Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts’ community education and residency programs for clay artists. Admission is $40, which includes the meal and a handcrafted plate. Visitors coming just to the pottery sale are admitted free.

“Salad Days connects talented artists from near and far with the Midcoast community, and is generously supported by many local restaurants, farms, and businesses,” says Francine Rudoff, Watershed’s executive director. “We’re especially grateful to this year’s Tent Sponsors: Jeffrey Spahn Gallery, Laguna Clay Company, J. Edward Knight insurance, and Ames True Value Hardware.”

Salad Days will be held on Saturday, July 14 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, located at 19 Brick Hill Road in Newcastle. The campus opens at 10:45 a.m. and ticketing will begin at 11 a.m. For directions to Watershed and details on Salad Days, visit http://www.watershedceramics.org/events/salad-days/.