For as long as we can remember, imagination and making has been part of who we are.
Decades years ago, two teenagers from very different worlds met on an Outward Bound course in Maine and became best friends. Our first real conversation was about fantasy, dragons, and imagination. What followed was a life built side by side, with hands busy, and curiosity leading the way.
Anne’s earliest memories are of shaping small clay pots from mud. Albert was sketching, tinkering, and reimagining objects into something new. Over the years, that shared instinct to make took many forms: shaping wood and tile, restoring antiques, treasure hunting at flea markets, crafting steampunk pieces from forgotten parts, and raising two children surrounded by music, art, and community.
As our children grew and began their own journeys, we returned more fully to ours.
Anne found her way back to clay through classes at Railyard Arts Studio. What began as a return quickly became a deep, grounding practice. Hands in the earth, learning the quiet discipline of centering, shaping, and listening to the material itself.
Pottery grew into a space of exploration and calm, where form, glaze, and kiln come together through patience and intuition. Each piece reflects a respect for process and a willingness to let the work evolve, shaped as much by touch and time as by intention.
Steampunk has long been one of Albert’s ways of building stories with objects. A gear, a broken clock, a bit of brass or copper, each found piece suggests another world and another possibility. That imaginative spirit now lives not only in occasional commissioned builds, but also in the worlds he creates through his writing.
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Jewelry, too, has been one of Albert’s creative paths over the years. Using wood, leather, and stone, he makes pieces that feel simple, earthy, and shaped by hand. While it is no longer a main focus of the site, it remains part of the larger story of making that has always guided us.
After 30 years in the creative field, Albert gradually followed the thread that had always been there: story. What began as years of sketching, notes, maps, and quiet imagining eventually grew into The Durajan Series, an epic fantasy world published under Alania Press.
Alania Press is simply the place where that world lives. It is shaped by history, culture, belief, and consequence, and is less concerned with spectacle than with what endures, what is remembered, what is carried forward, and how choices echo over time.
Together, we have spent years making, exploring, and following what draws us in. Over time, those creative paths have become clearer, with pottery at the heart of Alania Crafts and storytelling continuing through Albert’s work on The Durajan Series.
Alania Crafts is the home of that journey, a place shaped by clay, creativity, and a shared life of craft and curiosity.
Welcome to Alania Crafts. We’re so glad you’re here.
