Hi. I'm Alexis.

I have a lot of furbabies.

I'm a ceramicist, a rescue advocate, a certified vet tech, and a ceramics teacher of nearly two decades. I make handmade ceramic art for people who are, like me, completely unhinged about their animals — fur, feathers, scales, or otherwise.

267+

Foster dogs and counting

15

Current Furbabies

100%

Rescue. Every single one.

~20

Years teaching art

Let me set the scene…

At any given moment, my house contains several husky mixes of dubious origin, a rotating cast of foster dogs who are absolutely running the place, a couple of cats who have made it very clear they did not consent to any of this, and my husband Matt, who knew exactly what he was signing up for and married me anyway.

I've been teaching art and ceramics for almost twenty years. I know clay. I know what it can do and I know what it can't, and somewhere in between those two things is where every piece I make lives. Hand-built. Hand-carved. Glazed in colors that have no interest in being subtle.

“I wanted pet art that actually looked like my animals. Not a generic golden retriever. Not a tasteful paw print on a neutral background. My dogs. The weird ones. The rescue mutts with the one floppy ear and the underbite.”

— Alexis...on how this whole thing started

What I wanted didn’t exist…so I made it myself.

I started The Big Furbowski because I went looking for handmade pet art I actually wanted to own — and it didn't exist. Everything out there was fine. Inoffensive. Made for a customer who just sort of... likes animals. I am not that customer. I needed something that matched the energy of a household that has fostered more than 267 dogs and somehow still has room on the couch.

So I went into the studio and made it myself. Which, honestly, should surprise exactly nobody who has ever met me.

Fur, feathers, scales — if you love something with four legs, two legs, or no legs at all, I made this for you. Your furbaby deserves to be on a mug or whatnot. I will go to bat for that every single time.

When I'm not in the studio, I'm transporting rescue dogs across state lines, working a weekend shift at Vetco — yes, I got my vet tech certification, because apparently loving animals as a hobby wasn't enough — and doing the unglamorous, necessary, deeply rewarding work of fostering. Matt and I have fostered over 267 dogs through Taysia Blue Malamute & Husky Rescue, and that number will be higher by the time you read this, because we currently have fosters in the house and I have absolutely no chill about it.

I donate pieces to rescue fundraisers. I have never bought from a breeder. I will probably talk to your furbaby before I talk to you, and I mean that as the highest compliment.

The pieces I make carry all of that — the love, the chaos, the color, the care. They're made in a studio that smells like clay and sounds like huskies, by someone who genuinely, embarrassingly, completely loves animals and the people who feel the same way.

If that's you — and I think it might be — you're in the right place.

Every dog in this house came from rescue.
Every single one.

Alexis has fostered and volunteered with Taysia Blue Malamute & Husky Rescue for years — transporting dogs, coordinating volunteers, supporting adoption events, and donating pieces to fundraisers. When you buy from The Big Furbowski, you're buying from someone who lives this.

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