Despite all of the things that Leila Giannetti has learned to create and grow on her idyllic spot of Tennessee land known as Patina Meadow, it is her ability to teach that continues to give her the most satisfaction. “Teaching what I know how to do, and that I continue do here at the farm, is probably one of the most fulfilling things I do in life,” she says. Of her skills as a seasoned potter, she adds, “Pottery has been one of my greatest teachers in my life as well as being able to teach the skill to others. Something about the making of pottery that teaches you about not giving up when things get hard and a bit wobblily in life. It’s an art form that brings me and those who practice it so much joy. It teaches you about being in the present and being persistent and working through something until you solve it.”

Notwithstanding the fact that she is going on a mere 26 years old, Leila possesses an existential understanding of what a life well lived can accomplish. After her architect father, Steve Giannetti, and designer mother, Brooke Giannetti, moved from their longtime home in Santa Monica, then Ojai, California, to Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, Leila joined them for what would be a new family adventure. In just a short time, Leila has established on their 100-acre farm an abundant garden she refers to as The Bloomerie and a ceramics workshop called The Potterie. “We purposely changed the spellings of those terms as a way to differentiate between the traditional methods of gardening and the throwing of pottery.”

Although sheep and chickens and goats roam the bucolic spread of land situated some 40 miles from Nashville, and bees hum amid the bounty of flowers and produce that grow in patches, Patina Meadow is also a place open to people who wish to visit and learn. Leila became proficient at working a potter’s wheel, apply glazes, and fire up a kiln while she and her family were still in California. Later, while working at an animal rescue sanctuary in Virginia, she studied under the talented potter Jamie Kirkpatrick who, she emphasizes, “taught me about form and techniques and ways to define my style.” So adept is she now that she leads popular pottery-making workshops, as well as individual tutoring sessions, at the farm. She starts the small class sessions (typically six students) by involving everyone in the making of a single piece of pottery. “Then I give each person five balls of clay. At first, as people are getting used to working with the material, there’s a lot of chattering going on. The closer they are to finishing a piece, though, the more silence there is in a room. People tell me how super peaceful it is to make pottery. If people touch clay only once in their life, it makes me happy to experience that with them.”

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WRITTEN BY DAVID MASELLO
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LISA ROMEREIN

This story appeared in the Fall 2026 issue of MILIEU.