Cherie was a farm girl who also loved art from the beginning. She attend a one-room schoolhouse in the Castle Rock valley near Montfort, WI until 3rd grade. When she grew up, she went on to major in art at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire with emphasis in sculpture and painting. Cherie worked as a cook at the Hilltop school adjacent to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Talesian, in the process befriending Herb and Eloise Fritz who were the caretakers for the Wright properties. In 1973 she moved to Virginia to marry a young army private named Jeff.

When Cherie and Jeff finished school in 1977 they moved to the Horicon, WI area. The pottery was started the next spring...so was the family. Jessica was born in the fall of 1978, and soon followed by Ericka and Jason, all 18 months apart. Needless to say this was a full time job and Cherie didn't spend a lot of hours tending to the kilns. Around the year 1986 she began putting in many hours in the pottery and started creating her now widely collected, Arbor Vitae design.

Cherie is always trying something new and creative-there are probably few crafts she hasn't dabbled in. When it comes to textiles however, that's where her passion lies. She is a talented and accomplished fiber artist. From carding the wool, spinning it into skiens, and dying it, she has gone on to knit sweaters, weave tapestries, and felt—what else? but felted art pots among other things. (You’ll have to see this to believe it!)

Just like everything else Cherie does, the love for what she creates is felt in the pottery shop as well. Once when asked by her daughter, 'Why do you decorate both sides of a coffee mug, doesn't it take twice as much time?' She replied without pausing to think, 'Well, how do I know if the person who buys this mug will be right, or left handed?' That's Cherie for you,