The Potters Cast

PEZ COCINADO is all about Vivi Araya-Gamboa's imagination, love and respect for the ocean. When Vivi was a little girl her mother let her draw on the walls of Vivi's room since that where peces y peces!!! Then on papers and when Vivi went to the university with CLAY. REMEMBER!!! MORE FISHES, LESS PLASTIC!!!!

Morgan Levine makes functional slipware out of her Brooklyn studio. Morgan's work references a long history of marbleized patterns across different mediums and around the world. Each piece records the reaction between Morgan's gesture and the colored slips' movement.

Erin Killian is a ceramicist and writer based in Southern California. When she's not wrangling her three young boys, you can find her in her backyard studio making simple, functional pottery. Before she moved West, she was a journalist with NPR in Washington, D.C. and has written for the Washington Post and Fodor's Travel.

Ann Ruel started creating pottery as a tribute to the traditions and dynamics of the "family" as witnessed from her own experiences and acted out on the pottery through symbolic images found in nature including birds, flowers, bees etc. As Ann has grown, she now does custom work for other people who relay their own experiences and trust her to illustrate their stories for them.

Nicole Pepper is a West Seattle Ceramic Artist, wife, and a mother of 3. Nicole has pursued a career in ceramics since 1995 where she graduated from Western Washington University with a BFA in Ceramics with a second concentration in Fiber Arts. Nicole's hope is to bring work that is warm, functional, and delightful.

Today we celebrate 700 episodes of The Potters Cast! This episode is all about the small victories that the listeners have found through the advice and stories of all the amazing guests of the show.

Nicola Hart is originally from New Zealand but moved to Australia after finishing her studies in graphic design. Nicola worked as a designer and art director and then had time at home with her three children. Around ten years ago Nicola started doing night classes in ceramics at her local community centre and fell in love with hand building in clay! Nicola now works from her home in Sydney, where ceramics has turned from a hobby into a small business. Nicola is fascinated with organic shapes, and ceramics that are unique and perfectly imperfect.

Kat (Katherijne) Pino, a ceramic artist from The Netherlands, has been living in Vancouver since 2016. Kat design and make contemporary dinnerware and home goods with a focus on functionality and simplicity.

Casey Taylor found ceramics in college. After focusing on illustration, painting, and drawing, Casey took an 'intro to ceramics' class as an elective and never looked back. Casey focused on ceramic sculpture in school, though she was always drawn to pottery because of the tangible connection between the maker and the user. Now working as an artist, Casey is finding new ways to combine sculpture and pottery into functional art objects.

Min Oh is a potter living in Utah. Min's work is designed to not only fit well into one's life, but also to bring a splash of beauty.

Jérémy Bellina is a Berlin base ceramic artist who aims at creating contemporary, playful & practical ceramics. Jérémy's approach to the craft is fairly intuitive, he enjoys experimenting with shapes and colors, crossing his fingers that along the way something special and functional will emerge.

Rich Brown is the founder, owner, and creator of the Georgia based company, Pottery32. After attending his first pottery class at the age of 32 in Decatur, GA, Rich began an artistic journey to not only pursue an undeniable new found passion, but to also inspire those around him. With a spirited "it's never too late" mantra and a true love of the art, Rich has made pottery a huge part of his life. Rich has a detailed focused tenacity that has him eager to continue to learn his craft and has given him the ability to share his appreciation for people through each piece he creates.

John Cheer does about 24 shows per year, primarily along the east coast and the South, but has gone as far as Texas, Colorado, and Arizona. John has won over 85 awards for his work over the years at fine art and craft shows. John has been featured in Ceramics Monthly and Crafts Report and exhibited his "Soul Search" lamp and fountain at the State Museum in Harrisburg, PA. RCN's Channel 53, Ebru TV's "Blank Canvas" segment featured John in February, 2010, Season 2:4. "Mandalas For World Peace" outdoor sculpture 5'x9'

Ana Leal is originally from Brazil and came to the US when she was eighteen to attend College. Ana fell in love with Pottery in 2011 by accident, when she joined a Pottery/Ceramics club through her work, which quickly became her passion. Now a retired Aeronautical Engineer and with her 3D Computer Aided Design background has given Ana an advantage when working with clay. Ana makes one of a kind wheel-thrown, altered, and carved pieces. Ana describes her work as tropical inspired with a 3-D surface texture that begs to be touched. She uses porcelain mainly for its translucency and whiteness which it's like no other. Ana is hoping to make a positive impact on people's lives through her art.

Catie Webster is a potter and public high school art teacher. Catie is driven to make Art that you want to pick up, use, and enjoy Catie's art serves a purpose, has a function, and looks beautiful in your home. Catie is inspired by nature and the colors of New Hampshire landscapes.

Anna Valenti weaves and pinches clay vessels ranging from pots to chairs to screens. Anna graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2014 with her BA, practiced there again in 2017 as a ceramics post-baccalaureate student, and received her MFA from the Maine College of Art in 2020. Anna is the recipient of the 2020 NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship. Anna's research is in hemp clay bodies.

Carla Sealey founded Naked Clay Ceramics which is a collection of handmade, minimal style ceramics in porcelain and black stoneware. Inspired by the colours and textures of the earth, the feel of natural, unglazed clay allows a tactile connection, bringing an opportunity to pause and savour a quiet moment in the hustle of life.

Claire and Elise Surma are the sister-in-law duo with a passion for clay, community, and customer care. Claire and Elise started making pots for friends and family in a small corner of our home garage. After running into hiccups with purchasing making materials, our pottery hobby quickly spun into a larger business idea. At Garage Clay Claire and Elise aim to make ceramics more accessible to potters at any point in their creative journey. At both garageclay.com and at their physical retail shop, Claire and Elese sell clay, glazes, pottery tools, their own line of comfy clay-approved swag, and their own select finished pots.

Andi Hoffmann started her journey with clay in 2013, taking a local pottery class and getting her hands messy in lots of drop in studio hours. After studying biology and conservation science at the University of Victoria, Andi combined her love of nature with her love of art and started Hoff the Grid Goods in 2017. Working out of a small studio in Victoria, BC, Canada, Andi creates west coast, nature-inspired functional ceramics, where each design tells a story. Andi's hope is that her work inspires mindful, compassionate living.

Sage Morgan is a studio potter living in the mountains of western North Carolina and she loves to look under rocks. Inspired by the forest floor and all things that inhabit it, you can find mushrooms and slugs as the center motif on pots to ceramic stones.

Daniel George was born in Gainesville Florida and attended UF in Gainesville and graduated with degrees in anthropology and Spanish in 2003. In the middle of college Daniel fell in love with clay when he took a ceramics for non-art-majors class and got his foot in the door of the clay department. Daniel spend 6 months in Central America and then moved to California. Daniel studied at Cal State North Ridge and graduated with an MA. Been a working artist since then. Daniel started an apparel company with Lino blocks printed on pieces of recycled t shirts and hand sewn them to hats and pockets on shirts. Daniel has also been learning to build surfboards in which builds each board from the foam of an old trashed board. Daniel had a show in Mar Vista called "Sticks and Mud" where he showed recycled surfboards and pots.

Cabby Luxford inspired by nature and it's own transformative power on manmade and natural materials. For Cabby erosion, patina, decay, rust all sources of endless inspiration! Cabby loves experimenting with unusual techniques to produce something unique. Cabby throws her ceramics, using Japanese carving processes and fire unconventionally including raku and Indian smoke firing. Being an avid mudlarker (searching the muddy banks of a river for artifacts) Cabby often incorporates river finds in my work.

Corinne Dzuba lives in Canada's subarctic in Yellowknife, NT with her husband, Franz and 2 dogs, Timber and Reo. Corinne love of clay started shortly after moving to Yellowknife when she discovered there was a local guild offering pottery courses. After taking the first class of a beginner wheel throwing class Corinne fell in love with clay. She continued exploring clay as a pottery studio member at the guild taking workshops and eventually teaching classes. About 5 years ago Corinne built a home studio where she continues her journey with clay. Corinne's work is mostly thrown functional pieces. Design for Corinne's work is often inspired by the beautiful nature surrounding her such as the painted birch trees.

Dawn Candy is an artist residing in Red Deer, Alberta. Dawn earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Lethbridge where she studied analytic philosophy and religious studies. Dawn then went on to study visual art at Red Deer College. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally. Currently Dawn teaches community art classes in addition to making her pottery.

Emily Daley is a ceramicist working in Philadelphia. Emily makes functional pieces that are whimsical and feminine while being sophisticated and elegant. Emily uses her work to amplify her own voice, often calling attention to issues she cares about or bringing light to dark areas of her life through humor and sparkles.

Hilda Carr is a potter, teacher, and recently turned author who works from the bottom of her garden in South London, UK. Hilda produces small-batch ceramics with a focus on the carved surface. The pieces Hilda creates are made to be used everyday with the hope that they will turn those seemingly mundane everyday moments, like making your morning cup of tea, into a treasured ritual.

Helen Beard is an English ceramicist and illustrator. Helen trained at Edinburgh College of Art and later apprenticed to Edmund de Waal. She has led her own ceramic studio since 2004. In 2019, Helen launched her pottery range Helen Beard Dailyware which is now made in Stoke-on-Trent. Helen continues to make unique one-off pieces for exhibitions, commissions and collaborations.

Nine years ago Tiffany Saw touched clay for the first time and instantly fell in love. After spending years in NYC community studios learning to throw, Tiffany went to Jingdezhen, China to refine her carving techniques. Tiffany is inspired by traditional Chinese and Burmese imagery and loves spending hours carving her pots!

Born in Montreuil (France), in 1987, King Houndekpinkou is a Franco-Beninese ceramist based in Paris. As the face of a rising generation of artists from the African diaspora exploring global possibilities, King works in France, Japan and Benin, while exhibiting his work internationally.

Located in a small studio on the Pacific Coast, Skeletal Dropkick is owned and operated by a single human. Skeletal Dropkick's inspiration is found in horror movies, old monster movies, folklore and years spent as an angsty teen-punk-goth in the 80's. Exact proof that it was not just a phase.

Jon Schmidt is back on the show to give us an update on his life and to talk about his new book, Practical Pottery. And the amazing thing is that while we were talking we looked up his book and found out that his book is a best seller on Amazon... and he had no clue that this had happened!

Christian Morris is a multidisciplinary artist from Pittsburgh, Pa. Christian received his BA in art from California State University Channel Islands in 2016 and has since been building his practice as a studio potter in Pittsburgh, Pa. His study of jazz and blues improvisation influences Christian's ceramic style. Christian is always seeking new methods in which to articulate layers of nuance and depth through his work.

Kamila Jaremko says that art has always been a part of her. Kamila spent many years in theatres as a makeup artist, at the same time she created countless body painting projects. Now Kamila's attention is focused on ceramics and studying production design in Los Angeles. Kamila is passionate about setting goals for herself and she strives to achieve them. Ceramics was meant to be a relaxing hobby for Kamila to break away from reality. In time, her love for ceramics persuaded her to pursue it professionally. Kamila is a member at Echo Art Studio, and her goal is to open a studio herself.

Mostly a self-taught potter in Southern Africa, Antoinette Badenhorst obtained permanent United States residency for herself and her family because of her "extraordinary ability in the field of ceramics". While in Africa, Antoinette taught ceramics in her studio, workshops in schools, and she also trained potters. After Antoinette and her family moved to the USA, the artist was not allowed to earn an income, so she kept herself busy with training of local potters, who allowed her to create work in their studios. Once she obtained working visas for herself, and her children, and specifically after she was rewarded with a green card for her and her whole family, she resumed teaching in her own studio, while she was doing volunteer work in schools, libraries, churches, and other community related programs.

Life was very different for Sally before she discovered clay. She lived a slow and simple life on a beach in a remote Indonesian village where the rhythm of the tides punctuates the day. A camera was her artistic choice, working as a lifestyle and food photographer throughout Australia and Bali. She began her ceramics study in Japan, and was then awarded an internship at Gaya Ceramics Art Centre in Bali. Clay became her focus, and she returned to Australia at the end of 2017 to set up a studio in her hometown of Busselton.

Kiefer Floreal is a 23 year old potter who was born in Kenora, Ontario. Kiefer's work is inspired by the traditional Japanese art form, Gyotaku. After experimenting, Kiefer found a method that left detailed fish prints displayed on his pots. Kiefer prides himself on printing fish that he catches locally and legally.

For over twenty years Sophie Moran has set up studios in sheds, shops, potteries, and warehouses around the northern suburbs of Melbourne and is currently based in a collective, creative space in Brunswick. Sophie calls myself an urban potter as there is usually concrete beneath her feet and her clay comes in a bag. Sophie explores notions of nurture, individuality, and community in what she makes, while maintaining that primary functional purpose.

Craig Underhill's slab-built vessels are essentially three-dimensional canvasses for his richly abstract painting and marking. Craig's work demonstrates his resourceful interpretations of landscape, space, and texture of our changing environment. Born in Scotland, Craig studied ceramics at Harrow College, and then at Portsmouth Polytechnic. After a long period of teaching part time in further education Craig has now relocated his studio to Cornwall.

Nick LaPointe has been making pottery for a handful of years and focuses mostly on functional ware. Nick enjoys the texture created from carving into clay and experimenting with combining glazes.

Amy James is from Minnesota but currently lives in Oklahoma. Amy has been artistic her entire life and started doing pottery in 2013. A year later Amy joined the Air Force. She loves traveling and the outdoors and has been fortunate enough to travel the world and live in different parts of the country while in the military. All this travel and working in the Air Force has also helped to fund Amy's ceramic equipment and college.

Anna Moszczenska fell in love with clay when she took a pottery course a few years ago. From then on Anna loved working with clay. For her working with clay is like an unintentional process, and Anna has learned to accept it as an instinctive method. Ann is drawn to abstraction as a way to uncover and express her feelings and emotions. Anna expresses herself by creating different forms and shapes using a different clay body and applying colourful slips. Anna is inspired by abstract and surrealistic paintings. She works primarily by making coiled vessels and slab work.

Asa Maestas found clay in high school in Santa Cruz, CA. Daisy Maestas found clay in a small college in Michigan and it forever changed the trajectory of their lives. Asa and Daisy met while pursuing their passion for clay in Phoenix, AZ. Now, they collaborate in clay and life as the King and the Flower. They focus on creating intricately hand carved functional ware as well as miniature pottery. Married in 2016, Asa and Daisy seek to enhance their skills with clay, share their love for the art and reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Liz Cohen first experienced working with clay while getting her undergraduate degree in Studio Art from Georgia State University. Liz moved to Denver, CO after school and has been slowly growing a small batch ceramics business outside of other full-time jobs. Liz currently works out of her home studio making functional ware with decoration inspired by mid-century modern design.

Hana Karim grew up between painting studios and pottery wheels in the Western part of Slovenia where her parents encouraged her to see that ceramics could be a business, a passion, and a form of artistic expression. This sense of progression felt natural, as Karim uses jewellery-making techniques as a way of giving definition to the bowls, cups, and plates of her homeware line. Karim's sensitivity to her creative process has taught her to work organically and in line with her feelings, rather than forcing herself to create something that she will come to dislike. Karim's evasion of structured routine urges perpetual curiosity and exploration - in both her ceramics and in her personal life."

Amy Sunshine Burnham is a Pacific Northwest artist who works diligently to balance many roles in her life. Amy has built a career and a life navigating the triad of her roles as mother and wife, full-time high school ceramics educator, and potter. Amy's personal explorations in clay are always inspired by process. Amy's work is most often represented by colorful and functional explorations in agateware and the intensity of anagama woodfiring process.

Born is Sioux Falls, SD, Britton Thorp is a ceramic artist and chef. He received his BFA (2008) from Ohio University and is currently a Graduate candidate at Syracuse University. In between, he was a resident artist at The University of Arkansas and Michigan State University. Britton's current studio practice includes functional pottery, virtual design, photogrammetry and curated dining experiences.

Lillie Turner is in love with clay - not a guy named Clay, as her husband's name is Jeremy, but clay, as in pottery clay. Lillie's first exposure to pottery was in 2015, at a community club taking 6 nights of wheel throwing classes. Throwing on the wheel did not come easy and is still a struggle somedays to center the clay, pull up the wall, and make pieces that match in shape and size, but she does not give up easily! The community pottery club in town allowed potters 24 hours access to the studio which was great for a newbie who was very enthusiastic. Many hours were spent at the wheel- but Lillie had a keen interest in learning all aspects of pottery, so she volunteered to load kilns, maintain kilns, which gave her great experience early on. The next big step was to learn about glazes, with the approval of the club Lillie organized a 3 day glaze workshop with John Britt from North Carolina, which was incredible, but quite advanced as Lillie had never even mixed a glaze before- but that did not intimidate her- she bought a kiln, and set up a small studio space in her garage- and started glaze testing. The more glazes Lillie made, the more she wanted to learn about glaze chemistry. Lillie found a fantastic online workshop for cone 6 glazes taught by Matt Katz of Ceramic Materials Workshop, which is an in depth course of over 50 lessons to work through at your own pace. Lillie jokes that she is now trying to learn chemistry at the age of 41 years old- as she was homeschooled from grade 6 onwards and never took chemistry. Lillie's business is called My Lil Shop Canada- as she is not just a potter- she is an entrepreneur of many things, including soap making, and beekeeping which compliment pottery so well- the soap sells nicely with pottery soap dishes, and Lillie makes beeswax tea light candles for pottery candle holders, and honey pots as special gifts. Recently Lillie has started to focus on making serving trays and dinner plates as cooking is a huge passion of hers. In 2009 Lillie left her career in banking to go to Culinary school, as she had always wanted to learn the tricks of the trade and become a better cook, as she and her husband love good food! Lillie became a full time potter April 2020 after selling a wholesale skin care company she owned for the past 7 years, and is loving doing something she is really passionate about- being creative, and making pottery for people to enjoy for many years to come! She sells most of her work through ETSY, as well as sells her work wholesale to a handful of stores in British Columbia, and one in Nova Scotia.

Jesse Golden owns and operates J.G Clay working to create ceramics to inspire. In 2019 he left his marketing career for a 5 month 'Ceramic Sabbatical' where he participated in residencies, home stays, and studio visits throughout Asia. He is a maker at heart and loves to inspire his student's creativity.

Lissa started her professional journey with clay working in the studio potteries of Kolonyama in Lesotho and Mapepe Craft in Henley-on Klip. Lissa has owned her own craft shop and worked in a non-profit organization giving therapeutic outreach pottery sessions to vulnerable people. Lissa sculpts figuratively, lately focusing on themes exploring her own childhood in South Africa. She is also a production wheel thrower and teaches pottery lessons to adults and children in her Hout Bay studio in Cape Town. Making for the film industry has been an exciting new departure. She recently made lamps and idols for the Troy series and 'smashables' for Warrior 2, both filmed in South Africa. She is now producing online workshops via private YouTube videos on different techniques to reach a worldwide audience. Lissa studied Social Anthropology and African Languages at the University of Cape Town and studied Ceramic Science at the Witwatersrand Technikon. She is a second-generation potter.

Chris Burch found clay, albeit by accident, back in the fall of 2013. Chris's mother used to do slip casting and always referred to her work as ceramics. When Chris enrolled in Ceramics I in college, he thought that's what he'd be doing. To his utter surprise, Chris had actually registered for a wheel throwing class. It was all over once Chris had his hands in the clay!