The Potters Cast

From Roanoke, VA, David Eichelberger has pursued a career in ceramics in school, through residencies, and now as a professor. He worked at Santa Fe Clay for a few years, then was a resident at the ExergyXchange in Burnsville, NC, then on to an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, then one year at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN, then 3 years as a Resident Artist at the Penland School of Craft. David is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Ferrum College, in Ferrum, VA. He lives in beautiful Floyd, VA, with his wife, artist Elisa DiFeo, and their two daughters, and are expecting another daughter this summer.

Doug Peltzman is a full time studio potter currently residing in Dover Plains, New York, a rural town on the eastern edge of the Hudson Valley. After several formative years studying painting, Doug came to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics at SUNY New Paltz in 2005. In 2010, he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics from Penn State. He has had the honor of being both a juror and curator of national exhibtions. He has taught workshops at many art centers and universities across the U.S, including Arrowmont, Peters Valley, Goggleworks, Davis and Elkins College, UNT, SUNY New Paltz, The Clay Studio and The Art School at Old Church. Doug is also a founding member of Objective Clay. His pottery has been featured in many publications and can be found in homes and kitchens across the country.

Marian was born in Pittsburg, KS in 1951 and grew up in very small towns in a rural setting. She received a B.F.A. from Arkansas State University in 1973 and has worked since then in her studio, hand building ceramic vessels. Marian lives with her husband in Austin, TX. They divide their time between the city and a cabin in the Texas Hill Country.

Diana Fayt’s primary medium is clay and refers to her one of a kind ceramic pieces as “etchings in clay.” Drawing on her background as a painter, sculptor, printmaker and clayer, her surfaces are alive with strange and exotic stories. When Diana is not working in clay, you can find her drawing in her sketchbook, carving rubber blocks or scheming about the next online ecourse she is going to teach. Diana also divides her time designing ceramics, teaching technique and inspiring creativity in workshops around the world. Her roster of clients include, Anthropologie, Heath Ceramics and Terrain. She’s taught workshops at destinations such as, Clay Push, Austraila, Arrowmont School of Crafts, Santa Fe Clay and Metchosin School of the Arts, online, at creativebug.com and via her self-created online e-course, The Clayer. Diana is a graduate of the California College of the Arts. After thirty years of calling San Francisco home, Diana recently left the big city for the Sierra Nevada foothills with her sweet pooch, Louie

Sarah Heimann is a studio potter in Lebanon, NH. She is a part-time instructor at Dartmouth's Davidson Ceramic Studio, and a 2014 recipient of Northern Clay's McKnight Artist Residency Grant.

Lucy Fagella is a full time potter and ceramic instructor living in Greenfield, MA. She makes functional pottery for the home and heart. Her work graces the tables and mantles of homes around the world. Lucy earned her B.F.A. degree from Alfred University 1985. She has been in numerous ceramic exhibits throughout the US. Her work can also be found in publications on ceramics and home décor.

Richard Hensley has been a potter for 45 years and has lived and worked in Floyd, Virginia all of his working life. Richard makes porcelain ceramics and fire it all in a reduction gas car kiln. Richard and Donna Polseno, Richard's wife, teach ceramics part time at a local college and for the past few years Richard and Donna have spent their summers in Italy making terra cotta clay pieces and enjoying their friends and the life in their small village.

Brett Freund grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and received his MFA from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. Brett was a resident at St. Petersburg Clay and a fellowship artist at Baltimore Clayworks. In 2012 Brett was a Ceramics Monthly emerging artist and just recently was awarded the 2015 Jerome Ceramic Artists Project Grant from Northern Clay Center.

Son of an inventor/motorcycle racer & a warrior princess/homemaker, Michael Sherrill has lived in the western North Carolina mountains since 1974. He considers himself a materials-based artist, experimenting in metal, clay, and glass. At the heart of his interest is the intersection of where humans and materials meet in both handmade objects and the natural world.

Old-time Radio used to be the movies of the day. Today's show is focused on an old-time radio show called The Potters of Firsk. Enjoy a bit of nostalgia and discover the power of the potter!

Mea Rhee is a working potter based in Maryland. Her work is modern and rustic, with Asian sensibilities. She launched Good Elephant Pottery as a part-time business in 2002, and grew it into a full-time business by 2010.

Tiffany Hilton is a studio potter and teacher who has been working with clay for over twenty years. After studying at State University of New York, at New Paltz she apprenticed with Kit Cornell in Exeter, NH for three years and established her own pottery in 2005. She enhances her own knowledge and passion for teaching ceramics by attending workshops herself each year and has studied with Cynthia Bringle, Karen Karnes, Makoto Yabe, Phil Rogers, Mark Shapiro, Barbara Knutson, Hayne Bayless, Deborah Schwarzkopf, Kevin Snipes and Catherine White. Tiffany's work can be seen on the dinner table of many people’s homes and at Pinch Gallery in Northampton.

Handmade pots hold meaning to Corey Johnson for the time and dedication it takes to make and design them. It is a combination of these aspects that invite people to use pots and makes them hold value in their daily lives. These pieces may serve as vessels for daily meals or be placed in a home for decoration. Corey is fascinated in the value and purpose his work can serve in this context. These ideas and concepts encourage Corey to enhance the pottery he makes to provide a more meaningful experience to a morning coffee break or family dinner. When using handmade pots there is a connection between the maker and the user. Corey is interested in how his ideas and thoughts for forming and finishing his work can translate into where and how someone else may use them in their own life.

Connee Mayerson has worked as an artist for 43 years, primarily in ceramics. Connee makes high fire, one of a kind, functional porcelain pots. Connee's work is organic and her influence is everything that surrounds her. Connee also works in stone mosaic public art, shell work, and figurative painting in water colors and egg tempura.

Amy Sanders is a mom, wife, and potter whose earthenware vessels create a balance of visual elements of form, texture and pattern with utility. She currently works as a studio artist, teaches adult handbuilding classes at Clayworks Studio, and conducts workshops across the United States.

The majority of Kim-Anh Nguyen's work is based on the process of coiling, a simple technique which has been used from the earliest times. The inspiration came from indigenous cultures’ traditional woven textile and basketry. Underlying Kim-Anh's work is a profound respect for the historical and cultural significance of indigenous people (the Montagnards, or mountain people of Vietnam and the Aborigines of Australia). Most of the works depict aspects of the landscape, which is crucial to all indigenous peoples.

After 3 decades at his potter's wheel, Ted Secombe says that making pots is more challenging now than when he first began, as his motivation is the purely the expression of his ideas and creativity. He has now developed a mastery of the medium that allows him to take his experimentation further than ever before. Ted likes to work with different shapes and now prefers much simpler forms, forms with the sense of an easy curve, 'like a brush stroke'. 'My inspiration comes when the clay is on the wheel and I am looking at the sensuousness of the curve,' he says. Sometimes he is influenced by the structure of plants and leaves. While the grace and size of the pots is impressive, the glazes Ted uses are rich in color, and delicate in texture and patterning.

One of the most important things one can do in today's business climate is build a strong email list. Some say this is waste of time, but that is a voice in the minority. Most experts tell us that this is by far one of the top ingredients for success. So the rule of thumb is: Build the list!

After a short stint at Chico State University, California, Sunshine Cobb went on to graduate with a BA in Studio Art from California State University at Sacramento, in 2004. Ceramics has been the major influence in Sunshine's life for 15 years now. Currently Sunshine focusing on functional ware, embracing the richness of earthenware, and is exploring the challenge of electric firing. Sunshine graduated from Utah State University with her MFA in Ceramics.

Jeremy Ogusky is a studio potter, husband, pizza lover and passionate fermenting evangelist living in Boston, Massachusetts. In Jeremy's former public health life, he engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention with the Peace Corps in Southern Africa, health education in South America, and public policy in Washington, DC. Jeremy's current studio practice draws from his global health experiences and Jeremy is truly excited and proud to craft beautiful & useful functional ceramics.

Larry Elardo is the owner of M Street Potters, a ceramic studio that is dedicated to creating one of a kind works of art with clay. Larry makes functional and sculptural ceramics. When it comes to Larry's functional ceramics he adds a bit of a twist: some is for food while some is furniture.

Guy Mitchell makes handmade stoneware tiles on the North East coast of England. Guy prefers hexagonal, triangle, and rhombus shapes to traditional squares. Guy mixes his own glazes and loves experimenting with surface and color.

Born in Gillingham Kent UK. Graduated 1990 from Royal College of Art, London. She established studios in London, exhibiting widely across the UK and Europe. In 1998 she moved to the USA. Her work is represented in several public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Ceramic artist Patrick Johnston knew at the age of six that ceramics would be his life. After a kindergarten project, Johnston asked his teacher if he could hold the scraps of clay. "I stood next to the tree on playground, squished the clay in my fingers, and I knew that I had found it!" Since his epiphany, Patrick Johnston has never stopped working with clay. Johnston has been written about in numerous publications, including the, " LA Times Magazine", and has earned a degree in ceramic design from The Rhode Island School of Design. Patrick's current studio, The Temple of Mediclaytion, is in Venice, CA.

‘Made to be used’ is perhaps the best way to describe Thomas Aitken’s work. From as early as he can remember Thomas has loved to make things that work. And throughout his training and professional life he has continued to develop functional ceramic objects for use. Starting his ceramic studies at Red Deer College, Alberta and completing a BFA:Ceramics at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in 1995. An interest in European ceramic traditions led him to study at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, U.K. where in 1997 he graduated with a Masters in Ceramics. Then back to Canada to set up a studio in Toronto. Five years later he moved his home and studio to the village of Warsaw, near Peterborough, Ontario. Here he works full time developing his own work and collaborating on joint projects with his wife Kate Hyde. His work is widely sought after and is in a number of collections around the world.

Emily Schroeder Willis received her MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2006. She was awarded the Jerome Fellowship from the Northern Clay Center and the Sage Scholarship from the Archie Bray Foundation. She has been an artist-in-residence/visiting artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, the Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin, Germany and at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Canada. In 2012, she was a presenter at Arrowmont’s Utilitarian Clay Conference. Currently, she lives in Chicago where she is an Instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Teneke van Gils' ceramic career started in the eighties in Amsterdam and continued on her husband's diary farm near to Delft. Teneka's dancepartner is porcelain on the potters wheel. Teapots are her favorite, they brought invitations from China. Tineke's work is exhibited in The Netherlands and abroad.

Anderson Bailey is a studio potter living and working in Chattanooga, TN. Using different building techniques, Anderson creates simple forms with quiet surfaces that are meant for daily use. He recently started a collaborative line of slip-cast functional ceramics with Anderson's wife, Jessie Bean Bailey.

Born the daughter of a painter and an organic dairy farmer, Molly was raised to be creatively industrious. Using her imagination and love of drawing to make everything from her well known idiosyncratic ceramics to quirky pen-and-ink drawings. Molly’s craft is finely honed, her designs whimsically literal and pop-culturally on-point. Working from her home studio, Molly began making her living as a full-time studio potter in 2008. Her formal education in ceramics and drawing resulted in the development of her signature style. Making contemporary ceramics inspired by history, Molly’s career as a studio potter quickly garnered a loyal following. Molly’s designs have expanded beyond tableware to a wide range of lifestyle products and Molly is actively growing collections of home goods to bring her modern yet traditional designs to the contemporary home.

Ariel fell in love with clay in 3rd grade and has continued to work with the material ever since, incorporating techniques of hand building, slip casting and throwing on the pottery wheel into her creations. Her interests range from utilitarian design to life under the sea. Ariel graduated with a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston & Tufts University in 2009.

Andrew Stephenson was born in Birmingham, England in 1972 and moved to the states with his family in 1979. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from East Carolina University in 1996. Shortly after graduation he moved to Asheville, NC to take a position as a resident potter at the Odyssey Center for the ceramic Arts. Andrew has always loved the folk pottery of England and especially the wood fired salt-glazed pottery of North Carolina, so when he was offered a two year apprenticeship with Matt Jones, a former apprentice of Todd Piker and Mark Hewitt, he jumped at the chance. During the apprenticeship he learned the forms and turning techniques that have been passed down from potter to potter since the days of Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew. Andrew also helped Matt fire his 300 cubic foot wood fired kiln and his smaller 100 cubic foot kiln fueling his love for wood firing. When Andrew was finished with his apprenticeship he bought a house in rural Rutherford county, received a grant, and built his own 300 cubic foot wood kiln and holds several kiln openings a year. Andrew continues the long tradition of wood firing in North Carolina and sells his work in galleries throughout the southeast.

April Noble is a ceramic artist living in Denver, Colorado. She is currently working on her MFA through a low residency program at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. She currently teaches a pottery class at a local recreation center as well as works as a studio tech at a local community college.

Jack Welbourne is a ceramics graduate currently working in a plant pot factory in South Wales. Jack's work has focused on hand thrown functional wares but Jack is starting to explore more sculptural ideas informed by the industrial nature of his job.

Bede Clarke has been a Professor of Art at the University of Missouri since 1992. He received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Iowa (1990) and a BFA from Eckerd College (1982). Bedes work is found in public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

Penni Stoddart has been a potter for more than 20 years and specializes in 1800's period historical pottery. Penni has done research into the history of local potteries as well as pioneer pottery in Ontario, Canada. She attends 1812 living history events and sells her pottery in merchant's row at the events and to historical sites.

A graduate of the Sheridan College and Fleming College ceramics programs, Emma Smith creates humble artwork for everyday use. Her objects encourage the gathering of peoples and the sharing of a meal, by providing delight in the ordinary and unnecessary. Emma's work has exhibited in galleries across North America including The Gardiner Museum (Toronto, ON), The Clay Studio (Philadelphia, PA), and The Carnegie Gallery (Dundas, ON).

Specializing in gas fired glazed ware to cone 10 and one of a kind wood fired vessels, Mark Goertzen has worked as a professional potter since 1989. He started in clay at Bethel College, Kansas in the mid 1980's, and has been happily learning more about it ever since.

Dear Human is the creative studio founded by Jasna Sokolovic and Noel O’Connell in 2009. After meeting at a residency in Denmark, Jasna and Noel immediately began working on ideas together and haven’t stopped since. The studio works in various artistic domains that include public space projects, product design, and applied arts. Their collaboration is rooted in common beliefs and ideas and supported by the strengths that each bring to the table—Noel’s material expertise and attention to detail and Jasna’s improvisational sensibility and explorative nature.Their work draws inspiration from working in new environments, experimenting with materials and collaborating with other designers, architects, and artists Dear Human projects offer an alternative perception to overlooked everyday landscapes by revealing the hidden potential of places and objects, hoping to inspire consciousness and curiosity.

Pepijn van den Nieuwendijk studied Graphic and Typographic design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, The Netherlands (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag). After graduation Pepijn focused more on illustrating and painting. This was the beginning of Cirque dextraordinaire or what later became his alias and studio name Cirque de Pepin. Pepijns circus, as a metaphor for a place where anything can happen. Around 2002 Pepijn came into contact with ceramics. A world of possibilities revealed itself. Nowadays Pepijn works explicitly in these various disciplines. With an emphasis on craftsmanship and detail. Van den Nieuwendijk has exhibited his intricate ceramic sculptures and paintings in solo exhibitions in The Netherlands and abroad, most recently 'The Greatest Show on Earth' at the Koornmarktspoort, city Museum Kampen (2014) He has participated in many group shows in The Netherlands and abroad. Recently Pepijn co-curated and designed the travelling exhibition The Blue Revolution, 400 years exchange Delft-Jingdezhen with ceramic artists from both The Netherlands and China. Public commissions include a bas-relief for the Feijenoord Soccer Club (2009) in Rotterdam, and a monument in honor of the Dutch comic author Maarten Toonder Rotterdam (2002). Van den Nieuwendijks work is in the collection of Museum Prinsenhof Delft and in many private collections. Van den Nieuwendijk is represented by Gallery Nasty Alice, Eindhoven, Kochxbos gallery, Amsterdam and Mothership (art agency), Rotterdam

Debra Sloan did a self-directed apprenticeship from 1973-79. Later she attended Vancouver Art School 1979-82. Debra has taught, adjudicated, and presented at many symposiums, most recently in Romania. Now she serves on arts Boards, is represented in 6 LARK publications, she exhibits nationally, internationally, attended 3 international residencies, and most recently at the Leach Pottery, UK. Debra works mainly as a figurative artist, but started as a potter.

Jennica Kruse is a ceramic artist living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her BFA from the University of Minnesota and graduated Summa cum Laude in 2011. She also studied ceramics in Cortona, Italy in 2010. She is a Resident Artist at the Northern Clay Center where she teaches and works as the Materials Technician.

Born and raised in Illinois, Ryan Archibald received his BFA from Southern Illinois University in 2013 and continued his ceramic education in Minnesota as the Northern Clay Center Anonymous Potter Studio Fellow. Ryan now resides in Minneapolis where he maintains a studio, teaches beginner wheel-throwing classes, and works for a production pottery.

As a commercial artist, Kathy Pallie worked with many different materials creating 3-dimensional objects. When Kathy retired, she put her hands into clay and has been exploring this exciting, tactile medium ever since. Kathy's artwork is inspired by Nature, by the unlimited variety of textures, patterns and energy she finds in her natural surroundings.

Ginny Sims is interested in objects and the surrounding sensations in a home that trigger memory and emotion. Exploring homes and observing family patterns has been a fascination of Ginny since childhood. She finds a lot of inspiration for the work that she makes in the relationships between objects and their owners, and the somewhat overlooked power of the presence of certain objects and how they made their way into our lives. Ginny creates objects that echo a sense of history and thoughtfulness, but also that of loss and abandonment.

John Shirley works in bone-china. Most of John's work is decorated with soluble salts which have a tendency to permeate the surface of the work adding subtle watercolor effects and creating an ethereal quality. John is a fellow of Ceramics Southern Africa and a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.

Tony Clennell- 2nd generation potter, educator and author of "Stuck in the Mud". Workshop presenter in Japan, Italy, USA, Canada, Wales, Korea and China.

Brett Binford and Chris Lyon met while working in a studio in Colorado. They stayed friends over the years and eventually started a major production studio called MudShark Studio. Their company makes ceramics for large companies and individual artists. MudShark Studio is located in Portland Oregon.

David Schlapobersky and Felicity Potter, - studio potters in high temperature, reduction fired stoneware and porcelain - a working partnership since 1973. They live and work in Swellendam, a small rural town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa where they have the heritage house "Bukkenburg". Their work is mostly wheel thrown with some slab work and is hand made using their own blends and mixes of clay, glazes, slips and oxides. Their output is diverse and prolific, producing a range of work from tableware and decorative pieces to pots of monumental size, garden and indoor containers, decorative urns, washbasins, water features and wine jars etc..

A Thai born, Melbourne-based artist, curator and arts activist, Vipoo Srivilasa works predominantly in ceramics, exploring culture shifts and migration experiences. His work is a playful blend of historical Figurative and Decorative art practices with a healthy dose of Contemporary Culture. Using blue and white colour, he creates complex narratives through highly decorated images applied to the surfaces of ceramic forms. His work requires an intimacy in which the key elements of the drama are often found in unusual places within the forms themselves. Vipoo has exhibited internationally and loves creating opportunities for artists to collaborate through community based art projects. His work is held in various public art collections including The National Gallery of Australia.

Gerry Wedd was born at McLaren Vale, South Australia, in 1957. He pots and surfs in Port Eliott, South Australia. He completed an MVA (ceramics) in 2009. In 1998 he won the Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award and in 2009 his work was in the Havana Bienal.