The Potters Cast

Hadrian Mendoza is a Filipino potter based in Virginia, USA. Hadrian has exhibited his works internationally and are in collections throughout the world. Since 2009, Hadrian has started a network of contemporary Southeast Asian ceramic artists.

Nia Gautama is a ceramic artist who resides in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, and currently pursuing her MFA degree in Visual Art at Bandung Institute of Technology. Since early 2000, she has actively exhibited both at home and abroad.

Robbie Lobell lives and works on Whidbey Island in Northwest Washington. Lobell is the co-founder, designer, and maker of Cook on Clays high-fire flameproof cooking pots. Cook on Clay, committed to sustainable local economies and food systems, collaborates with farmers, chefs, home cooks, and restaurants across the country. Lobell's pots reside in kitchens and on tables across North America and beyond. Her work is featured in magazines and books about utilitarian pottery, cooking vessels, and making pots.

James finds it essential to tell stories through his art. As an art director, he uses ceramics as a canvas by incorporating illustrations into his work. He has a flair for theatrics and adopts a whimsical style that is sometimes satirical, which he hopes will tickle emotions and generate conversations.

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John George Larson is a painter and wood fire ceramic artist from southwest Minnesota. He discovered clay at age fourteen as a means of expression and as an alternative way of exploring fundamental physics. He has studied at Utah State University and under contemporary ceramist Oh Hyang Jong in South Korea. John fires an Anagama kiln and maintains his studio in Milan Minnesota. He uses Porcelain and Native clays with other indigenous materials to create his works which can be found in national and international collections.

Re Jin (RJ) Lee's company, Bailey Doesn't Bark is a Brooklyn based design studio offering functional ceramics made by hand by RJ since 2008. RJ was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil to South Korean parents. This combination of cultures has had a great influence in RJ's design aesthetics. After receiving a BA in Fashion Design and design certificates from Central Saint Martins, London College of Design and Istituto Europeu di Design, RJ moved to Los Angeles, CA to pursue her career in fashion design and styling. Through fashion and a move to New York city RJ discovered her passion for home and product design. Like RJ's Brazilian and Korean heritage, fashion has had a major influence in her design aesthetics and also the way she creates and presents her collections.

To Nicholas Bernard, form is everything. Nick stretches clay to make canvases for decoration. Texture, pattern and color are successful additions when the shapes are impeccable. My inspirations are many, from the classic forms of antiquity to the simple, graceful pots made by indigenous peoples and the work of modern studio potters. Nick's current body of work deals mostly with simple clean form. Handles and other flourishes are being added again after a four year hiatus. Dramatic color and subtle texture accentuate what Nick hopes is a mastery of the traditional vessel form. Nick makes earthenware, with layers of textured slip, colored slips and oxides. Multiple gas or electric firings in oxidation to cone 03 or approximately 2000F.

Isaac Patmore has his arts practice split across many facets of creative production. A full time arts worker, working At Monte Lupo as a manager in the creative arts. Aiding people with disabilities to design, decorate and create ceramics for sales and exhibitions.Isaac's personal arts practice is split across the work he makes to fire in wood kilns and work for the electric kiln. These two different finishes of the work still show the hand of the maker and comfortably sit together as a complete body of work.

Paul Blais brings us through the process to building an overall plan to market pottery.

Alice Ballard maintains a studio in Greenville, SC where she teaches part-time at Christ Church Episcopal Middle School. She also taught at the SC Gov. School for the arts for 10 years, along with workshops at Penland, Arrowmont, Odyssey and for the American Crafts Council Southeast. Collections include the Renwick Gallery (DC), Mint Museum (NC), Resen Cermic Collection (Macedonia), state art collection in TN and SC. She received a Fulbright to study in India and an SCArtsCom Individual Fellowship Grant. Represented by Blue Spiral 1 (NC), Hodges Taylor (NC) The Tao Evolution (Hong Kong)

Kip O’Krongly earned a BA from Carleton College in 2001 and continued her ceramics education in studios across the country before returning to Minnesota as the Northern Clay Center Fogelberg Fellow, Materials Technician, and then Anonymous Potter Studio Fellow. Kip has been featured as a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist, on the cover of Pottery Making Illustrated, and was the Best in Show winner of Strictly Functional Exhibition in 2011. She exhibits work and teaches workshops across the country, is included in a number of ceramic publications and was awarded a $25,000 McKnight Artist Grant in 2014. O’Krongly currently maintains a studio in Northfield, Minnesota.

Frances Palmer has been making ceramics since 1987. Frances was trained as an art historian, yet has always made work with her hands. First as a printmaker and now as a potter and gardener. Frances loves the process of changing ideas into form. She doesn't make or grow things to hold onto them, but rather to send them out into the world for others to live with and enjoy. Her handmade ceramics are functional art – dishware or vases that can be used on a daily basis. Each piece, no matter how large or small, is considered and individual.

Mary Lou Zeek is a graduate from Western Oregon University and was a studio artist for 28 years as a ceramic artist. Mary knew the skill and passion artists pour into their work. Mary has supported the arts through her work on the Oregon Artists Series Foundation and the Salem Public Art Commission. But mostly Mary has supported the arts through the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery. When Mary first opened the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery in 2001, her vision was to honor artists and their creations, and to push the limits of what a small gallery could do. Even though Mary's gallery only had 700 square feet of space, she specialized in shows and events that went way beyond the gallery doors. She partnered with small non-profits, other retailers and large organizations to stage some amazing collaborative art shows and events. Mary's gallery received a number of local, state and national awards.

Kajsa Leijström lives in the most southern part of Sweden, which is a popular tourist destination. Kajsa has been running her own pottery studio since 1999 and most of her production is wheel-thrown functional ceramics. About three years ago, Kajsa made a major change in her work and started to make high fired stoneware.

Ann Rea abandoned art for over a decade. When she returned to art Ann wowed the artist world in 2004 with vivid landscapes of the vineyards of California. In less than a year of starting her art business Ann was profitable. Since then Ann has added to her business of amazing canvas works prints, postcards, public speaking, and artist coaching. Ann is voice worthy of our ears.

Robert Chamberlin is a conceptual artist living and working in Boston, Massachusetts where he recently received his MFA from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Art. Working across media (photography, performance, ceramics etc.) to express ideas and promote conversation. Robert is often at the focus of his work. Tackling projects that channel a contemporary socio-political issues like surveillance, sexuality, and domesticity through a personal lens.

Chris Taylor works as a ceramicist in Devon, the South West of England. His current work, the ornamental vase series, consists of thrown vases decorated using a variety of techniques that are reminiscent of historical vessels. He currently lectures at Plymouth College of Art.

Sue Tirrell is a ceramic artist living and working in Paradise Valley, Montana. She holds a BFA from Alfred University and spent many years teaching ceramics in school, museum and community settings before becoming a full-time studio artist in 2008.

Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke, are studio potters who live and work in central North Carolina, in a celebrated and unique community known as the Seagrove Potters. This husband and wife team own and operate Bulldog Pottery, one of the more than 60 ‘open to the public’ potteries, nestled in the scenic countryside surrounding the town of Seagrove. Bruce and Samantha work primarily with porcelains and white stonewares, with an intense interest in glaze experimentation and surface developments. Their studio is a collaborative environment providing each other support to express their independent voices. They make their functional and decorative pottery into an art to be used for everyday living.

Sharon Alpren is a British girl now living in Melbourne, Australia. Sharon's background is in textiles and used to be a fashion buyer. She took up ceramics when she moved from London to outback Australia and (not suprisingly!) found no work in fashion in her new hometown. Instead Sharon discovered clay and quickly became addicted to the process of ceramics. Sharon has never looked back!

The work of Bianka Groves is thoughtfully functional and has the ability to complete the elegance of any interior space. Groves received her BFA in 2012 from Corcoran College of Art in DC. She taught at Baltimore Clayworks and recently moved to Minneapolis where she now teaches at Northern Clay Center and makes work out of her home studio.

Godeleine de Rosamel is a french ceramicist and illustrator. After working for 10 years in Paris, Godeleine moved to Los Angeles 14 years ago. She studied art at l'Ecole de Recherche Graphique ( ERG ) in Brussels Belgium. Godeleine has illustrated a number of books before deciding to make ceramics - which she had always practiced on the side since childhood - a major part of her work. Since then, Godeleine feels that she has really found an inspiration that is really hers.

Brandi Jessup is a writer, a traveler, a maker, and most recently the new owner and director of Taos Clay Studio in Taos, NM. She received her BFA in 2012 from Alfred University, and is currently learning to reconcile her art practice with her new role as first time business owner.

Maria Dondero makes pots and teaches in Athens, GA with her husband and twin boys. She received her MFA from the University of Georgia in 2008 and has worked as a studio potter and adjunct teacher ever since. She makes functional pots whose aesthetics draw on the age old and worldwide history of ceramics. While subtly referencing pottery traditions from around the world, Maria intuitively sketches images from her surroundings, grounding her work in the Georgia soil. Her work is shown and carried in galleries though out the country.

Sarah Blackwell is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a degree in drawing and printmaking from Hampshire College and is proud to be a founding member of the artistic amoeba, The Royal Frog Ballet. Sarah started working with clay in 2011, first as a student at The Greenwich House Pottery and then as a studio assistant at Clay Space 1205 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She currently works out of her studio in Clay Space and sells work through her website:

Kate Maury received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Currently she resides in St. Paul, Minnesota where she is a studio resident at the Northern Clay Center and teaches full-time as a Professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Her work is featured in both juried and invitational shows at regional, national and international venues. In addition Maury’s work is published in contemporary ceramic art books such as Making Marks: Discovering the Ceramic Surface by Robin Hopper, 500 Bowls, Lark Books, The Art of Contemporary American Pottery by Kevin Hluch, and High-Fire Glazes by Lark Books. She has taken part in two residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation, three residencies at the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in Jingdezhen, China and most recently completed two residencies at the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary.

Born in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1959, Mary Fox moved with her family to British Columbia in 1966. Mary is self-taught and has worked solely as a potter since 1979. Mary's works are exhibited nationally and internationally, and she especially enjoys the time that she spends with customers from around the world who visit Mary's studio in Ladysmith, on Vancouver Island.

Holly McKeen is known for her Crystalline glazed porcelain and functional ware. Selling from her own Gallery in Chilliwack BC Canada since 2005, Holly approached her Pottery business with an entrepreneurial attitude as well as an eye for the art. She’s shown that taking the leap to Pottery as a full time job can pay off.

Laura B. Cooper is a potter working around Athens, Georgia. In addition to her own work as Laura B. Cooper ceramics, she also operates a pottery studio and gallery in Bishop, Georgia with six other artists. Their group is called Long Road Studios, and is comprised of seven independent ceramic artists working together to accomplish more as a group than they ever could individually.

Jeremy Nichols grew up making and flying model aircraft leading to degree in Aeronautical Engineering(1971). Jeremy changed direction to a career in Social Work while he started making pots for relaxation. Eventually Jeremy caught the ‘bug’ and earned a degree in ceramics, focussing on saltglaze. He graduated 1997 in and established a workshop on an ex-farm north of London, England. His work is strongly influenced by the early aviation interests.

Jenni Ward is a ceramic sculptor, art instructor and owner at Earth Art Studio. She is passionate about working with clay to build abstract forms and installations that reflect the beauty of the natural world. A natural teacher and philanthropist, she shares her creativity with students at her home studio and abroad.

Linda Bloomfield trained as a materials scientist but always dreamed of becoming a potter. She works from her studio in west London where she has designed and made porcelain tableware ranges for Liberty, Harrods and ABC Home. She throws on the wheel in porcelain and makes beautiful translucent glazes, which she puts on the inside of forms.

Patick Noe graduated in 1980 with an art major from the College of Charleston in Charleston SC. Patrick's emphasis was on painting, but he also took sculpture and printmaking. After college Patrick worked in clay for 20 years but wanted to get back into painting without having to give up clay. He started to experiment with using woodcuts to create relief in clay slabs and then painting and firing them in his kiln. This technique grew more refined and complicated and into the unique art form that Patrick produces today.

Robert Briggs has been a potter in Springfield Missouri for around 20 years. Robert has been a semi full-time potter sinse around 2006. Robert and his wife, Ruth participate in most of their local art fairs and have several pieces in local galleries. They produce crystalline porcelain and raku artware.

Mark Strayer loves making objects and creating pots as become his passion. As an Industrial Designer who works with materials like wood, plastic, steel and glass on a daily basis, Mark really enters a different place when his hands touch clay. To Mark there is something amazing about clay coming from the earth, a natural, fluid and organic material that truly becomes alive as it moves through his fingers. Mark's focus is on quality, function, and lately a more rustic aesthetic to his pieces. Mark desires that his pots will impact and enhance people’s lives and they will also in some small way help keep the art and craft of handmade important in our everyday lives.

Sue Adler’s pottery reflects the many influences from the layers of her life. Her equestrian passion resonates in the one of a kind horse hair fired pieces she creates. A love of all things botanical is expressed in her hand built and wheel thrown ware. Sue, a native long Islander attended Farmingdale State University where she earned a degree in Ornamental Horticulture. She studied at Maple Leaf Pottery in Sea Cliff N.Y. and is a member of Potters Council and the Long Island Craft Guild.

Courtenay Singer is an award-winning producer, director, and writer of non-fiction films and television programs. She has worked on shows for PBS, National Geographic, TLC, Animal Planet, and many other networks, and has contributed to several independent films. In 2012, she co-produced the ABC-7 documentary "Imagine: A Celebration of Children's Hospital Los Angeles," which won an LA Area Emmy Award. "Out of the Fire" is her first feature film.

Brenda Holzke have had a lifelong passion for anything artistic and creative. In 1985 Brenda graduated from The Art Center College of Design with a BFA. She went on to work in advertising as an art director for the following 6 years. Frustrated with the corporate structure, Breanda left advertising to create functional ceramic wares. Along with her husband they owned and operated a ceramic factory in California employing 21 artisans to hand paint and sculpt her designs. Brenda is now a licensed designer for major corporate stores across the country. In 2008 Brendaactively began creating fine art, one of a kind works, in both clay and mixed media wall art.

Alex Apland is a potter from southern Oregon. Alex uses her pottery not only to supplement her income, but to support a local food pantry

After spending several years as a fashion and print designer, Judi Tavill found clay about 12 years ago. She works intuitively, investigating and exploring while working on a form. Initially creating unique functional pieces, Judi has veered off toward sculpture and is currently integrating melted glass into much of the work.

Kathy Catlin calls herself a Part Time Potter With A Full Time Passion! Located in rural upstate New York, you can find Kathy in her barn studio most weekend and vacations from her full time job as a High School Social Worker. Kathy creates functional stoneware pottery made on the wheel, which she claims is the key to her sanity!

Gillian Mcmillan grew up in rural England, attended teacher training college in London, taught there for some years and then emigrated to Canada. After a year's teaching in Montreal she headed west, to Vancouver. She married Alan, an archeologist, they bought the 1914 house where they still live in Port Moody and had two sons. Meanwhile Gillian was taking pottery classes, teaching pottery and selling her work at craft fairs. At age 48, she was accepted at Emily Carr College of Art & Design and earned her BFA in Ceramics. Now, twenty years after graduating she has become known for the colourful jugbirds she sells at galleries on Granville Island and at Vancouver Airport.

Louise Gelderblom is a self taught ceramicist with a background in design and photography. Louise lives in Cape Town, South Africa and has a teaching and production studio where she makes large hand built sculptural vessels. Louise is very much part of the low tech designer/maker tradition that makes work from her part of the world so distinctive.

Leah Goren is an illustrator and surface pattern designer living in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated in 2012 from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in Illustration. For the past 3 years she has been working on translating her illustration style into hand-built ceramics.

Ann Van Hoey was born in 1956 in Belgium, where she lives and works. Many times awarded in international competitions, her work is exhibited in major galleries and her pieces are in the collections of international museums. Her works, of great simplicity and elegance, are extremely impressive in their perfection, their fragility and their featherweight appearance.

Joe has been a full time Ceramics Teacher in Tertiary Education in Australia and a practising potter for over 30 years. During this time he has shown in numerous exhibitions and his ceramics work is represented in private and public collections in Australia. Last year he set up a private Pottery School in Brisbane called Oxide Clay Art.

Susan Simonini is an Australian artist currently working in the medium of clay. Susan has a background in painting and printmaking, with a degree in Fine Art. She uses varied techniques to create a range of both functional and decorative ceramics. When not in her studio you can find Susan down the beach riding her skateboard!

John Neely talks clay from both the perspective of an educator and an entrepreneur.

Julia Paul talks about branding, hiring employees, and how to move your prices from average to premium.