Appalachia is often misunderstood. People tend to see the stereotypes before they see the people. For me, Appalachia is front porches and sweet tea, but it is also grit, kinship, hard truths, and deep care. It is a place where people have never lacked the will or the skill to organize, make do, speak up, and look after one another.

It is a region full of creativity, resilience, humor, contradiction, and beauty.

When I used to think of artists, I pictured a lone wolf in a studio, head down, furrowed brow, working away without looking up. While I know that is the reality for some, in my journey and practice, that is not always the case. It has been filled with community, mentorship, and connection, and I am deeply grateful for that.
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The “when” came from when I was motivated by the market experiences I had with the collective. I was motivated enough to think, well, even if I were independent of this program, if I were, for whatever reason, by myself, would that be the end of it for me, or would I want to continue, and in what way would I want to continue? I came to the conclusion that not only would I want to continue doing this, but I would also want to try to profit from it in a way that's small-scale commerce, you know, a community kind of way of supporting each other.

People tell me I’m a casual maker, but I'm not. I'm actually a pretty tight maker. I make them tight, and then I squish them.

Well, you know, I'm a blue collar worker. I do have an education. I have an MFA, but I come from a family of carpenters. Until about thirty years ago, I had two professions. I made pots and I did carpentry. I was always a self-employed carpenter.

Together, these artists offer expansive perspectives formed through the intersections of material and narrative. Each practitioner approaches content with nuance and intentionality, building upon histories of craft while pushing the field of ceramics forward. Collectively, their work speaks to personal experience, identity, culture, history, and ongoing environmental crises through the deliberate use of materials.

When you talk about this soft quality, I right away ask what other ways things appear soft? Because you're talking about the appearance of it. I think of volume, of glass blowers, of breathing volume in. When things look overly pregnant, overly ripe, or plump. Putting that curve a little lower, or a little higher. Something a little unexpected can give it a softness. Fatty glazes!

"It's when the piece, when I encounter the piece, or when I look at it, and I take it in, it kind of pricks my consciousness, and it says, 'Wait a minute, maybe there's more here than you ever imagined.' It's like this urgency. You're struck with this urgency of, wake up, there might be more here than you ever imagined. But you're going to have to be on your toes to catch it." – Bede Clarke

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"Art can be effective as part of a moral resistance. It can be effective in expressing outrage. But I always tell students that if you choose the role of an artist who embraces social or political commentary, you must focus, first and foremost, on the art. The art is of prime importance. It is the quality of the art – aesthetically, conceptually, technically – that grabs your viewer. It is the art that carries the message. The corollary won't work. The message alone will not carry the art." – Richard Notkin

It's the little subtleties. Pushing the belly out, making the rim go up and down. To keep your eye more contained in the pot, I put that little coil in where the handle meets the belly. That way, your eye can travel within that negative space into the belly, the fullest part of the pot, without interruption.

Anyone who has played Legend of Zelda or even Pokémon – the millennials and those gaming folks – will definitely get those analogies. There is a visual language that relates to the grind, to the detective/exploration work, to the idea, or to the mechanism of crafting in video games – harvesting things and then crafting objects out of them – and it's this usage of or appropriation of our childhood language that we use in our adult mediums of choice.

“Loosen up, man, loosen up! Feel free to go anywhere!” It took me a while, obviously, to get to that point, but as the years went on, I got better and better at it. – Ron Meyers

The fact that there's so much good work coming out of North Carolina, both currently and historically, has set a high bar. I find it inspiring. I was trying to think of the word for this, but my motivation is fueled by whatever the friendlier version of competition is. I think there is a certain degree of “surround yourself with people better than you,” and then you rise with the tide. I think this has influenced me the most.

"In wood-firing, there is often a scarcity mindset. There’s so much riding on it, and access is limited. We wanted to change the mindset from scarcity to abundance." This month's FREE article.

When I’m in a good studio flow, after that sense of apprehension subsides and my hands warm up, I begin to follow my creative impulses – those little whispers that lead me to the next piece.
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Juany is the last practicing Yoreme potter in her Mayo community, and she is committed to reviving the craft so that the tradition can persist for the benefit of future generations.

CJ Carter’s work deftly blends the language of architecture with the human form to interrogate societal constructs of strength, beauty, and gender. Carter's sculptures serve as powerful symbols of resilience and defiance, pushing back against the rigid expectations placed upon marginalized individuals. Similarly, Jess Cheng explores themes of nurture, suffering, and regeneration, offering a poignant reflection on the human condition and the capacity for growth amidst adversity.

Nicki Green's sculptures and ritual objects delve into the preservation of history and the aesthetics of otherness, inviting viewers to reexamine their perceptions of identity and belonging. GV Kelley's chimeric creatures, with their hybrid forms and fluid identities, challenge the binaries that often govern our understanding of gender and identity. Through their work, Kelley initiates a crucial dialogue about the complexities of the human experience and the need for greater acceptance and understanding.

It was also a link to unspoken language; the woman who would carve that certain pattern on the bottom of that I would look at and examine, then I'd look at her. And look at her batik outfit. That pattern is in her batik outfit. Then, if I followed her home, that pattern was painted on her hut. If I went into her kitchen, that pattern was all over the wall. I started learning about these women friends of mine, not by their names but by their patterns. So I began to make rollers. And I've never stopped making rollers, and I call them signature rollers. Because I don't sign my work, I put my roll in a pattern. And that's my signature.

Reflecting on her practice, which has now spanned over two decades, Madhvi questions the foundational concepts that define her artistic endeavors. We explore the cornerstones of her ceramic practice that are inseparable from the radical histories of craft and the geographies that bind us to the clay medium.

"I started thinking, you know, do I want this to be my legacy? Do I want my work to be about being a victim? I started thinking about conversations that I had with Mr. Gilliard (my first pottery instructor) and conversations that I had with Professor Stull about my African heritage. With Mr. Gilliard, we would talk about all the great things that African Americans have done for this culture and how they brought their African heritage to this country and made this culture what it is. And so, I started thinking about how it would be interesting for me to tap into that lineage of artistic tradition that I'm an heir to." This month's FREE article.

"I'm not wildly in favor of teaching methods or educational philosophy - if you've got something that you want to do, and you know how to do it well, and love it, then you can get that across."

The morning of our last day at Hambidge was an exhausting one, given that feeding almost 100 the night before had been no easy feat. We gathered for breakfast not only to replenish our bodies but also to discuss our success of the past weeks together. As we sat on the front porch of Lucinda’s Rockhouse, we reveled in the memories of the delicious meal we’d created and served, a meal that was both hard-won and beautiful.

"I consider design an approach that needs and includes art. Many of my projects started as works of art that evoked the dynamism of African narratives. My creative process and the development of the projects have made me answer people's needs, such as tableware that tells their stories." – Faty Ly

We are also past the arbitrary distaste for the decorative, the feminine, humor, and cuteness (among other aesthetic categories), which allows narrative content to flourish in the work of artists like Lindsey Lou Howard, Jennifer Rochlin, Roberto Lugo, Woody De Othello, Emily Yong Beck, Ruby Neri, and so many others. This month's FREE article.

This month's FREE article. It's a good place for artists to explore – those tender, unsure, and vulnerable places within ourselves. For one thing, it keeps us all humble. One thing I’ve noticed in these explorations [is that] we get universal. I often say to my students, "Your very individual story is what’s going to become your universal story."

On the eve of Studio Potter's fiftieth birthday, I arrived in Shelburne Falls, and Mary Barringer walked me through the idyllic downtown of the former "world headquarters." From here, we sat together, and she shared her reflections on her editorship, on the journal, and on life after Studio Potter.

Recently, the vines have begun to seep their way over the edge of Shoko's pots. Crawling under feet and over rims into the interior of the spaces, they suggest a feeling of endlessness – something that cannot nor should not be contained.

"My artwork is a record of my experiences as an Afro-Latina American, I embrace my naturally curly hair, heritage, womanhood, and at times current worldly struggles." - Michelle Ettrick FREE ARTICLE!

"Even though you may not be doing traditional stone or wood carving, you still love the land and the community. You carry those inspirations that you learn from your mother and grandmother, and I think we have to keep educating people about their stereotyping of what Native peoples make and what they do. Like Lillian says, we have to keep doing it and keep educating those folks out there that have this cultural idea that we only make art this certain way." - Richard Rowland

With the time-honored traditions of ceramics and tattooing we continue reinterpreting imagery and objects from the past.

This is what I do. This is what I make. FREE ARTICLE!

I see all of Seisler’s works (whether it's her artwork or the programming she creates for A-B Projects) as a way of exploring the language of clay, investigating our personal relationship to this material, and its ability to connect us to others in the community.

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"I have never tired of it. There's always something more to explore in the world of clay and glazes and atmospheric firings. We're dealing with essential materials of earth and fire and water and air, and we're playing, but playing with a purpose – seeking more information," Daphne Roehr Hatcher.

Success is the mindset that the things you would like for yourself are coming to you. Failure is just a test to see how much you wanted something in the first place.

Welcome to the vibrantly intentional world of Brian Vu.

Deeper inside the tree, a wine-dark sea of grain fading to a gentle indigo, lavender, and deep green make up the heartwood. The wide range of color in melted ash surfaces that can be seen at the unloading of a wood kiln are continually surprising. I’ve found myself thinking, “How can such color come from simple wood ash?” Well, it seems it had been in there all along.

"As an artist trying to work with galleries, you should never feel like you have no power," Donté K. Hayes.

"You have to be mindful. You have to be cautious, but it doesn't always have to be a hard no," Tish Agoyo.

"I think it's really helpful if you can have an idea of what you want your life to look like, day-to-day, and also a year from now," Sue Tirrell

Studio Potter's Jill Foote-Hutton sat down with Sunshine Cobb and discussed the changing marketplace for studio artists.

It all has to do with who the person is. It’s about you. It doesn't deal with the school. It doesn’t matter if it’s the pedigree or the bucket. If you don’t know why you’re there... there ain’t nothing I can say.

There was an old index card box labeled “Deaccessioned, Missing, or Stolen Works” sitting on the top of a filing cabinet. I loved everything about that blend of categories...

Rather than lean in to an oppositional response, the administrators who chose to be interviewed by Studio Potter here, have allowed themselves to be vulnerable by sharing their honest struggles as they grapple with systemic racism.

An excerpt from a collaborative letter, "I refuse to sign any contracts to teach from this day forward without holding the institutions accountable for how they are actively pursuing/enacting an antiracist agenda."

It’s kind of an old-fashioned dream. Not obsolete, but grounded in tradition and backed by a love of labor that comes from knowing you hold the ability to make something from nothing.

The Im-ple-ment Archive is simultaneously a collection of objects to be used, a collaborative method of making, an interrogation of craft practices and intersections, and an ongoing contemporary artwork.

"Just when it seems the incline and hairpin turns won’t end, deep forest opens up to a passenger-side view of Horner Hall, the recently renovated home to the Penland gallery and visitors center." Join Sarah Kelly in conversation with Penland Resident Jason Hartsoe; captured last fall. A grateful recollection of deliberate advancement toward a goal.

Nick Moen is discovering and designing bridges between materials, craft and design, and communities at The Bright Angle in Asheville, North Carolina.

We decided our first trip to the UK would be to St. Ives and Leach Pottery. This started our love affair with British studio ceramics

People read a visual artwork through many different things: a title, prominent color or patterns, etc., but they react quickly to something that’s more familiar to them.

On a research trip to Medellín, Colombia, I met a thirty-five-year-old anthropologist and ceramist who enlightened me to the role of indigenous ceramics in contemporary culture.

The illusion is that with plastic 3-D printers and how you have this tool, it can potentially fabricate anything in the world that you could possibly imagine.

This is a protest against the mindset of “It’s only them, and not us.” Because it can be everybody and because it needs to be all of us. The contemporary silent witness sees all of our communal experience and will tell our stories, transforming one of the darkest times of human history into something galvanizing.

We asked Winnie Owens-Hart to recommend several ceramic artists to accompany her forgoing interview "Inside the Pink House – A Conversation with Winnie Owens-Hart." She chose the following seven ceramic artists: Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Sana Musasama, Yvonne Edwards-Tucker, Janathel Shaw, Syd Carpenter, Teresa A. Williams, and Barbara Madden-Swain.