نویسنده: AliBina

The Potters Cast | Pottery | Ceramics | Art | Craft : A Return to the Original Clay Podcaster | Brian R Jones

Brian R. Jones grew up in Syracuse, NY and is now an artist living and working in Portland, OR. He has been a resident artist at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA. He has earned degrees from The New York State College of Ceramics (BFA) and Southern Methodist University (MFA). He was a presenter at the Utilitarian Clay VI: Celebrate the Object at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in September 2012. In 2013, Jones was selected as an Emerging Artist by the National Council on the Education in the Ceramic Arts.

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05/05/2025
He Takes Up To A Year To Make A Piece | Daniel Velasquez

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Daniel Velasquez | Episode 776

Daniel Velasquez is a professional artist, muralist, and founder of Hydralas Designs. Daniel uses art to create a dialogue with diverse environments and their inhabitants in order to create a sense of community and wonder to public spaces. Daniel has a passion for nature, environmental design, health, and community which he seeks to promote with his work.

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Do you see your work as a from of communication?

I think my work is really…it’s funny, I view it for myself as a form of listening. And it’s listening to a part of my thought processes, belief systems, and ideologies that are not at surface level and aren’t always accessible. And I view it for others as themselves communicating to themselves through either memories or past experiences. I think most of the time that’s what art is and I think when you are a creator by nature you are ultimately just a really good listener to yourself.

So is that why it’s okay if your viewer has a different interpretation of your work, because you are listening to your muse and they are listening to their muse?

Yeah, I think that my role as an artist is more to figure out the deepest sense of myself and my humanity that I possibly can in order to have every thing that I bring to art a pure self-reflection based on experiences that I have been a part of. And if somebody else doesn’t pick up the message it’s good because they are ultimately coming from a completely different set of experiences that have shaped them and therefore they are communicating with the artwork in a completely different way that I probably couldn’t understand.

Was there intentionality with ancient forms and modern street art?

Well I think people when they look at it…I think graffiti is looked to as almost a lower form of art and when it’s elevated on something elegant that you consider like pottery reminiscent of museums you look to it more and it has a more elevated place at that point. So it’s almost like you’ve been able to take an art form that is not really considered fine art and put it in a place where it is just by the form.

You said you had to take a break from letting your artwork support you. What did you end up going for for a day job?

You know I was sitting for awhile and nothing seemed like it could beat the freedom of just doing whatever I wanted creatively and nothing really could. And I was pretty much just traveling and it didn’t feel like traveling it felt like I was just aimlessly wandering and then I started having these dreams where I was building these inhabitable sculptures. I have had minor fabrication experience from when I was in high school and I just decided, Well, this is a good place to start I am just going to figure out how to build. So I started doing construction and that has blossomed for me recently and in addition to that I work at SF State doing a class on muralism and public arts.

Book

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

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05/05/2025
Some Of The Whys Of Being Discovered | Raina Lee | Episode 830

Raina Lee is an artist based in Los Angeles and works in clay and experimental glazes. Raina’s practice draws from ceramics history, archeology, and burial objects, and objects from her family’s past. Raina began in clay making functional works and has recently started making sculptural pieces.

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05/05/2025
He Plays Banjo And He Pots! | Darren Jackson

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Darren Jackson | Episode 847

Darren Jackson got a random postcard at his day job (K-6 general music) to attend Arrowmont. When Darren’s first choice was full, he ended up in hand building. After getting a wheel that fall, Darren hasn’t looked back! When Darren is not in mud, he’s on his front porch, picking his banjo!

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Does having some of your students on Instagram create challenges for you in how you present yourself on social media?

I don’t think so. I think it’s a good thing to know that you always have an audience. I think with social media, and this is a big rabbit hole we probably don’t need to go down through, it’s easy because we are not face to face so much of the time. On social media our inhibitions are down I guess and we can get in a comment war with people we would not say on a Facebook post with somebody. So I think it ‘s a good thing to always know that we have an audience and that they are real people.

Why humor for kind of one of the bedrocks for your feed?

I just like to have a good time. I can be pretty serious too and I’ve recorded myself teaching, we have to do that to pass certification and what not, but when I watch back on the video I thought, Man, I sound like a jerk. I think I am having a good time and being hilarious, Man, no wonder those kids hate me. I like to laugh and joke around. If you can’t do that then what’s the point.

How was your transition of selling on Etsy to selling on your website. Did you loose customers?

No, I don’t think so. I still keep my Etsy up to date during Black Friday and big events. I haven’t had a whole lot of online sales. Something I’m thinking about doing is announcing a shop update. I know a lot of other potters do that. I think when you lead up to it over a series of days people know it’s coming.

Do you find the reels tend to make more traction than the short videos?

I definitely think that Instagram is pushing the reels now and to buy into their algorithm and do what they want you to do so to speak, I think that’s the thing. I have heard if you do thirty reels in thirty days that that will really help you take off.

What do you do when you are not in the studio and you are not playing the banjo?

Oh man, teaching kids, but other than that…that’s about it. That really fills up my calendar. I just got a 3D printer for Christmas so I have been implementing that into my pottery. Other than that it’s banjo, clay, and teaching kids.

Book

Love Does by Bob Goff

Contact

lovehandleclay.com

Instagram: @lovehandleclay

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05/05/2025
World Building With Clay | Gabs Conway

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Gabs Conway | Episode 947

Gabs Conway is a sculptural ceramic artist based in Missoula Montana. Having grown up in Missoula, she was excited to return – as she relentlessly considers it home – after earning her BFA at the University of Wisconsin – Stout. Gabs’ work stems from the playful, mundane experiences of living. She explores relationships, such as that of siblings, friends, and lovers. Interested in creating forms for the reflection of human experience; asking the viewer to consider their appreciation of life, and to humble the adornment of our physicality. Gabs remains curious of the inherent biological responses of living, and what it means to exist together in an ever changing world.

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What do you think of other people suggesting about what and how you should be making your work?

Firstly I hate it (laughter) but it’s not your work, it’s mine.

Instead of telling you how to do your work what is a supportive way for people to talk about your work?

I think just saying, This is what I think this is what you are doing well. It would be interesting to see this. But not so much saying, Do this.

How important for you to have a supportive community around you for you as a maker to be confident that you are going in the right direction?

I don’t know if I lean on my community to tell me that I am going in the right direction. I think I am going based on how I am feeling about what I am making.

What do your folks think of this journey you have been on?

My dad was definitely a potter. I know that they are both supportive but I think they both have their moments of wondering exactly what it is I am doing.

Do you believe that teaching workshops is a critical component for your personal growth, to be giving away your knowledge to others?

I think that I love teaching. I love teaching. I think that they are giving me a lot of information as well. Working with kids is absolutely unreal. But I think just having the opportunity to talk to other people and how they can build things is awesome.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to garden. And I like to take my dog to the park and I like to go to gymnastics with my dad.

Book

Stiff by Mary Roach

Contact

gabsconway.com

Instagram: @gabsconwaymakesdirt

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04/05/2025
Dreams to Doing | Gerit Grimm

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Gerit Grimm | Episode 1027

Gerit Grimm and I sat down at NCECA to talk about her journey with clay. In our conversation we also talked about her moving from being a dreamer to being a doing. She gave us insights from the importance of dreaming to taking action on the dreams.

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Why is it important to dream?

There were seven years of my life where I didn’t dream. My dad died and I lost all my dreams. People may not know but for seven years I had such a heavy depression and actually following something bigger than life, like the sailing dream, out me back onto my feet. Because now I have goose bumps. I realize people get depressed because they underchallenge themselves.

Underchallenged.

And so when you are underchallenged you get depressed but when you follow big impossible assignments, and even failing and falling on your nose…when I posted I was afraid people would laugh but for me I wanted to fail big. So I realized that is the key to living is to not underchallenge yourself.

When you have a new vision for life or for your ceramics what are your first steps of trying to achieve it? Do you have a notebook or scrapbook that you write them down in?

I tried writing them down but it doesn’t work for me and what people suggested doesn’t work for me. I already heard from real big go getters that you don’t write it into your notebook, you write it on your calendar. And for me if I have an idea I just book the airplane ticket right then. Because you do it now or never. It goes away if you let it too long wait. I go to the studio if I have a vision and I try to make it. If I think too long about it I become hesitant and weak and then I don’t do it.

So it’s taking action that gives you the drive to do the next thing?

Oh my God, once you start you meet all these people who already started and you are like, What took me so long? Why did I waste seven years with depression? I think I got really slapped into my face in those seven years and now I have to make up for all the lost time I was a chicken, I was scared. Why would I be scared? I want to fail big at this point. Because I have only a few years left. I want to do it all.

Why do you think having the dream and taking action…why do you think that is such a great medicine for depression?

I don’t know. I experienced it. I experienced it and people are watching me and are like, Wow, you smile now. I don’t know, I guess it is because you really get to live what you were thinking as a child, you know? My dad always wanted to circumnavigate the world and he could never do it health wise and then he didn’t figure out how and I wanted to live it for him and I couldn’t figure it out and now I figured it out and now I got all the tools, you know. I got all the tools, I can do it now.

What about road blocks. When we have a dream things get in the way. How do we get around them or over them?

Little steps. Either we do it or time runs away. It’s hard to age too. I love that everyone around us ages the same. (laughter)

Who is a woman who inspires you to chase your dreams?

Well I don’t know enough about the sailing world but I know a bunch of artists in America. I would love to transform into them. Tip Toland. Cristina Cordova.

I also have two artists in Europe that I adore. I adore Margaret Cottach and Vally Viziltear. One Austrian and one Hungarian. They were not alive but I adore their work. They sculpted using the wheel and making

Book

Author: Tahlia Aghily

Contact

geritgrimm.com

Instagram: @pricelesssailing

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03/05/2025
A Talk In The Lobby | Jody Lewis

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Jody Lewis | Episode 1028

Born and raised in Alabama and Tennessee, Jody Lewis is a transplant to Canada. Having earned a bachelors in biology and a master’s in public health, Jody assumed that he didn’t have a single creative bone in his body. But things started to change for Jody when a friend showed him all the work she had in a pottery class and he knew he had to give it a shot. After talking a 10 week course, Jody was obsessed! Jody has since turned this new passion into a small business venture that is thriving.

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For all your ceramic needs go to Georgies.com

Do you have a making calendar for your year?

Yes, I have a few. I am not an organized person but I try to fake it as best I can and I just have to have physical things to write things out. So I do have calendars, I have a yearly over arching where I write in the month what I want to do in those months and then I have weekly where I go Monday through Friday what I am actually going to do. And then I do a daily. What are my todays tasks.

Could you do what you do and be profitable if you were willy nilly in your schedule?

Oh man, I hate to say no because I know some people are. But there is a practical side of my brain that I try to fight that with everything. A lot of potter friends who are willy nilly , I don’t know, we talk about this a lot because people think I am so organized. But it’s the only way I can function. I can’t see making your income year to year if you are just changing all the variables. You have to keep some variables the same to carry over to the following year.

How do you balance out your income when you come to months like January and February?

I think this is probably a good point to bring up my partner. She is great for me and the business, she’s a huge supporter. She is sort of the reason I started doing this and she encouraged me to do it. She has helped so much with this business so I am in a privileged position that the pottery doesn’t have to pay all of our bills so it allows a lot of freedom to be able to kind of structure the business.

Do you do things related to ceramics, like teaching or demos to make ends meet?

I do teach. I love teaching. I don’t have the space for it so I have to work with my local community studio to do classes. I want to do more classes but it’s such a high demand teaching wise. The teachers have been there many years teaching their classes. There is a bit of shortage of that. I know virtual classes is something else to do. So I don’t really do a whole lot of that but I would like to get into that more.

As a creative how do habits make you a better and more creative maker?

Yeah, so I think structure for a lot of people feels like boundaries and it feels like limitations of them, but for me structure allows more time for creativity. So if I don’t structure the things I need to do, like making mugs or glazing or going through the process, if I don’t stick with the basics then I won’t have the time to make vases or have the more creative time. I am not sure if that really makes sense but in my brain it is like, Yes that is exactly how I work. I don’t know if there is a better way to say it but structure makes me be a better creative.

Book

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Contact

goodwheelceramics.com

Instagram: @goodwheelceramics

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03/05/2025
The Cup Show | NCECA 2024

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NCECA is always a blast and has so much to see and do that it is completely impossible to show up and do it all. With that in mind, I tended to miss the annual NCECA Cup Show just because I was so busy doing other things. This was to be different… Not only did I add a cup to the show, I also attended and interviewed a number of people. Below are some pictures from day. Sorry, a couple are little blurry, but it gives you sense of the event. Included is a picture of the cup I added.

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Instagram: @nceca_ces

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03/05/2025
He Won A Potters Wheel… And He Does 3D Printing | Ike Lobel

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Ike Lobel | Episode 1030

Ike Lobel is a Ceramics major at Suny New Paltz. Ike’s work focuses on the use of 3D printing in ceramics and the potential results of it. Ike has been working with clay for the past 16 years, in this time Ike has developed his style focusing on high precision and creating results that respect both the history of ceramics but also technological advances.

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You can help support the show!

Number 1 brand in America for a reason. Skutt.com

For all your ceramic needs go to Georgies.com

Why 3D? What is the draw towards 3D?

I think it is something born inside me but I was watching Youtubers from when I was six building things with 3D printers with plastic. I think it just left something inside me and having my two worlds combine in printing clay it was just meant to be.

How does 3D printing lend itself to more creativity?

Well I have really bad handwriting. Most people cannot read it. And so being able to design something on a computer and then have it come into the real world is kind of magical and it’s nice that I do not have to worry about what my hands do and instead I can just worry about transmitting my brain to the computer and the 3D printer.

Do you see the irony of you pursuing 3D printing and you won a potter’s wheel?

Yeah, we’ve been thinking about this for awhile. My family is like, What are you doing with a potter’s wheel? I think it’s going to be co-ownership between me and my dad.

How does taking a break from ceramics help you be a better ceramicist in the future?

I think in school there is so much pressure for it to be graded and you are always trying to make work for your professors and that’s a lot of pressure and so I think taking a couple of years off and letting it reignite the love for ceramics could be amazing. And then I could start making ceramics for myself again instead of for a grade. I miss making mugs and stuff just so I could give them away.

What is the first thing you are going to do when you graduate?

I am graduating on the 19th and the first thing I am going to do as ironic as it sounds I am going to drive home and build a wheel. (laughter) I haven’t been home in five months so I am excited to go home and build that wheel.

Book

Advanced 3D Printing with Grasshopper by D. Diego Garcia Cuevas

Contact

Instagram: @ikes_pottery

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02/05/2025
Setting Intentions to Make A Clay Career | Cheri Downey

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Cheri Downey | Episode 1032

Cheri Downey, a ceramic artist originally from Northern California, is currently live in Huntsville, Alabama. Cheri began working with ceramics in 2014 in high school classes. Cheri has had home studios since after college and has owned a commercial studio for the last year in Tennessee. Cheri focuses on dinnerware sets, mugs, and luminaries.

SPONSORS

You can help support the show!

Number 1 brand in America for a reason. Skutt.com

For all your ceramic needs go to Georgies.com

How do you go from dreaming to doing?

It all starts with really simple steps and it think it starts with buying your wheel used. (laughter) Just starting really small and getting connected with a local studio, setting up a little home studio, and figuring it out as you go. I don’t know how else to explain it.

How significant is belief? How significant is it to believe you can do it?

I guess it’s less so belief but more so passion for me. So figuring out how passionate you are about something leads to that belief. I feel like all this started with a little bit of imposter syndrome. Am I really an artist? Did I really just make this mug? But I don’t know, it just takes practice and it just takes time and it takes commitment and I think what drives that is passion.

What kind of safety nets did you have in place in case it all fell through?

That’s a good question. I honestly don’t know if I had a safety net. I mean, my husband works full-time. He’s an engineer. He made enough, let’s say, to pay the bills. What I made was anything outside of that. My safety net would probably have been to go back into the mental health field if this wouldn’t have worked out.

Is it important to be ready to pivot? To test and pivot?

I think one hundred percent, yes. Because the tides are going to change at any moment in my opinion. For all careers but especially, I think, for pottery. You kind of have to take the next opportunity as it comes.

I’m curious. What is your dream developing into next? Another way to say this is tell me what it’s going to be in five years?

This is something I am still thinking on doing as well. Well, this might not be a super short answer, Paul. (laughter) I will try.

Give us the nutshell.

Have you ever heard of Mid-South Ceramics in Nashville?

It sounds familiar.

It’s a super large pottery community. Multiple potters rent out spaces. It’s just awesome. It’s incredible. Well the eventual goal, maybe not five years, maybe more, would be pretty much to have a miniature Mid-South in maybe Huntsville or where ever we end up in the next five years. And what’s cool about that is Jordan also has that dream so there maybe a partnership there in the future. That’s all I will say about that.

Book

Art is a Way of Knowing by Pat B. Allen

Contact

cherceramics.com

Instagram: @cher_ceramics

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02/05/2025