The Studio Potter

Japanese & Finnish Wood Techniques X Ceramic
By MICHAEL TAKAHATA

My early influence came from netsuke, small intricately carved toggles from 17th-19th century Japan, often made from wood or ivory, that were depictions of everyday life. What drew me in was their scale and intimacy but also their detail: inlays of shell, metal, or coral. They became my entry point into thinking about how multiple materials could coexist within a single form. At the same time, I was reflecting on the sauna, not just as an object of Finnish heritage but as a site of connection. Some of the most honest conversations I’ve had, particularly with my oldest brother, took place in that space. Those exchanges shifted how I thought about memory, not as something abstract but as something shared. Those conversations were a catalyst for analyzing the moments we share with others that become integral to us. I began to see the sauna as a central part of my perception of being part Finnish. At the time, I began making a series of small netsuke in clay depicting my grama’s sauna and hadn’t yet started using a second material. It was a year or two after this body of work when I began to utilize actual wood in my pieces.

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POSITION TITLE:
Executive Director/Editor
Part-time (30 hrs per week) permanent, remote
Salary: $45k

STUDIO POTTER MISSION / VISION:
Operating as a resource and a communal voice, Studio Potter represents the multiplicity of contemporary and historical ceramics by:
Publishing exceptional and thought-provoking content
Strengthening and growing our community
Connecting artists, educators, collectors, curators, gallerists, critics, historians, and learners through narratives, interviews, and critical essays

POSITION SUMMARY:
Studio Potter is seeking a dynamic executive director and editor (ED) to serve as the leader and chief administrative officer of the organization, and an editor who will uphold the high quality of Studio Potter’s monthly content. Reporting to the board of directors, Studio Potter’s ED/editor acts as both the day-to-day manager and public face of the organization. The ED is the lead fundraiser and strategist, working with the board and board committees to develop and achieve the organization’s short-term and long-term goals. The ED must be equal parts administrator, fundraiser, editor, and advocate.

The ED is responsible for overseeing the organization’s finances and, working closely with the board, takes a leadership position in all development planning and implementation. The ED represents Studio Potter in its relationship with the field of ceramics, associations, and other institutions, and ensures that all actions and communications comply with policies and procedures set forth by the board. The ED furnishes appropriate support to the board, makes recommendations to the president and board as appropriate, and maintains confidentiality regarding all related matters.

How to Apply:
Please send a cover letter expressing your interest in the role and related experience, a resume or CV, three references, and a writing sample (if available) to [email protected].
Deadline: June 22, 2026
Part-time (30 hrs per week), permanent, remote

Follow the link in our bio for more details.

A large part of the 2001, vol. 29 no.2, issue of Studio Potter is focused on the art and life of Shimaoka Tatsuzo, which coincided with his lecture at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts in March, 2001, and an exhibition sponsored by the Northern Clay Center. With an introduction by Warren MacKenzie and articles by many of Shimaoka’s apprentices, such as Randy Johnston (), Douglass Rankin and Will Ruggles, and Tony Marsh (), Studio Potter paints a picture of the influence Shimaoka Tatsuzo has had on many American potters.

Warren began his introduction with, “Shimaoka Tatsuzo is one of the world's best known potters, and at the same time is a quiet, unpretentious person. He shuns the limelight and desires nothing so much as being at home in Mashiko, Japan, working in his studio where, with a group of artisans he has assembled and trained, he produces some of the most rich and intense ceramic expressions being made in the world today.”

In Shimaoka’s own article, My Way as a Potter, he explains, “I always wanted to do something creative with my hands. I started pottery as a student at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1939. There I did not study industrial technology, but pursued specialized studies in the Department of Ceramics. This was when I decided to become a potter. However, I had no idea what kind of potter I wanted to become. I only had vague ideas of what I might be able to do. One of my thoughts then was to take advantage of what I was taught in college, such as how to mix chemicals to create colorful glazes.”

In Tony Marsh’s article, Art As Homage, he speaks of the many aspects of his three-year stay at the Shimaoka Pottery. “Mr. Shimaoka was not the easiest person to work for because of his intense focus, high expectations and enormous appetite for hard work; nonetheless, there was something in him that I admired very deeply. His art was not the art school stuff (my frame of reference) of taking aim at the fringe in order to explore the new. “

Pictured are Shimaoka in Mashiko, Square stoneware plate, 2000. Stoneware vase, 2000, Stoneware plate, 1998, and Tony Marsh removing a pot just thrown by Shimaoka, 1978.

Weaving Cultural Connections Through Materials
By ANELA MING-YUE OH

Clay provides a way to give form and life to drawn imagery, allowing it to become its own form while still tying it to its material history and transforming it further still through paper and fiber. I was never taught how to do batik and learnt from watching and talking to people in Malaysia on family trips and research there. There used to be a lot more Malaysian-produced batik, but lately it’s often demonstrated for tourism, and only a few communities still make it. Most batik used for clothing is sourced from Indonesia now, except for the handful of artists and craftspeople trying to keep the tradition alive and using it in contemporary manners and artwork. The desire to see this integral piece of my cultural heritage alive in the context of diaspora is extremely important to the way I integrate it into my own artistic practice, even in more abstracted ways. This is why referencing batik in clay with a relationship to fiber is at the heart of my practice, giving a new body and shape to my visual and cultural heritage. Culture is something alive and growing, and this meeting of many cultures is reflected in my materials and their processes.

To read more follow the link in our bio.

In the 2001, vol. 30 no.1, issue of Studio Potter Gerry Williams continues his travels across the US to visit ceramic studios this time with his article 24 Michigan Potters. Gerry wrote, “Our interviews with Michigan potters started in the southern area of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint. Lansing, Grand Rapids, then went northward toward Midland and ended at the Upper Peninsula in Marquette and Cedarville. The artists selected for inclusion in this issue are new to the pagesof Studio Potter.”

In 2001 Sam Chung () spoke about making his pottery “It's almost like a puzzle for me. I enjoy working with parts, fitting pieces together. The complexity of the teapots lends itself to that. Such pots are very labor intensive. I make probably fewer than one hundred pots a year.”

Jae Won Lee () explained, “I started making boxes in my last semester at Alfred, and along the years have developed it further. At Alfred I felt I needed my own space. That space didn't have to be very intimate, nor implied, nor showing. So I started making small boxes. First I made covered boxes, then I sealed them when the clay was wet. By doing so I thought I could stir more curiosity. That impenetrability may attract more attention from the viewer. It looks solid but it's hollow inside, so there is an implied space inside. My emotion is there. The work has to do with emotional content- emotions about being human, about being a woman, about being an artist.”

Tony Hepburn told of his beginnings in ceramics, “I had enrolled in Camberwell College of Arts in England and had transferred from painting to pottery. One day I was throwing on the wheel when I noticed a man nearby in the studio sitting on a bag of clay. After a couple of hours, I went over to him and said, Are you waiting for someone? Can I help you? He said, Well, I'm teaching this class. It was Hans Coper, the well-known English potter, and it was his first teaching job. Hans Coper became my mentor through the years.”

Pictured are Sam Chung, Thom Bohnert, Susan Crowell, and Mark Chatterley in there studios and Jae Won Lee and Tony Hepburn with their artwork.

Posted for The Studio Potter by .schnabel.

In This Issue – Expanding Clay Through Cultural Crafts
By MICAH LEWIS-VĂN SWEEZIE

Western studio ceramics has long operated insularly, its conversations largely self-referential – with perhaps the occasional romanticization of Eastern ceramic traditions. This provincial perspective toward a material as globally shared as clay inhibits meaningful cross-cultural exchange of material knowledge. In recent decades, there has been a tonal shift to expand the horizons of cultural clay representation within Western conversations. This expansion undeniably benefits our community by diversifying voices, encouraging equity, and extending the bounds of our collective ceramic arts knowledge. Even though Western ceramic conversations now include more multicultural perspectives, I believe a lack of representation remains. The underrepresented perspective I speak to here extends beyond culture – toward the inclusion of non-clay craft traditions. Crafts of all mediums have interplayed and mutually influenced one another throughout history – exchanging colors, motifs, processes, and more. It would be naive to believe that ceramics as a craft has operated this long without absorbing qualities from other non-clay craft traditions. Nonetheless, conversations within ceramic arts culture often fail to consider the full breadth of craft influences within our medium. While it is easy to dismiss other crafts in our embrace of clay's iconic and irreplicable materiality, I encourage us to consider our practice through a much wider craft lens.

To read the fill Editor-at-Large,"In This Issue" follow the link in our bio.

Can you recognize these potters from their 1970s photographs alone?

Here’s your clue:
They’re all connected through one influential clay lineage that helped shape American functional pottery in the South.

Drop your guesses in the comments 👇

Who are they?
What connects them?

Answers will be revealed on Friday in a reel.

And if you enjoy content like this and want to help preserve ceramic history, artist stories, and the Studio Potter archives, please consider becoming a member of Studio Potter. Your support helps keep these conversations alive for future generations of clay artists.

Posted by Shikha Joshi on behalf of The Studio Potter

The 2000, vol. 28 no. 2, issue of Studio Potter looks at potters from Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania Passages: Part One. Artists included are Elizabeth Evans Baker, Jimmy Clarke, Leroy Johnson, Don Nakamura, Mark Lueders, Jill Bonovitz, Pam Lau, Dan Ody, George Johnson, Kris Nelson, Sandi Pierantozzi and Neil Patterson (), Nancy Carmen, Bill Daley, Ken Vavrek, Jack Thompson, Lisa Naples (), Paula Winokur, Robert Winokur, Will Singleton, John Troupe, Jasper Brinton, () and Jack Troy.

Jill Bonovitz () writes, “I'm influenced by things outside of the work of ceramic artists I know. Cycladic art has infiltrated me. In our house we have pre-Columbian art, too. I love shells and collect them. I like twigs and weeds, all natural things. I guess I take all these things inside of me through my pores and settle them inside. I open my eyes to all the beautiful things around me or that touch me, and then they come out again, hopefully transformed.

Leroy Johnson () explained, “Currently I'm working on a series of men with hats and guns. My work tends to be heavily laden with social commentary.” “I'm addressing a black audience, trying to wake them up and become aware of things. A mask on the wall is based on a Senefou mask from Africa. I have another piece called "You Are an Organ Donor." If you run around with a gun shooting your so-called enemies and get killed, then if nobody identifies your body, then your organs are taken. You're just part of a system; your body is still not yours, you're just a resource.

Don Nakamura () reveals, “I like flowers and use floral designs on many bowls. When I was a kid in Hawaii I wanted to be a horticulturist. I work intuitively, but as the years go by I become more conscious of the past and seem to work more autobiographically.”

Pictured is Jill Bonovitz’s cup, Leroy Johnson and his artwork, Don Nakamura in his studio and his artwork, and Sandi Pierantozzi and Neil Patterson and their pots.

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Posted for by .schnabel.

The World Is Ending – Let’s Get Weird and Hilarious
By WILLIAM J. O’BRIEN .j.obrien

Each year for the past fifteen years, I’ve taught a class called Getting Weird and Hilarious in the ceramics department at the art school where I work. At first glance, you might think it’s a class for people naturally drawn to the absurd. And in some ways, it is. But what I’ve learned is that pairing improvisation with discipline is what’s required to make great artists, musicians, athletes, or anyone pursuing a dedicated practice. It’s also an essential skill for all of us now. It helps balance difficulty with the lighter skill of humor to offset the darkness.

Although discipline produces results, improvisation, both structured and intuitive, builds the most resilient artists and creates the most compelling work. Most creative practitioners would agree that mastery or great art is never a one-off. It’s the product of structured training that develops skill, and then, when the right moment comes, like a good magician or cook, the ability to improvise produces something greater than the sum of its parts.

As a kid, I was part of a unicycle drill team in Northeast Ohio. That’s a longer story for another essay; however, looking back, it taught me how to train in something both ridiculous and difficult, like balancing on a single wheel, and how true performance comes from relaxation after repetition. It’s similar to when we first learn to drive a car. Every turn signal, stop, and yield requires full attention. But over time, once the body absorbs the training, we can relax, turn on the radio, and still stay on the road. That kind of embodied skill-building comes in handy during crisis. The ability to ground oneself first and then allow improvisation, or intuition, to guide the next move might be one of the most important skills we have.

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