Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Sarah Wolf | Episode 276
Sarah is a ceramic artist in Portland, Oregon. Sarah’s business, Wolf Ceramics, is just over a year old. Sarah found ceramics in high school and had a healthy clay obsession throughout college in eastern Washington while working on a degree in geochemistry. Sarah’s initial years after college were spent traveling, farming in the San Juan 
Islands, and climbing in the Cascade Mountains. Sarah couldn’t bring herself to get a real job in the field of geochemistry, and after seriously considering and then scraping the idea of architecture school, Sarah came back to clay.
Sarah decided to go back to school for ceramics and studied at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, where she hatched the idea for her business. A year and half ago, Sarah entered a matched savings grant program with Mercy Corps Northwest that supports new businesses. The funds from this grant came in August of 2016, kickstarted her business into a new space, and helped fund the purchase of studio equipment. Now that Sarah has a space of her own, she is taking on larger wholesale accounts with local businesses and eager to collaborate with other local businesses and crafts people!
Adrienne Eliades is a studio artist living in Vancouver, Washington. She has been extremely fortunate to move all over the country for her work. A recent MFA graduate in Ceramics from the University of Florida in May 2016, Adrienne is currently working at the Ash Street Project in Portland, Oregon.
Maggie Beyeler started her studio, Magpie Pottery in the desert outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico 17 years ago. Formally trained at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Maggie earned her MFA in ceramics in 1993. Since that time Maggie has operated her own studio, taught at various colleges and universities throughout the area, and has become known for her image transfer tableware.
Marla Benton’s work is colourful, humorous, and playful. Marla’s clay pieces are influenced by everyday adventures combined with nature, children, and daily living. Marla earned her education through the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the Ontario College of Art and Design (BFA), and Nipissing University (BED). Through all her experiences, Marla has been exposed to many different materials. Marla found that clay is the most complimentary medium, as she loves to play in mud, sculpting three dimensional, fanciful objects that echo the joys in her life.
Zoë Johnson is a ceramicist living and working on the Big Island of Hawaii. Much of her work occupies the space between functional and decorative, her vessels are embraced as physical representations of memory or gratitude, evoking a fleeting sea breeze or the salty reminiscence of a day at the beach.
Luke Eastop is a ceramicist with a background in the creative arts, and more recently as a chef. Both occupations have informed the development of his work, focusing on pared-down ceramic pieces, exploring the basic material qualities of clay, form, function and utility. He started making ceramics following the passing away of his grandfather, British studio potter Geoffrey Eastop, and is currently working in his studio in Berkshire.
Connie Pike started her clay journey in 1971 and since 1978 she has been making her full-time living as a ceramic artist in Alberta, Canada. Connie’s approach to working with clay evolves as she investigate a balance between function and aesthetic. Shapes and designs build upon themselves and new versions of form and decoration filter through the body of work and refresh the process. It is Connie’s desire to create forms with rich surfaces. is interested in how her work can be used every day to bring art into our lives, enhancing our experience with food, adorning our homes, and providing a necessary ritual to nourish our soul and mind as well as our bodies. Connie is trying to make pottery that is successful in several ways: comfortable to use, enjoyable to look at, and interesting to think about.
Patty Bilbro is a displaced southerner with a craft degree in clay and a BA in Psychology. She has been a resident artist at Odyssey Ceramic Arts and Baltimore Clayworks. Currently, Patty lives in Wilmington, DE and works out of her windowless leaky basement. She loves to teach.
A lifelong native of the Philadelphia area, Theo Uliano completed his MFA in Ceramics at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia in 2011, after earning his BFA in Ceramics at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 2007. Theo is currently Adjunct Professor in Ceramics at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and at Middlesex College in New Jersey. Recently Theo completed an artist residency at AIR Vallauris in the South of France and was also selected as an Emerging Artist 2015 by the publication Ceramics Monthly.
Adam Field is fascinated with antique artifacts, the way they can speak of mastery of lost peoples, places, and cultures. This inspires Adam to create works that both radiate history and capture his own place and time. Adam’s works toward a clean aesthetic that celebrates the masterful simplicity of antique Far Eastern pottery, while retaining the modest utility of colonial American wares. The surface of Adam’s pottery is meticulously carved with intricate designs that borrow from nature and incorporate the human touch. Much of the carving on Adam’s work is informed by the pattern languages found in indigenous fiber art, such as Hawaiian tapa, Incan cordage and Zulu basketry.