The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Editors: Community has been instrumental in your individual studio practices from residency participation to workshop tours, pop-up event groups to an extensive community on social media. Can you talk a little about how these physical and virtual spaces have informed and developed your current goals?
Sarah Anderson: Connecting with other creatives, sharing knowledge, and experiencing new things have been driving forces in my career. I began teaching art classes across Indiana while I was an undergraduate student at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and later became a ceramic studio manager in Indianapolis for a few years. It’s such a dopamine hit to watch a student get their “ah-ha!” moment. When I began teaching and selling my work full time in 2020, it was only online due to Covid. I missed the human connection, even though my ceramic career was taking off. I had the bright idea of turning my studio mobile and taking myself to the students while the world was still slowly emerging from quarantine. I called it, The Sgraffito Tour.
In 2023, I began living and working out of my renovated 1960 Shasta camper, teaching sgraffito classes all over the country, and recently in Europe. Documenting the renovations, travels, and teaching on Instagram gave me opportunities to meet people that I’d only had the pleasure of meeting virtually. I was able to connect with the Pot Stars pop-up group that I now show work with during NCECA, and later would form my own exhibition and pop-up group called Dirt Folks alongside Lakyn Bowman and Lily Lund.
While I was on the road, I attended NCECA in Sacramento, California, and met Austin Coudriet. He was making a name for himself while working as a resident artist at The Clay Studio of Missoula in Montana. I found myself developing more reasons to visit the Pacific Northwest and spent every summer in the mountains of Montana, where Austin would later propose. Austin accepted a two-year residency in 2023 at the Archie Bray Foundation, where I lived with him part-time and found the amazing clay community in Helena, Montana. This solidified my desire for a studio that I’d been dreaming of the last few years—a community studio with multiple facets, including clay therapy and a residency program.
Austin Coudriet: When I’m asked why I chose to be a ceramic artist, my first response has always been for the community. It was this vibrant community that first introduced me to clay ten years ago, and it’s the same community that I have been chasing ever since. I joke that if this integral part of the clay world disappeared, I’d have to find another career!
I’ve spent the past six years traveling the country as a resident artist, and the last two years traveling overseas as an international workshop educator. In my travels, I have seen many types of ceramic studios, classrooms, and factories, each functioning in its own unique way and all thriving. During the pandemic, the craving for human connection exploded. I fed my own hunger by building my online presence and sharing tutorials and live streams of my studio days. It was in those darker days that my passion for teaching ceramics took root. Education became my calling, and it was the perfect combination of creating with clay and building community. I was a long-term resident artist and community class teacher at the Archie Bray Foundation, the Clay Studio of Missoula, and the Clay Art Center. I saw relationships between teacher and student blossom into lasting friendships. Teaching at community studios, traveling for workshops, participating in residencies, showing in exhibitions, and using social media to find other like-minded creatives have all acted as stepping stones to create the community-based career I was searching for.
Eds: You are embarking on a new community studio venture, Dusty Pants Studios (DPS), in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is slated to open in the fall of 2026. What strengths do you each bring to DPS, and how do you find balance in the administrative, creative, and logistical tasks of building a business?
AC: Sarah is a Swiss army knife; there is nothing this woman cannot do. There are so many facets of DPS that would not exist without her. When she has a dream, she doesn’t just follow through—she charges full speed ahead to the biggest possible version of that dream. Sarah learned the unique skill early in her career that in order to become a full-time artist, you also have to become a business. Understanding how to create a business from your art is something we’re passionate about educating others in at DPS. Sarah’s answer is never “I don’t know,” instead, it’s “How can I make this work?” She researches, studies, and consults with as many sources as necessary to see a job through. And she does so with an endless amount of joy, love, and compassion. In the past three years, Sarah has taught sgraffito workshops at over one hundred different locations all over the country, sharing her knowledge and positive spirit. I’m lucky to work alongside her as she teaches our main wheel-throwing classes, oversees the big-picture goals, and organizes the clay therapy department.
SA: I will say it’s a good thing we like each other, because we spend quite a bit of time with each other! Austin is an incredibly supportive and energetic partner, in life and in our business. Anyone familiar with Austin knows that he brings people together and truly is the life of the party. He has friendships with people all over the world, loves meeting new people, and if you don’t know him yet, he will probably be your best friend by the end of the day. When it comes to our studio, Austin has six years of experience in the residency and academia fields to lean into while running our future residency program. He has taught over forty ceramic furniture workshops in ten different countries and was one of NCECA’s emerging artists in 2025. Austin will be one of our main handbuilding instructors, residency program director, and overseer of the DPS daily operations.
Eds: You’ve both built independent careers—how do you honor those individual identities and practices while creating something shared?
SA: We are often asked this question, and it’s one of the easiest questions to answer. I see us each as so uniquely independent, the studio is a perfect host to combine the things we both love into one space. For myself, I love all things quirky, weird, colorful, cartoonlike, and illustrative. These interests of mine have leaked from my ceramic work into every part of my existence. Austin loves all things with shape and balance. Geometric and architectural structures inspire his ceramic furniture, and he finds poetry in the repetition of patterns. Austin can pack a car more efficiently than most people I know. We often travel together to my shows and ceramic invitationals and his overseas workshops—even as I write this, I’m sitting in one of his workshops in Brazil. It’s a give-and-take in our own individual practices, helping and supporting each other.
As we begin to create a shared space, we honor each other’s practices through the way we’ve structured the studio. Most of Austin’s ceramic career has been shaped by academia and residencies, and he is passionate about building a residency program of his own at DPS. I’ve had a long history of chronic illness and Lyme disease, with friends and family who have struggled with their health and mental well-being. I’ve had a strong desire to provide resources and options for those who can’t afford to take action on their own, financially or otherwise. The clay therapy branch of DPS is near and dear to my heart, and my way of bringing a piece of me to the studio.
Eds: You have both spent the majority of the past few years traveling and relocating for ceramic opportunities. How will anchoring to a single location change and push your practice forward in different ways than the residencies and teaching opportunities have thus far?
SA: I cannot tell you how ready I am to have a home base. We are currently in the process of purchasing our first home, about a 30-minute walk from DPS, and it will be my oasis. When we were in Helena, Montana, it was so hard to leave the community we created in a short amount of time. For myself, Dusty Pants feels like coming home. Our studio is located in Irvington, a neighborhood about five miles from the heart of downtown Indianapolis. After we toured the building that DPS will be a part of, I found that my mom’s side of the family has been in Irvington since the late 1800s. The feeling of a small town inside of a large city is a rare one, and I can’t help but feel that my ancestors are calling me back home to begin this exciting chapter of my life. I have no doubt my work will be influenced by my new surroundings as I learn more about my heritage.
AC: In the past seven years, I’ve moved five times to five different cities in four different states with three different time zones. Each month, I fly around the country to teach workshops, only to return home to prepare for the next class. I love this career and the life it’s made for me, but I’m so excited for a brick-and-mortar studio to call our own.
During my residency travels, each body of work has had a defined lifespan: when I move studios, that work ends, and a new project begins. There’s beauty in change, but at times I feel I haven’t provided ideas with enough time and energy to evolve into their final form. Anchoring in Indianapolis will allow me (and my ADHD) the mental fortitude to dig deeper within my own process. I am excited to embark on lengthier projects that I previously haven’t had the time for, such as public art installations and large-scale tile projects that have only been living in sketchbooks and daydreams.
Eds: Who do you hope finds their way to DPS?
SA and AC: We believe our society as a whole struggles with disconnection. Our goal is to introduce as many folks as we can to the healing qualities of clay, whether they are masters of the trade or trying for the first time. The three branches of Dusty Pants include a membership space with education programming, an artist-in-residency program, and a clay therapy department.
The ceramic scene in Indianapolis is growing quickly, at all levels. For our members, we’re excited to provide a studio with 24/7 access, state-of-the-art equipment, a large front-loading kiln, and support groups for encouraging and critiquing each other’s work. For our educational programs, we will be offering a variety of beginner-friendly classes to push the concept: you begin to learn when you let yourself fail. We also have advanced-level courses for those wanting to expand their ceramic skills from a hobby to a profession. Within the residency branch of our studio, we will partner with ceramic companies to financially support emerging artists with professional development opportunities, business education, and exhibition opportunities. And of course, you can expect karaoke nights, pop-up shops, an underground music venue, and everything in between. For our clay therapy branch, clients will focus on creating experiences with clay, rather than a course based on creating finished products.
We also have a multitude of future projects in collaboration with our clay therapy department, such as a mobile studio called “Dusty Wheels” to bring ceramic classes to nursing homes, local school programs, and dementia and PTSD patients. If you or your company are interested in supporting any of these programs, please reach out to dustypantsstudio@gmail.com or visit www.dustypantsstudio.com to connect with us!
Eds: Why did it feel important to have Dr. Halpen join your team? How does having a licensed clinician involved change the way you think about responsibility, care, and the function of clay in a community studio?
SA and AC: We are beyond excited to have Dr. Lexy Silva Halpen, PhD, BCBA-D, and her business, Behavior Buffet (behaviorbuffetllc.com), partner with DPS to provide the community with clay for therapeutic services! Dr. Halpen has earned two master’s degrees, a PhD, and has over fifteen years of experience in behavior analytics and clay. She empowers individuals with disabilities and trauma to live meaningful, value-driven lives through compassionate, creative, and evidence-based behavior analytic services. We are excited to learn more from Dr. Halpen, as well as hire licensed therapists, including art, mental health, social work, and more, to fulfill our clay therapy department. A common phrase we have heard throughout our years of teaching is, “This clay class really feels like therapy!” and Dr. Halpen is conducting revolutionary research studies to prove this. A major goal is to provide subsidized/sliding-scale class fees for those in need, because clay should be accessible to everyone. We are working toward creating a private space for one-on-one clay therapy sessions, and following the guidance of licensed clinicians for what settings are appropriate for these sessions (coming soon).
Eds: Who else will be joining the team to run and support DPS? How many people will be involved in your day-to-day operations?
SA and AC: We see DPS as our home, our community, and a safe place where our fellow Dusties can come on their best days or their worst. We welcome all who want to get dusty in our studio. We have plans to build a long-term team to help us achieve a highly functioning studio of this size. To support our members, students, clay therapy clients, and resident artists, Dusty Pants will have a diverse group of weekly class instructors, active and engaged studio technicians, and a full-time studio manager. We will bring in visiting artists from around the world to teach new and exciting techniques, and partner with local businesses to support the already existing and flourishing arts community in Indianapolis. We’ve recently partnered with a local creative team, Guide and Anchor, to help us take our branding up a level! The creative tasks behind opening a business are, by far, our favorite parts. Interior design has always been a passion of Sarah’s, and with an architect as a father, Austin’s creative influence has a deep root in design.
Eds: What has surprised you most, so far, about building something together—artistically, personally, or communally?
SA and AC: We are continually blown away by our community’s excitement for our space, and we haven’t even opened yet! There is an exciting project we’ve been working on behind the scenes: We’ve invited over 90 ceramic artists to collaborate on a pair of clay pants. These will be displayed in a permanent installation at Dusty Pants Studio as a tribute to our friends in the clay community, and roughly thirty of these will make their debut during the 2026 NCECA in Detroit.
We wouldn’t be here without all of our friends, colleagues, supporters, teachers, students, and the overall creative community cheering us on.
If you’d like to learn more about Dusty Pants Studio, join our mailing list, or get connected with us, please visit www.dustypantsstudio.comand follow @dustypantsstudioon Instagram for updated progress and studio projects as we begin our countdown to open our doors!
We understand your email address is private. You will receive emails and newsletters from Ceramic Arts Network. We will never share your information except as outlined in our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Please enjoy this complimentary article for the month.
For unlimited access to Ceramics Monthly premium content, please subscribe.
We understand your email address is private. You will receive emails and newsletters from Ceramic Arts Network. We will never share your information except as outlined in our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Subscribe to Ceramics Monthly
The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Editors: Community has been instrumental in your individual studio practices from residency participation to workshop tours, pop-up event groups to an extensive community on social media. Can you talk a little about how these physical and virtual spaces have informed and developed your current goals?
Sarah Anderson: Connecting with other creatives, sharing knowledge, and experiencing new things have been driving forces in my career. I began teaching art classes across Indiana while I was an undergraduate student at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and later became a ceramic studio manager in Indianapolis for a few years. It’s such a dopamine hit to watch a student get their “ah-ha!” moment. When I began teaching and selling my work full time in 2020, it was only online due to Covid. I missed the human connection, even though my ceramic career was taking off. I had the bright idea of turning my studio mobile and taking myself to the students while the world was still slowly emerging from quarantine. I called it, The Sgraffito Tour.
In 2023, I began living and working out of my renovated 1960 Shasta camper, teaching sgraffito classes all over the country, and recently in Europe. Documenting the renovations, travels, and teaching on Instagram gave me opportunities to meet people that I’d only had the pleasure of meeting virtually. I was able to connect with the Pot Stars pop-up group that I now show work with during NCECA, and later would form my own exhibition and pop-up group called Dirt Folks alongside Lakyn Bowman and Lily Lund.
While I was on the road, I attended NCECA in Sacramento, California, and met Austin Coudriet. He was making a name for himself while working as a resident artist at The Clay Studio of Missoula in Montana. I found myself developing more reasons to visit the Pacific Northwest and spent every summer in the mountains of Montana, where Austin would later propose. Austin accepted a two-year residency in 2023 at the Archie Bray Foundation, where I lived with him part-time and found the amazing clay community in Helena, Montana. This solidified my desire for a studio that I’d been dreaming of the last few years—a community studio with multiple facets, including clay therapy and a residency program.
Austin Coudriet: When I’m asked why I chose to be a ceramic artist, my first response has always been for the community. It was this vibrant community that first introduced me to clay ten years ago, and it’s the same community that I have been chasing ever since. I joke that if this integral part of the clay world disappeared, I’d have to find another career!
I’ve spent the past six years traveling the country as a resident artist, and the last two years traveling overseas as an international workshop educator. In my travels, I have seen many types of ceramic studios, classrooms, and factories, each functioning in its own unique way and all thriving. During the pandemic, the craving for human connection exploded. I fed my own hunger by building my online presence and sharing tutorials and live streams of my studio days. It was in those darker days that my passion for teaching ceramics took root. Education became my calling, and it was the perfect combination of creating with clay and building community. I was a long-term resident artist and community class teacher at the Archie Bray Foundation, the Clay Studio of Missoula, and the Clay Art Center. I saw relationships between teacher and student blossom into lasting friendships. Teaching at community studios, traveling for workshops, participating in residencies, showing in exhibitions, and using social media to find other like-minded creatives have all acted as stepping stones to create the community-based career I was searching for.
Eds: You are embarking on a new community studio venture, Dusty Pants Studios (DPS), in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is slated to open in the fall of 2026. What strengths do you each bring to DPS, and how do you find balance in the administrative, creative, and logistical tasks of building a business?
AC: Sarah is a Swiss army knife; there is nothing this woman cannot do. There are so many facets of DPS that would not exist without her. When she has a dream, she doesn’t just follow through—she charges full speed ahead to the biggest possible version of that dream. Sarah learned the unique skill early in her career that in order to become a full-time artist, you also have to become a business. Understanding how to create a business from your art is something we’re passionate about educating others in at DPS. Sarah’s answer is never “I don’t know,” instead, it’s “How can I make this work?” She researches, studies, and consults with as many sources as necessary to see a job through. And she does so with an endless amount of joy, love, and compassion. In the past three years, Sarah has taught sgraffito workshops at over one hundred different locations all over the country, sharing her knowledge and positive spirit. I’m lucky to work alongside her as she teaches our main wheel-throwing classes, oversees the big-picture goals, and organizes the clay therapy department.
SA: I will say it’s a good thing we like each other, because we spend quite a bit of time with each other! Austin is an incredibly supportive and energetic partner, in life and in our business. Anyone familiar with Austin knows that he brings people together and truly is the life of the party. He has friendships with people all over the world, loves meeting new people, and if you don’t know him yet, he will probably be your best friend by the end of the day. When it comes to our studio, Austin has six years of experience in the residency and academia fields to lean into while running our future residency program. He has taught over forty ceramic furniture workshops in ten different countries and was one of NCECA’s emerging artists in 2025. Austin will be one of our main handbuilding instructors, residency program director, and overseer of the DPS daily operations.
Eds: You’ve both built independent careers—how do you honor those individual identities and practices while creating something shared?
SA: We are often asked this question, and it’s one of the easiest questions to answer. I see us each as so uniquely independent, the studio is a perfect host to combine the things we both love into one space. For myself, I love all things quirky, weird, colorful, cartoonlike, and illustrative. These interests of mine have leaked from my ceramic work into every part of my existence. Austin loves all things with shape and balance. Geometric and architectural structures inspire his ceramic furniture, and he finds poetry in the repetition of patterns. Austin can pack a car more efficiently than most people I know. We often travel together to my shows and ceramic invitationals and his overseas workshops—even as I write this, I’m sitting in one of his workshops in Brazil. It’s a give-and-take in our own individual practices, helping and supporting each other.
As we begin to create a shared space, we honor each other’s practices through the way we’ve structured the studio. Most of Austin’s ceramic career has been shaped by academia and residencies, and he is passionate about building a residency program of his own at DPS. I’ve had a long history of chronic illness and Lyme disease, with friends and family who have struggled with their health and mental well-being. I’ve had a strong desire to provide resources and options for those who can’t afford to take action on their own, financially or otherwise. The clay therapy branch of DPS is near and dear to my heart, and my way of bringing a piece of me to the studio.
Eds: You have both spent the majority of the past few years traveling and relocating for ceramic opportunities. How will anchoring to a single location change and push your practice forward in different ways than the residencies and teaching opportunities have thus far?
SA: I cannot tell you how ready I am to have a home base. We are currently in the process of purchasing our first home, about a 30-minute walk from DPS, and it will be my oasis. When we were in Helena, Montana, it was so hard to leave the community we created in a short amount of time. For myself, Dusty Pants feels like coming home. Our studio is located in Irvington, a neighborhood about five miles from the heart of downtown Indianapolis. After we toured the building that DPS will be a part of, I found that my mom’s side of the family has been in Irvington since the late 1800s. The feeling of a small town inside of a large city is a rare one, and I can’t help but feel that my ancestors are calling me back home to begin this exciting chapter of my life. I have no doubt my work will be influenced by my new surroundings as I learn more about my heritage.
AC: In the past seven years, I’ve moved five times to five different cities in four different states with three different time zones. Each month, I fly around the country to teach workshops, only to return home to prepare for the next class. I love this career and the life it’s made for me, but I’m so excited for a brick-and-mortar studio to call our own.
During my residency travels, each body of work has had a defined lifespan: when I move studios, that work ends, and a new project begins. There’s beauty in change, but at times I feel I haven’t provided ideas with enough time and energy to evolve into their final form. Anchoring in Indianapolis will allow me (and my ADHD) the mental fortitude to dig deeper within my own process. I am excited to embark on lengthier projects that I previously haven’t had the time for, such as public art installations and large-scale tile projects that have only been living in sketchbooks and daydreams.
Eds: Who do you hope finds their way to DPS?
SA and AC: We believe our society as a whole struggles with disconnection. Our goal is to introduce as many folks as we can to the healing qualities of clay, whether they are masters of the trade or trying for the first time. The three branches of Dusty Pants include a membership space with education programming, an artist-in-residency program, and a clay therapy department.
The ceramic scene in Indianapolis is growing quickly, at all levels. For our members, we’re excited to provide a studio with 24/7 access, state-of-the-art equipment, a large front-loading kiln, and support groups for encouraging and critiquing each other’s work. For our educational programs, we will be offering a variety of beginner-friendly classes to push the concept: you begin to learn when you let yourself fail. We also have advanced-level courses for those wanting to expand their ceramic skills from a hobby to a profession. Within the residency branch of our studio, we will partner with ceramic companies to financially support emerging artists with professional development opportunities, business education, and exhibition opportunities. And of course, you can expect karaoke nights, pop-up shops, an underground music venue, and everything in between. For our clay therapy branch, clients will focus on creating experiences with clay, rather than a course based on creating finished products.
We also have a multitude of future projects in collaboration with our clay therapy department, such as a mobile studio called “Dusty Wheels” to bring ceramic classes to nursing homes, local school programs, and dementia and PTSD patients. If you or your company are interested in supporting any of these programs, please reach out to dustypantsstudio@gmail.com or visit www.dustypantsstudio.com to connect with us!
Eds: Why did it feel important to have Dr. Halpen join your team? How does having a licensed clinician involved change the way you think about responsibility, care, and the function of clay in a community studio?
SA and AC: We are beyond excited to have Dr. Lexy Silva Halpen, PhD, BCBA-D, and her business, Behavior Buffet (behaviorbuffetllc.com), partner with DPS to provide the community with clay for therapeutic services! Dr. Halpen has earned two master’s degrees, a PhD, and has over fifteen years of experience in behavior analytics and clay. She empowers individuals with disabilities and trauma to live meaningful, value-driven lives through compassionate, creative, and evidence-based behavior analytic services. We are excited to learn more from Dr. Halpen, as well as hire licensed therapists, including art, mental health, social work, and more, to fulfill our clay therapy department. A common phrase we have heard throughout our years of teaching is, “This clay class really feels like therapy!” and Dr. Halpen is conducting revolutionary research studies to prove this. A major goal is to provide subsidized/sliding-scale class fees for those in need, because clay should be accessible to everyone. We are working toward creating a private space for one-on-one clay therapy sessions, and following the guidance of licensed clinicians for what settings are appropriate for these sessions (coming soon).
Eds: Who else will be joining the team to run and support DPS? How many people will be involved in your day-to-day operations?
SA and AC: We see DPS as our home, our community, and a safe place where our fellow Dusties can come on their best days or their worst. We welcome all who want to get dusty in our studio. We have plans to build a long-term team to help us achieve a highly functioning studio of this size. To support our members, students, clay therapy clients, and resident artists, Dusty Pants will have a diverse group of weekly class instructors, active and engaged studio technicians, and a full-time studio manager. We will bring in visiting artists from around the world to teach new and exciting techniques, and partner with local businesses to support the already existing and flourishing arts community in Indianapolis. We’ve recently partnered with a local creative team, Guide and Anchor, to help us take our branding up a level! The creative tasks behind opening a business are, by far, our favorite parts. Interior design has always been a passion of Sarah’s, and with an architect as a father, Austin’s creative influence has a deep root in design.
Eds: What has surprised you most, so far, about building something together—artistically, personally, or communally?
SA and AC: We are continually blown away by our community’s excitement for our space, and we haven’t even opened yet! There is an exciting project we’ve been working on behind the scenes: We’ve invited over 90 ceramic artists to collaborate on a pair of clay pants. These will be displayed in a permanent installation at Dusty Pants Studio as a tribute to our friends in the clay community, and roughly thirty of these will make their debut during the 2026 NCECA in Detroit.
We wouldn’t be here without all of our friends, colleagues, supporters, teachers, students, and the overall creative community cheering us on.
If you’d like to learn more about Dusty Pants Studio, join our mailing list, or get connected with us, please visit www.dustypantsstudio.com and follow @dustypantsstudio on Instagram for updated progress and studio projects as we begin our countdown to open our doors!
March 2026: Table of Contents
Must-Reads from Ceramics Monthly
Unfamiliar with any terms in this article? Browse our glossary of pottery terms!
Click the cover image to return to the Table of Contents