From the Editor: Working Together Katie Reaver

Appears in the March 2025 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Certain elements of the ceramic process lend themselves to community—splitting shifts to stoke a wood kiln, utilizing big-ticket equipment in a shared studio that would be out of reach for an individual artist, forging lasting connections with a cohort of peers, participating in market events to interface with audiences, connecting with other artists over a common specialty interest. Other facets are less immediate in their connectivity, but no less influential—mentorship, information gleaned from experts in other fields, implementation of non-traditional techniques or materials. The artists and groups shared in this issue demonstrate the benefits of taking a collaborative and collective approach to clay. 

East Creek Art is a wood-firing retreat in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range that boasts a 40-foot anagama, which countless potters have fired since its construction in 1985. Stephanie Arnold outlines its rich history plus the path forged by its second owner, Joe Robinson. 

Mandy Kolahi answers our questions about POT, a community ceramics studio in Los Angeles established in 2017 by and for people of color, which has since expanded to a second location. Their mission-driven programming includes classes, markets, fundraising events, and community days. 

Eureka Pots is the shared studio of Donovan Palmquist and Colleen Riley (featured on the cover). The two potters grant us a view into their backgrounds, practices, and workspace. They cite the importance of establishing connections with their communities, locally and in the ceramics field as a whole, for personal artistic growth as well as for the purpose of showing and selling pots. 

Materials commonly seen in the clay studio like alumina, kaolin, and bentonite, to name a few, are mined from the earth and processed before arriving neatly packaged for use in clay and glaze recipes. But what else should we know? The Ceramic Materials Atlas, as described by Rose Schreiber, catalogs and contemplates such materials serving as a resource for learning more about the social and environmental factors intertwined with our medium of choice. 

Collaboration is central to Future Retrieval, the artistic partnership of Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis. Not only do they work together, but their ceramic and mixed-media installations also activate museum objects and archives by referencing and recontextualizing their historic decorative collections. 

After graduate school, Michael Hurley spent ten years as an artist assistant at Jun Kaneko Studio. In this issue’s Spotlight, Hurley reflects on this experience and the resources formerly available to him due to the large scale of Kaneko’s work and workspace. 

Additionally, Liz Mazurek shares her approach to constructing and glazing altered vessels for maximum visual movement. Tim Saunders presents the multi-process work of Leora Honeyman. Learn to pack like a pro with Jonathan Kaplan’s Tips and Tools on shipping ceramics. 

You’ll notice that feature articles now end with a link to ceramicsmonthly.org. There, you can listen to Ceramics Monthly’s Audio Articles. With each new issue, the staff presents feature articles in audio format as another way to enjoy these discussions. I do hope you try out listening in the studio or on a walk and find it to be an engaging means of catching up on the magazine. 

Finally, if you’re attending the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference in Salt Lake City, stop by the Ceramic Arts Network booth to say hello and chat with me and the editorial team. See you there!