Owner, Teacher (she/her)

Elani is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores tenderness, queerness, playfulness and vulnerability. Her art background originated in painting and drawing, which she brings into her ceramic work with expressive and dynamic surface design.

Working in both wheel throwing and hand building, she initially found herself drawn to ceramics because of the grounding experience of touching clay. As a teacher, her goal is to create a space for students to try new things without judgement.

Work: @onesmallhorse

Teacher (they/she)

Chai is a local East Bay ceramic artist with a background in numerous crafts and influenced by their studies in social sciences. They grew a knack for clay during the pandemic and got quickly swept away into the ceramic medium and its nuances. This year they transitioned out of the community studio into a personal studio to further their practice.

Chai’s love of fantasy and magic, the wildlife of the Pacific Coast, and other collected interests influence the visual aspects of their work. And as ceramic work is transformed through the kiln firing, Chai reflects on how their life has similarly been transformed after falling in love with clay.

Work: @chaideestudio

Teacher (she/her) 

Through the alteration of wheel-thrown forms, hand built sculptures, glaze experimentation, and surface design, Celeste explores the emotional landscape of living in a world marked by uncertainty, contradiction, and quiet beauty.

Celeste’s process is intuitive and experimental, allowing space for both control and unpredictability, much like the world we inhabit.

With a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and Fine Arts from San Francisco State University, her practice is rooted in a desire to prompt introspection and emotional connection. Celeste is passionate about sharing her knowledge and creative process. She looks forward to fostering connection through community engagement, teaching, and collaborative exploration.

Work: @celeste__garcia 

Teacher (they/them)

Salix Staley is a ceramicist and multi-media artist currently living and working in the unceded territory of the Chochenyo-Ohlone, otherwise known as Oakland, CA. They primarily handbuild and incorporate throwing, mold making and other mediums such as metals and glass to make functional and sculptural pieces for ritual use. Their pieces are made to be interacted with, and have held various things - ashes, essences, hormones and meds, flowers, questions, prayers, intentions, and offerings - in an ongoing attempt to process grief and retain a material connection to spirit amidst a post-capitalist landscape of hollowed meaning and forgotten gods. Another aspect of their practice includes building altars for events put on by Bay Area sound system collective Envelope, where their work is often set up for collective use. 

Teacher (she/her)

Sophia is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in clay, and film photography.

The ceramics she makes focus on functionality and form. Her aesthetic inspiration in ceramics is tied to her mestiza ancestry, emphasizing darker clay bodies.

As a teacher, she tries to create a warm and playful space within which to explore the ancient medium of clay. She also hopes to promote an openness to process and a relinquishing of perfection.

Teacher (they/them)

Millicent is an interdisciplinary artist based in San Francisco, with a focus in ceramics and sculpture. They're inspired by Filipino mythologies, storytelling, and the human experience. They work primarily in ceramics to hand build figures of humans and animals, as an exploration of being Filipinx and American. Their work centers bodies of color, gender non-conforming bodies, and queerness, as something that is explored as the endurer/observer. They look to their own body, of stories, and sacred animals to represent communities that feel hybrid of human and other-wordly creatures. Millicent also works in sculpture and performance to story tell their ideas as a two or three-dimensional world. 

In ceramics, they want to teach others how to utilize hand building, personal narratives, and storytelling.

Teacher (she/her)

Jennifer Cuaro is a cross-disciplinary artist with a background in materials science. Her work explores structure, texture, and transformation via curiosity about the physical properties of clay and an appreciation of her cultural heritage.

As an instructor, she fosters an inclusive, engaged, and supportive learning environment. She encourages exploration and process-based learning, helping students build strong foundational skills while also supporting creative risk taking. She lives in the East Bay and teaches handbuilding and wheel throwing at multiple studios in the area.