Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I talk with Lynn Duryea. Her minimalist sculptures are made from bent clay slabs, and are surfaced with layers of sprayed glaze giving them the appearance of aged metal. In our interview we talk about how the seaside architecture of her childhood hometown influences her ceramics, her role as a founding trustee of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and the workshop for people living with HIV/Aids that she facilitated for thirteen years.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I talk with director Katia McGuirk and curator Vance Koehler about the Moravian Tile Works. The institution has gone through many iterations in its long history, which started in the late 19th century with Henry Chapman Mercer, and is now home to a living history museum and working tile studio. In our interview we talk about Mercer’s aesthetics and legacy as a tile maker, the history of earthenware production in the region, and the recent revival of the facility under the not-for-profit Tile Works of Bucks County.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I talk with Sanam Emami. Her ceramic vessels are decorated with lush repeating patterns layered over brushed slips. In our interview we talk about the history of tulips, the influence of architecture, and how she plays with revealing and concealing in her surface design.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I talk with NYC based ceramic artist Dustin Yager. Through his Ceramics and Theory brand Dustin Yager creates porcelain pottery decorated with humorous compositions of text and decals over gestural underglaze painting. In our interview we talk about his tongue in cheek approach to ceramics, the genesis of his sculptural work, and finding community in NYC.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have the fourth installment in a series of interviews about parenting. For the series I invited artist couples to talk with each other about finding balance between creative work and life as a parent. Today’s interview features Lindsay Oesterritter and Jason Vulcan. The couple are based in Manassas, VA, where Lindsay is a studio potter and Jason is a government contractor.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have the third installment in a series of interviews about parenting. For the series I invited artist couples to talk with each other about finding balance between creative work and life as a parent. Today’s interview features Brian Jones and Melissa Weimer. The couple are based in Connecticut, where Brian is a studio potter and Melissa is a physician specializing in addiction medicine.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have the second installment in a series of interviews about parenting. For the series I invited artist couples to talk with each other about finding balance between creative work and life as a parent. Today’s interview features Sara Truman and Naomi Mostkoff. The couple are based in Gainesville, FL where Sara runs Studio TM Ceramics and Naomi is a Nurse Practitioner in Endocrinology.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have the first in a series of interviews about parenting. For the series I invited artist couples to talk with each other about finding balance between creative work and life as a parent. Today’s interview features Jen Allen and Shoji Satake. The couple are based in Morgantown, WV where they are studio artists and teachers at West Virginia University.

On today’s Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast, I have a tribute for Bill Daley who recently passed. Throughout his seventy-year career he created large scale terra cotta works that expanded the boundaries of the contemporary vessel. A noted educator, Daley spent over forty years teaching in higher education and has received numerous awards of distinction from the College Art Association, American Craft Council, the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. In the interview we talk about his triumvirate of creativity, the true nature of intuition and looking forward at ninety. This interview was recorded in 2015 in Philadelphia, PA.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Simon Levin, David Roswell, and Polina Miller. Levin created the Clay Cohorts program in 2021 to provide artists a place for mentorship, education, and community. The program blends online learning with in-person workshops to help students stay motivated in their own creative practice. In our interview we talk about David and Polina’s experience in the program and how it is shifting as Simon welcome two new instructors to this year’s cohort.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have a listener mailbag for our 400th episode. My wife Melissa joins me as a guest host to talk about the resilient nature of artists and the big changes that are coming in our family. Thanks to everyone who has been listening to the show and who has helped make this podcast a community.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Donte K. Hayes. After focusing on printmaking early in his career, Donte moved into ceramics in 2015 and continues to make sculptural ceramics that incorporate sci-fi, social issues, and the material culture of the African Diaspora. In our interview we talk about transitioning from the figure to abstraction, how objects can initiate the viewer into a new mindset, and his recent collaborative mural project “Oracles of Iowa City.” Along with Antoine Williams he designed two large-scale murals that cover the façade of a parking garage in downtown Iowa City.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Gay Smith. Her thrown and altered porcelain vessels range from everyday wares to elaborate candelabras and multipart stacked forms. In our interview we talk about articulating silhouettes through faceting, once firing porcelain in a soda kiln, and what she learned from being a community potter in an organized commune early in her career.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with John Britt. A noted glaze chemist and author, Britt has been making ceramics for over thirty-five years. In our interview we talk about problem solving in the glaze lab and balancing a career between making, teaching, and writing. His books on high-fire and mid-range glazes are best sellers, offering students an accessible way to study chemistry.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Susan Feagin. Her hand-built work is made from slabs of clay that are decorated with slip transfer, sgraffito, and other patterning methods. In our interview we talk about how she utilizes collage methods in clay, developing structure within active surface designs, and her job as clay coordinator at the Penland School of Craft.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Greg Payce. He often creates images that reference the human figure by shaping the negative space between his ceramic vessels. In our interview we talk about the remediation of objects into images, techniques for throwing large precise vessels, and how lighting can accentuate the illusions in his work.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Walter Ostrom. A retrospective book has recently been published filled with essays from colleagues and images of his work dating back to the 1960’s. In our interview we talk about his early project-based work, the questions that motivated his decades long studio practice, and his love for cross breading Rhododendron. Good Earth: The Pots and Passion of Walter Ostrom is available now from your favorite book seller.

Athens, GA area potter Carter Gillies passed away a few weeks ago. After discovering his blog in the early 2010’s I started to think of him as our potter philosopher. He wrote about both the everyday and extraordinary aspects of an artist's life leaving nuggets of wisdom for his readers. This episode is a re-airing of our 2014 interview where we talk about Carter's background in philosophy, the five stages of learning, and how selling online changes the way artists take risks in their studio.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Katrina Chaytor and Greg Payce. We recorded this live in front of an online studio audience as a part of the May 2021 Ceramic Congress. In our interview we talk about their long careers as educators, including teaching at what was then called the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary.

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Seth Green. The clean lines and expanding silhouettes of his functional pots show a love for metal working and architecture. In our interview we talk about how a breakthrough moment in Chile lead to a new body of work, developing metallic manganese glazes, and how his level of articulation changes depending on how the pot will be fired. In the second half of the episode Justin Rothshank joins Seth and me to talk about the Indiana Clay Conference.