Lorna Meaden - New Mentor, 2027

Durango, Co. USA. Lorna Meaden is a highly celebrated American studio potter and ceramic educator widely recognized for her intricate, functional soda-fired porcelain ware. Based out of her home studio in Durango, Colorado, Meaden balances practical usability with a lavish, highly ornamented aesthetic. Her work bridges the gap between everyday ritual and historical luxury.

Rhonda Willers - Mentor since 2026

Elk Mound, WI. USA. Rhonda Willers is an American multidisciplinary studio artist, author, researcher, and educator celebrated for her expertise in ancient surface techniques and quiet, meditative installations. Based in rural Elk Mound, Wisconsin, her practice blends functional ceramic vessels, handbuilt earthenware, facial tissues, soundscapes, and social practice to explore human memory, fragility, and communal connection

Jennifer Wells - Mentor since 2025

Certaldo, Italy. Jennifer Wells is a highly accomplished American contemporary jewelry artist, metalsmith, and educator celebrated for her masterful combination of fine metalwork and intricate enameling. Originally from the United States, she operates her permanent gallery and workspace out of her custom studio in the historic town of Certaldo in Tuscany, Italy.

Carly Slade - Mentor Since 2026

Halifax, NS. USA. Carly Slade is a widely recognized young Canadian ceramic artist, spatial sculptor, and educator widely known for her miniature, highly realistic architectural dioramas that explore working-class identity and the built environment. Growing up in "Big Sky" Alberta, Canada, and spending her early life working in trades like concrete and carpentry, she builds complex structures that serve as monuments to the physical labor of everyday people.

Jai Sallay-Carrington - New Mentor for 2027

Vancouver, BC. Canada. is an acclaimed Canadian transgender and non-binary sculptural ceramic artist who uses anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms to explore human identities, behaviors, and emotions. Based out of their local studio, Flaming Otter Ceramics in Vancouver, British Columbia, their art actively challenges cis-normative and heteronormative societal structures by celebrating queer and trans experiences

Sarah Pike - Mentor since 2026

Sarah Pike Fernie, BC, Canada, is an acclaimed Canadian studio potter, ceramic educator, and entrepreneur celebrated globally for her distinctive, highly textured, functional slab-built porcelain and stoneware. Sarah’s work beautifully balances rugged outdoor inspirations with intricate, vintage surface geometry.

Lisa Orr - Mentor Since 2022

Northborough, MA, USA. Lisa Orr is a professional potter and has been a student of ceramics for more than 40 years. After completing her MFA in 1992 at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, she received a Fulbright and an MAAA/NEA grant to continue her studies. Her work is shown in numerous public and private collections including the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, and the permanent collection of WOCEF in Korea. A full-time studio potter, she also teaches, lectures, and shows nationally and internationally.

Barbara Minor - Mentor since 2026

Baton Rouge, LA. USA. Barbara Minor is an internationally recognized enamel jewelry artist, her workshops, lectures and demonstrations include a variety of subjects related to jewelry and enameling on metal, metal forming, and design/pattern development using enamel color.  Barbara teaches frequently at well-known crafts schools, universities, and regional guilds.  Her work is exhibited widely across the U.S. and abroad and has been pictured in 500 EnameledObjects, The Art of Enameling, and Art Jewelry Today.

Barbara Minor has been making and selling her enameled jewelry at national juried craft shows and galleries for 30+ years.  She is well recognized for her innovative enameled beads and her distinctive jewelry.  Her expressive brooches and enamel beads are have been widely collected for over 25 years.

Liz Lurie - Mentor since 2022. Contiunuum Coordindator.

Cazenovia, New York, USA.. Liz Lurie is an accomplished American studio potter and educator known for her wheel-thrown, wood-fired stoneware and porcelain functional ceramics. With over two decades of full-time studio practice, her work emphasizes subtle variations in form, tactile textures, and the unique irregularities produced by wood-firing kilns. Liz is currently in an artistic process shift to soda firing.

Ruth Li - New Mentor in 2027

Sydney, Australia. Ruth Ju-shih Li (李如詩) is a prominent contemporary Taiwanese-Australian ceramic and installation artist known globally for her highly intricate, site-specific ephemeral sculptures made from raw clay, porcelain, and wax. Dividing her time between studios in Sydney, Taipei, and the historic porcelain city of Jingdezhen, China, her work explores deep themes of impermanence, renewal, memory, and spiritual heritage.

Simon Levin - Mentor and Program Founder 2021

Pawne, IL. USA. Simon Levin is an internationally acclaimed American studio potter, kiln builder, and non-traditional educator widely recognized as a master of atmospheric wood firing. Formerly based in Wisconsin for nearly two decades, he operates his permanent studio and teaching facility, Mill Creek Pottery, out of Pawnee, Illinois. His practice explores the primal human connection with earth and fire, trading traditional commercial glazes for the natural, flame-painted finishes of wood ash.

Justin LaRose - New Mentor for 2027

Long Beach, CA. USA. Justin is an American artisan woodworker and woodturner based out of Long Beach, California, widely recognized for his innovative craftwork utilizing recycled and laminated skateboard decks. While your previous searches focused on ceramicists, LaRose's medium is strictly maple skateboard wood, which he repurposes into high-end, colorful, functional design pieces

Sam Harvey - Mentor Since 2025

Aspen, CO. USA. Sam Harvey is a highly acclaimed American ceramic artist, curator, and gallery director based in Aspen, Colorado, widely recognized for his textured, hand-built vessels and his leadership in the contemporary craft community. He received the prestigious United States Artists (USA) Fellowship Award in 2019.

Kenyon Hansen -Mentor Since 2025

Dollar Bay, MI. USA. Kenyon Hansen is a highly regarded American studio potter and educator based in Dollar Bay, Michigan, known for his soda-fired porcelain and stoneware functional vessels. His work, which relies heavily on textured surfaces and organic patterns, earned him recognition as an Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly in 2013.

Martha Grover - Mentor since 2026

Bethel, Maine, USA. Martha is a functional potter creating thrown and altered porcelain pieces. She attended Bennington College in Vermont, where she received her undergraduate degree in Architecture. After going to Syracuse University in New York as a fifth year student in Ceramics, she decided to pursue a graduate degree in clay. In 2007, Martha received her MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Since then she was awarded the Fogelberg Fellowship for a residency at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Sage Scholarship for a summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. Martha completed a year long residency at Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana in August 2009. She received the Taunt Fellowship at the Archie Bray Foundation in 2010. Her work can be found at the Red Lodge Clay Center, the Archie Bray Foundation, the Clay Studio of Missoula, Schaller Gallery, 18 Hands Gallery, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Charlie Cummings Gallery, and Cedar Creek Gallery. Her work has been published in Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Clay Times, 500 Pitchers, 500 Platters and Chargers, and 500 Vases. Martha's work was featured on the cover of Ceramic Monthly’s May 2010 issue.

Adam Field - Mentor since 2026

Helena, MT. USA. Born and raised in Colorado, Adam earned his BA in art from Fort Lewis College. For two years, he immersed himself in the culturally rich art scene  of the San Francisco Bay Area, where he began his full time studio practice. From there, he relocated to Maui, where he established a thriving studio business.  Following new inspirations, Adam studied traditional Korean pottery techniques in 2008 at Ohbuja Onggi in Ipo-ri, Gyeong-Gi Do, operated by the Korean National Cultural Treasure Kim Il-Maan and his family. For seven generations, the Kim family has been following the Onggi tradition with little to no assistance from modern machinery.  During his 10 month apprenticeship he learned all steps of the tradition, from hand-processing raw clay to final delivery of wares. Once he moved back to the states, he created and premiered HIDE-N-SEEKAH at the 2013 NCECA conference in Houston, TX. After maintaining his studio in Durango, CO for 5 years, Adam moved to Helena, MT in 2013 where he was a long-term resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts. Adam is now a full time studio potter in Helena. His Works are included in private collections and kitchen cabinets internationally.

Isabella Fazzo, Mentor since 2025

Florence, Italy. Isabella is an Italian master ceramic artist, painter, and educator renowned for her multi-disciplinary work that bridges functional pottery, abstract sculpture, and performance art. Based in Florence, Italy, she has spent over 30 years exploring the structural and narrative potential of clay while maintaining a prominent international teaching career

Judah Birkeland - New Mentor 2027

Linwood, MN. USA. Judah Birkeland is a highly skilled American ceramic artist, studio potter, and professional kiln builder based in Minnesota. He is widely recognized across the ceramics community for his expertise in designing and constructing highly efficient atmospheric, gas, soda, and wood-fired kilns for prominent art institutions and studio potters

Carole Epp - Mentor since 2025

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Carole Epp received her Masters Degree in Ceramics from the Australian National University in 2005 and has maintained a full-time studio practice since.

Her work has been exhibited throughout Canada, Australia, Scotland and the United States. She has taught workshops in Canada, the United States and Australia on ceramics, the integration of AI in craft based creative inquiry, social media and professional practice.

Her artwork and writing have also been published in magazine publications, websites and books; most notably in 2017 in Ceramics Monthly when she was named the Ceramic Artist of the Year.

A fierce advocate for the ceramics community, she was the editor of Musing About Mud an online blog for over 15 years. She is the co-founder of Make and Do ceramics: a Canadian collective focused on the promotion of Canadian ceramics internationally. In 2020, she co-authored The Encyclopedia of Inspiration: Ceramics (Profiles of Potters and Artisans) through Uppercase publishing.  With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts she curated a major exhibition for the Ceramics Congress (May 2021) showcasing ceramics from across Canada to an international audience.