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.

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.