Rat City Studios is thriving. Looking back last year, it is the last thing I expected to be able to say. I’m grateful for the crew at the studio, that pulled together through the challenges we faced. Brooke and Anika’s artwork has grown immensely and so have their artist statements. They were recipients of the Studio Potter Grants for Apprenticeships 2021!

We have several new additions! Jess is an incoming assistant who has been settling in for a month now. And Hayley (past assistant) is back as our Marketing Assistant. Finn & Sean are new support crew who are also Independent Study Participants. I hope you will take a moment to further investigate each individual through their website or social media.

The studio is growing! Read on below for more information about our new sister-studio, Rain City Clay.

Brooke Felix

Website: https://www.felixceramics.com/
Instagram: @felix.ceramics

I just finished up my first year as an assistant at Rat City Studios. Covid had shut down my ceramics classes at Green River College and I sought a new avenue for my path in clay. It has been wonderful to make friendships with the other assistants and develop my pottery.

This has been a special year for me, as I have dedicated a large amount of time to getting in touch with my heritage, my family and I meet through zoom every Thursday evening to learn the Hopi language as well as the history and culture. Through these teachings I’m finding more inspiration and direction in my work.

In the last year, I have been working with a clay body from Clay Art Center called Naranja, which is a beautiful burnt orange stoneware clay body. To emphasize the earth tone color I develop my designs around the color of the clay body. I have honed in on a glaze palette that utilizes shiny black and matte black glazes that contrasts strongly with the clay body. In my rain design, I brush on glaze to develop a motif, the raw clay body represents an homage to my Hopi heritage that relates to leaving the raw clay body exposed. In relation to my evolve mug, I utilize the raw clay body to represent brick texture and color to emphasize my graffiti motif.

Now that business are able to be open, I have been teaching Independent Lessons and Sip N Spins at Rat City Studios. Teaching has helped me gain confidence, learn to keep an audience engaged, and improved my communication skills. Introducing a clay or new hobby to others and seeing their excitement reminds me why I started and motivates me to continue my personal practice in ceramics.

Anika Major

Website: https://www.anikamajor.com/
Instagram: @anikajmajor

I’ve been at the studio for three years now, going on to my fourth! I am moving on from being a studio assistant to being an employee. It is exciting to be part of helping the studio grow as we expand into a second location - Rain City Clay!

I can really feel the change in my practice over the last year especially, and I feel that I’m finally digging into my practice in the best way possible. I’ve spent the last couple of years dancing between form and surface. Now I’m working to polish my work with further intention when developing and making my forms. Consistency in sizing and shape has been easier with the help of templates, and I have developed underglaze transfers to move my work more efficiently through my arduous decorating stages. It has been amazing to see my work completely transform with newfound freedom and the ability to layer my surfaces with ease.

I’m moving forward this year with a focus on larger forms and creating functional serving sets, as well as creating a unified narrative between objects within a set! I have also had a lot of success teaching both online and in-person at various studios in the area. I keep my website up to date with small-batch releases of my new work, and I’m working on a big batch of work for the West Side Artists Studio Tour happening this September!

Jess Lee

Website: https://jessleepottery.com/
Instagram: @jessleepottery

In July 2021, I made the rewarding decision to pack my car with my pottery wheel, leave Richmond, VA, and drive across the country to start an apprenticeship with Deb at RCS! I started ceramics as a self-care hobby while in graduate school for social work, and eventually realized it's my calling.

This year I'm focusing on adding more details to my pieces. My inspiration for my work comes from spending time hiking and backpacking in the mountains. I try to encapsulate how different textures on the trails play together in my pieces. I love the contrast between the glossiness of the glazes I use and the roughness of the clay body.

It's an exciting time to start here while Rain City Clay is building. I'm looking forward to becoming more integrated into Seattle's ceramics community and watching the studio grow with its surroundings.

Pictured here is a photo from my hike to Tolmie Peak (second hike in Washington!), and a mug of mine with the style I am exploring.

Finn Faydell Park

Website: Link Tree
Instagram: @rayofsunart

After living on the East Coast all my life, I moved to Seattle in late June of 2021 and was ecstatic to join Deb's team a couple of months later. My love for ceramics started in my university's Introduction to Ceramics course, a random choice my freshman year, and since then I just can't get enough. I'm a functional potter through and through, focusing mostly on wheel thrown vessels with a side passion for mold making and slip casting. I often explore themes of nature, taking textural and visual inspiration from the plant and animal life all around us.

When I'm not losing all sense of time in the studio, I can be found cooking, hiking, playing sudoku, or video games with my partner, and spending time with our cats, rats, and chameleon.

Sean Tessandori

Website: https://aquose92.wixsite.com/mysite
Instagram: @throwingcircles

I was introduced to ceramics during high school; I then earned an AA in Art at Diablo Valley College and a BA in Studio Art with a focus on ceramics from Humboldt State University in 2017. I moved to the Seattle area in 2020 and I have loved experiencing the beautiful landscapes and meeting such wonderful people. I have been making pottery at Rat City since February as an Independent Study Participant and I am thrilled to be helping out in the studio.

I am very excited to continue to grow and learn with everyone in the studio. Over the next few months, I will help to clean and maintain the studio giving Deb and the assistants more time to work on their own ceramics, coordinate show, and teach lessons. I look forward to meeting more artists and art enthusiasts during my time at Rat City Studios.

Hayley Reed

Website: https://www.hayleybellareed.com/
Instagram: @polygonpots

This past year has been a rollercoaster, to put it mildly. I am continually navigating twists and turns and trying to find new ways to stabilize myself to weather the disorienting array of ups and downs that comes with living through a traumatic pandemic and within a turbulent political climate. However, this year has also not been without moments of immense joy and contentment. I am so grateful and happy to be back working with Rat City Studios. Deb and the crew continue to ground me, support my growth, and offer new perspectives to my work, working with clay, and life in general. I am so excited to continue growing with RCS, the crew, independent study members, and students as the studio grows and expands with Rain City Clay. 

Working with clay has always been something that felt grounding and meditative to me, it was one of the qualities that made me fall in love with it in the first place. This past year I have been enjoying spending lots of time in my studio exploring new ways of making, playing around with techniques, shapes, and forms, and creating with less expectation and pressure. I have mainly been working with bisque molds, wheel throwing, and hand-building, but I continue to incorporate digital fabrication methods into my work as well. I have been designing and 3D printing forms to create bisque molds, and printing small shapes to create sprig molds. Texture, shape, and color have become an important part of my pots. As I grow into myself I also feel my work flourishing alongside me. 

I am excited to have a lot of new work to show this October! I will have pots at Good Earth Pottery for a show featuring work by the Rat City Studios crew, and there will be a plethora of cups at Dubsea Coffee for the annual RCS Community Cup Exhibition. I will also have pots at Click! Design that Fits (a small design shop in the West Seattle Junction) as a part of their annual employee showcase. 

Launching Rain City Clay

After 8 years of building a thriving community at Rat City Studios, one that supports ceramic artists of all levels, we are at capacity and cannot accommodate the waitlist for independent study participants or classes in our current location. What an amazing dream come true! Fortunately, I have been given the opportunity to expand into a sister studio in West Seattle and I am asking for your support to launch our expansion! Visit my GoFundMe Page.

By funding the launch of Rain City Clay you are participating in fostering a long-term arts community that will offer experiences that bring people together and cultivate creativity. Follow Rain City on Instagram @rain.city.clay