MEET THE POTTER SERIES

PAIGE VALENTINE

What is your Name (and Pronouns)? My name is Paige Valentine, she/her.

What is your everyday occupation? I’m the Lead Studio Technician at TPS.

When did you begin working with clay? And what was the first memorable piece you made? I remember my first clay class was in high school at an after school program at The Armory in Pasadena. It was a wheel throwing class that included hand building. The first piece that really comes to mind is a toilet pipe that I ended up gifting to my grandmother. It felt hilarious hiking to a secluded smoke spot to smoke out of a toilet pipe with my friends.

CHANDRA NUMM

What is your name? I’m Chandra Numm- I’m an artist, a mother, and an avid traveler.

How long have you been a member at The Potter’s Studio? I joined the studio back in the 1980s, when it was still located on San Pablo Avenue. I still remember that wonderful feeling—gaining the freedom to throw late into the night, lock up, and head home to sleep.

DYLAN ALVARADO

What is your name and pronouns? Dylan Alvarado; He/They

How long have you been a Member of The Potters’ Studio? A little over a year now.

What is your everyday occupation? I am the Studio Coordinator at The Potters’ Studio.

MATT FISHMAN

What is your name? Matt Fishman

How long have you been a Member at The Potters’ Studio? I've been a Member for about ten years now.

What is your everyday occupation? Pottery is my everyday occupation and has been for the past 6 years or so. I make and sell pots to restaurants, retail shops, online and in-person sales. I also teach at TPS.

GIL GRIMMETT

What is your name? Gil Grimmett

How long have you been a Member of The Potters’ Studio? I’ve been at the Potter’s Studio since December 2019.

What is your everyday occupation? I’m the COLAB teacher at Prospect Sierra. COLAB is short for Constructivist Learning Laboratory (A term coined by Seymour Papert, a mathematician, computer scientist and educator). The COLAB is a space where children learn to problem solve with their hands and minds while learning to use and explore the possibilities of creation with a wide variety of tools and materials. They construct objects out of clay, wood, cardboard among other things. In addition, they learn basic engineering, coding, and robotics concepts blended with art and social justice.

JEN KUROKI

What is your name? Jen Kuroki

How long have you been a member at The Potters Studio? Since early 2022

What is your everyday occupation? Previously, I was a graphic designer and an art director mostly for magazines, and then transitioned to marketing for different national and global brands as well as in academia, creating materials for universities. Today, I spend most of my time with ceramics but work part-time doing design/marketing for a women’s center in Los Angeles.

SIEGFRIED OYALES

What is your name? Siegfried Oyales.

What is your daily occupation? I am a tech at The Potters’ Studio

How would you describe your work? I like making pottery for everyday use, everything tastes better on ceramics. Especially ice cream. I describe the way I make my stuff, as confidently clumsy! I can be a bit irreverent when I’m making work. In my class, there are a lot of bloopers. Things fly off the wheel, fall apart, get torn, and I try my best to recover from it—with finesse. And my success rate is pretty high! I am by no means a master at ceramics, nor do I pretend that I can DO everything without mistakes. But I am confident enough in my skills to make what I plan to or recover from the mistakes. Confidently clumsy, clumsily confident. Both work :)

CHARLES GALATIS

What is your name? Charles Galatis.

What is your everyday occupation? I own a textile business named Mimbresco. We mainly focus on producing fashion accessories like scarves and shawls made from heirloom fabrics, which are hand-woven and dyed by award-winning weaver dyers in India. My pieces are carried at the SF MOMA, Asian Art Museum, Japanese garden in South Bay, and a few museums in Los Angeles. I also occasionally do textile consulting work for companies like Disney, where I helped produce heirloom fabrics for their live-action period film, Mulan.

SALLY JO DINWOODIE

Hello there! I’m… Sally Jo Dinwoodie

What’s your everyday occupation? I own and run (with my oldest son) a landscape services company.

How did your everyday occupation and being a mom influence or inspire your ceramic work? The natural world inspires me — the forms, colors, combinations, how it evolves continuously. Perhaps the most important influence being a mother of three gave me in terms of my ceramic work is a strong measure of patience, the ability to allow "things" to grow and develop naturally and, with that, strength.

TAKA UNNO

Hello there! I’m... Taka Unno

My everyday occupation is ... an audio and hearing research engineer. I’ve worked on innovative hearing device projects at a few start-ups and a big tech. It’s fascinating and rewarding to improve our hearing experience.

How did your everyday occupation influence or inspire you in ceramic work ... I’m not sure about inspiration, but my “left-brain”-centric occupation makes me crave for using my “right-brain” in pottery.

SCOTT WEXELBERG

Hello there! I’m... Scott Wexelberg.

My everyday occupation is... I’m a DAD, a Husband, and an Artist. I was a Builder for 42 years.

How did your everyday occupation influence or inspire you in ceramic work... Most of my career, I was a hands-on craftsman (My motto was,“Head, Heart, Hands!“). Working as a manager for ten years, I discovered I was better at handling detail than most traditionally trained people, thanks to my art background. Consequently, I was able to appreciate and make important the smallest detail in my building work.

Today, I take my time in forming the feet of my large plates and bowls.

JENNIFER JOH

Hello there! I’m.. Jennifer or Junghye Joh

My everyday occupation is.. I’m an artist, a grandmother, a mother, and a wife.

I’ve been doing pottery since.. At the University in Seoul, Korea (where I received a BA in fine arts) was my first experience working in clay- However, I was not exclusively a ceramic artist; it was among many traditional fine art techniques taught as part of the curriculum back in 70’s. I actually started focusing on ceramic work after I came to live in America…

LYRA DELA ROSA DIETRICH

Hello there! I’m.. Lyra Dela Rosa Dietrich

My everyday occupation is.. I run a small beverage catering company. We provide bar service for all types of events across the Bay Area. Corporate happy hours, weddings or festivals. I have been in food and bev my whole life and am very proud of my small but mighty work family. 

I’ve been doing pottery since.. 2017. I took my first class at Laney Community College in Oakland. I learned to throw pots on a kick wheel and took advantage of as much studio time as possible. Anna Vaughan & Leah Pollock were my first teachers & both encouraged me to get on the TPS waitlist. It was long back then – I think I waited a little over a year…

RABI CHANDRA PRAJAPATI

Hello there! I’m.. Rabi Chandra Prajapati.

My everyday occupation is.. A pugmill operator at The Potters’ Studio, and also part-time staff at the local favorite Monterey Produce Market.

I’ve been doing pottery since.. I was able to play with clay as a little child. I was born into a potters community in Bhaktapur, Nepal (Pottery square)- whose main occupation is producing pottery. In our Nepalese culture and Hindu mythology, birds and animals are especially associated with different gods and goddesses, and this heavily influenced me while I was growing up working with clay. This is the reason you often see the variety of animal sculptures in my ceramic work…

BOB JOHNSON

Bob Johnson is a living national treasure and if you don’t know him or have not taken a class from him, treat yourself and learn as much as you can from this master potter.  I had the privilege to chat with Bob one beautiful June afternoon.  Bob was not only generous with his time, but he graciously shared his clay journey with me and his history with TPS…