OUR INSTRUCTORS
Hickory Clay takes pride in bringing highly skilled instructors with decades of experience to our students. Each brings their own creativity and artistry to the craft.
DANIEL KARVASALES
Daniel brings over 25 years of throwing technique to the studio. He has mastery of throwing techniques, and excels at creating precise and visually balanced vases. His work has a delicacy, precision, and pristine quality to it.
He teaches our intermediate throwing, advanced vase making, and off the hump workshops. Daniel is a co-owner of the studio. He designs most of Hickory Clay’s glazes and has a passion for subtle, matte glazes.
Daniel’s Instagram
ASHLEY HINTON
Ashley is trained as an architect and studio artist. She is known for her minimalist, small necked vases. She also has a passion for bright colors, crawl glazes, and sourcing wild clay, and she uses that knowledge to teach our glaze design classes.
She teaches with hands on examples and finds her teaching work tables covered in dozens of test tiles and examples. Ashley is a co-owner of the studio and available for private lessons.
KEISHA
“Quiche” is the nickname I use when I am speaking to myself with kindness, something I’ve always struggled to do. Quiche Ceramics is an expression of values that I’ve worked hard to cultivate: growth, connection, and curiosity. I hope when you slow down, pour yourself a cup of coffee, water a plant, or sit down to a homemade meal, you experience them as small expressions of kindness to yourself.
CATHY NILAND
Cathy’s wheel-thrown ceramics are focused on function and finish. She sees each utilitarian piece she makes as a canvas to explore repetitive themes through carving and pattern work. Many pieces have a tactile quality that encourages handling. She has explored themes of repetition in other mediums, such as drawing, since 2011.
Cathy holds a BFA from Pratt Institute with a concentration in drawing and extended studies in ceramics. She studied conceptual video and installation art at Central Saint Martins in London for her semester abroad.
KATIE DILLEY
Katie is a classically trained painter and brings a 2-dimensional and visual focus to her ceramics practice. She is known for her surface design techniques and use of color and textures. She describes her art as communicating humor, innocence & magic, and those qualities show vividly in her work and her teaching style.
She works with students hands-on to draw out their creativity and brings an array of visual and clay techniques that build upon one another to help students advance.
Katie’s Instagram
JERRY BOLD
Jerry studied ceramics at the university level and has strength in teaching functional wheel throwing as well as abstract hand building. His work focuses on design of patterns and the layering of different clay types and colors and is both geometric and natural.
He is able to succinctly and clearly communicate throwing techniques to build beginner students’ skills and confidence. He works with advanced handbuilding students to draw out creativity and encourage their continued skill building and creativity.
Jerry’s Instagram