TERASOL's artisans
I have had the privilege to be joined by a remarkable group of local artisans. Take a minute to meet them. (Interested in joining Terasol? Please fill out the form on our Contact Us page to inquire about our current openings!)
KAREN BEARMAN
Enticed by a potter on a kickwheel at a country fair, Karen began pottery lessons in the early 70s, apprenticing, then teaching at Jill Hinckley’s Washington, DC pottery studio. She has worked full time as a studio potter, participating in workshops, craft shows and fairs, and as a ceramics teacher, instructing children and adults in independent schools and private studios. She has exhibited her work at shows and galleries on the Eastern Shore and in the DC area. In addition to pottery, she has worked in stone and watercolor while studying at the Corcoran College of Art.Enticed again, this time by marriage to a lifelong friend and a move to the Eastern Shore, Karen now lives in Cambridge, MD and works out of her basement studio. Karen teaches one day each week at the Hinckley Pottery Studio in Washington, DC, and at the Dorchester Art Center in Cambridge. During the academic year, Karen teaches Ceramics at Salisbury University and Exploration of the Visual Arts at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Karen is a member of Cambridge’s Wednesday Morning Artists and the Clay Guild of the Eastern Shore.
Karen creates wheel-thrown, functional pieces in stoneware and porcelain using two very different firing methods: cone 10 reduction and low-fire raku. Achieving a pleasing form and surface is the motivation for her work. Karen finds special pleasure in the act of sharing her love of this responsive medium with her students and in the notion that she is creating pieces which people will use in their daily lives.
SHARON BRAVEMAN
I began taking pottery classes at the University of Newfoundland, Canada where my husband was a professor. I continued to study pottery interrupted only by the arrival of my son & daughter. I became a student helper in the pottery lab and after 7 years started my own studio at home. After we moved south to Rochester, New York and then to Rockville, Maryland, I took a long break from pottery while raising family, having a career in computer science, and folk dancing. I resumed making stoneware pots at Hinckley Pottery once a week about 1996 while my daughter was taking a class. I have two grandchildren and am still working part time in computer science while continuing to make stoneware bowls, cups, teapots, vases, and casseroles at Hinckley’s.
SUSAN DIENELT
I grew up in the Chicago area where, as a child, on Saturday mornings I took classes in painting and clay sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. After studying Comparative Literature I returned to Chicago to earn a masters degree in printmaking and photography at the Bauhaus inspired Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology. I lived in Paris for a while where I had my first job in design. Returning to the US I settled in Washington DC and worked in graphic design and then designed office interiors. In 2001 I was introduced to Jill Hinckley and soon started spending two days a week in pottery classes at her studio. It soon became my life. I went to some wonderful hands-on workshops with Mark Shapiro, Kevin Crowe, Randy Johnston, Linda Christianson and, most recently, Phil Rogers. I joined Kevin Crowe’s firing crew for his three chambered wood kiln. In 2006 I moved from Washington, DC to Sperryville, Viriginia in the magnificent foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where I set up my studio, Juba Mountain Pottery. Since then I have been working full time as a potter. In 2007 I had a gas fired salt kiln built in order to pursue my interest in salt-fired functional pots. I am fascinated by the unpredictable interaction between the salt and clay. Form and function are essential to my pots and my life. I love making beautiful pots to be used everyday in the kitchen and at the table, bringing together my loves of beauty food and clay. I show my pots in Virginia at the holiday Artisan’s Market in Little Washington and during the Rappahannock County Artist’s Studio Tour as well as at Terasol.
JAMIE FINE
Jamie Fine has been making ceramics since her undergraduate days at the University of Chicago, where she studied with noted sculptor Ruth Duckworth and potter Hiraoki Morino. (1967-72) She has exhibited nationally and participated in the American Craft Council sponsored fairs in Baltimore MD, Rhinebeck NY, and Minneapolis MN, as well as the Philadelphia Craft Show and the Smithsonian Show. Jamie is noted for her small and large scale stoneware murals, and has been commissioned by numerous individuals and corporations. Her murals are on view at the National Comptroller of the Currency in Chicago, Illinois, and in many corporate and residential settings. Her small sculptural pieces are of more recent origin, following from explorations of glass lampworking and a fascination with seed pods and marine forms of shells and single celled organisms.
AMY GOLDSTEIN
Amy Goldstein is a longtime reporter at The Washington Post who has a semi-secret life as a potter. She admired and collected ceramics before finally deciding more than a decade ago to learn to make her own pots. On weekend mornings, she can been found at Hinckley Pottery in Adams Morgan, where she throws functional forms -- bowls, pitchers, mugs, plates, colanders, teapots, casseroles. It's a nice balance to writing news stories on deadline. She lives in Glover Park.
ALLIE GREEN
As Director of the School of Visual Arts at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington from 1990 – 2001, Allie developed and ran a successful teen ceramic program, as well as a diverse art program serving preschoolers through senior adults. A skilled ceramic artist in her own right, she had started her own business in 1984, creating in porcelain a wide variety of decorative and functional gift items, including Judaic pieces, and replicas of clients’ homes located across the U.S. After retiring from the JCC in 2001, Allie focused her creative juices on teaching ceramics to children, refining her replicas, and producing a wider range of gift items.
Using extruded shapes and slabs, Allie creates porcelain vases, mirrors, teapots and Chanukah menorahs embellished with flowers and delicate figures of adults and children. She first uses colored slip and underglazes fired to bisque (∆ 06) followed by clear bright glaze high-fired to ∆ 6.
Allie’s fascination with historic homes is reflected in the porcelain replicas of homes that she has been creating for nearly twenty years. Following the client’s photos as closely as possible, these customized works evolve from rolled-out slabs similar to a dressmaker’s creation of a dress pattern. Special details that make each person’s home unique and memorable include bricks, pillars, shaker shingles, and decorative flower beds. The replicas range in size from 12x12 to 22x22.
Allie resides in Potomac with her husband Joel.
MARY KEARNS
Mary Kearns first started creating and selling handcrafted herbal bath and body products nine years ago. While living in New England, she sold all-natural lotions, masques, balms and oils at her local farmers market, as well as through a (primitive by today’s standards) online store. She delighted in the process of creating new products, and took great pleasure in learning about the aromatherapeutic properties of essential oils and the healing properties of herbs.
She ran this company while working full time, raising two daughters and working on her doctorate. While she didn’t have much spare time in those days, she relished the moments when she was able to work on her herbal business – it provided her with a creative outlet and much needed stress-relief. But when she took a position in NYC, which made for very long days, and even less time, she reluctantly let it go.
Since moving to the DC area in 2005, she has worked as a wellness consultant, offering workshops and writing on living a healthy, balanced lifestyle. As a path toward balance for herself, she began formal herbalism studies early in 2008. It occurred to her that this would be a great time to re-start her herbal bath and body product business. So, after several months of planning and formulating, Herban Lifestyle™ was born.
Mary Kearns, PhD, holds a BA in Fine Arts and a doctorate in Developmental Psychology, with a focus on Health Psychology. To view and purchase Mary's Herban Bath and Body Products, click here.
JONATHAN KIRKENDALL
I have been studying the craft and art of pottery for 22 years. My wheel thrown, functional pottery takes its aesthetic cues from the art and culture of countries I have lived and studied in: Lebanon, Iran, India, Bangladesh, France, Italy and the United States. My motivation to throw pots stems from my belief that the presence of a simple clay pot can call upon the elemental magic of earth, water, fire and air to enrich our everyday life.
VICTORIA NELSON RABINO and LINDA NELSON
Victoria Nelson Rabino and Linda Mui Nelson, the mother-daughter team who form Lady Liberty Copper, found coppersmithing after many years of practicing in other visual media. They use copper not only to form vessels, but as a malleable canvas for figurative work. Inspirations range from early American craftwork to Islamic motifs to typography to favored natural items in their own culture (including peaches, peonies, chrysanthemums, and showy bird feathers). Their home studio in Vienna, VA is filled with the sounds of hammers against anvils and sizzling copper as often as their day jobs will allow.
SABRINA OUSMAALBorn and raised in France, Sabrina came to Washington, DC in 1987. A graduate of the American University, she first worked on international issues for non-profit groups. Now an executive in the trade publishing business, she remains active in the local and international communities.
Sabrina is a Chevy Chase DC resident and has been a local potter at Hinckley Pottery for nearly a decade. Her husband is a realtor with Long and Foster's Chevy Chase office and her daughter attends the French International School where Sabrina has taught pottery workshops to 5th and 6th graders. She has created Magnets for Hope -- a fundraising outreach effort benefiting St Jude Hospital. Sabrina is the owner and creator of Terasol. To view and purchase Sabrina's pieces, click here.
BARBARA PAULSON
Barbara is the leader of the glaze-making team at Hinckley Pottery Studio. Sheis a volunteer in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. She is currently serving in a temporary appointment as a program officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has two children, Andrew and Melissa, and two grandchildren, Matthew and Sara. Recently, Melissa’s cashmere goat, Whoopi Goldberg, won the grand championship of the Eastern Cashmere Association at the Virginia State Fair.
WILLIAM PEIRCE
William Peirce has been a self-taught woodworker for over 30 years. Most of his pieces, especially his bandsaw bowls, are built from laminations of a variety of wood species. He has exhibited locally at Strathmore Hall, Circle Gallery in Annapolis and Creative Partners in Bethesda, Sugarloaf Craft Fairs, and in many shows sponsored by the Washington Woodworkers Guild. Recently retired from teaching literature and writing courses at Prince Georges Community College, he will now devote more time to woodwork and sculpture. To view and purchase Bill's work, click here.
KRISTA SHARP
Krista has been involved in creating various forms of arts and crafts, in particular 3-D art and photography, for much of her life. She has been making pottery for approximately 5 years and works out of Creative Clay Studios in Alexandria, VA. Krista creates and sells a variety of handmade ceramics that range from decorative vases to functional kitchenware, most of which are wheel thrown. She primarily works with porcelain and stoneware clays and loves to experiment with different shapes, glazes and surface decoration techniques. Krista puts an emphasis on combining art with functionality and making each piece unique.
COURTENAY SINGER
Courtenay Singer has been working in clay since 1990. She specializes in functional ware for daily use, and explores a variety of glazing and firing techniques in her work.Courtenay divides her time between filmmaking, television production, and the making of ceramics, and is currently working on a documentary film about a community wood firing at Kevin Crowe's studio Tye River Pottery. She hopes her pottery will provide a unique and personal experience in her customers' day to day lives. Ultimately, she appreciates how the one-of-a-kind characteristics of each pot call out to different people in individual ways. In our culture of mass produced wares, Courtenay is glad to be contributing carefully hand-crafted pieces that can be enjoyed for many years.
ANDREW TAYLOR
Andrew Taylor has been throwing pots for 10 years. He grew up in Southeast Asia, where his mother’s interest in Chinese ceramics rubbed off on him. He is interested in simple ceramic forms, bowls and bottles, with linear surface decoration. He is an Architect, and lives with his wife in Adams Morgan.
JEFF WATSON
I learned how to throw pots in the late 1970s at the Undertaking Artists Cooperative in Occoquan, VA. I became a member of the cooperative in the early 1980s and had a studio where I taught classes and made pots. I sold my work at the Cooperative gallery, at craft fairs, and through craft and museum shops on the east coast. I left working with clay to go back to school to work on an advanced degree. I started working with clay again in the mid 1990s. I now have a studio in my home in Washington, DC. I sell my work at craft shows in Sussex County Delaware, the Rehoboth Art League, and the Stepping Stone, in Lewes Delaware.
The pots I make are functional, usually thrown on the wheel and sometimes altered, and are of stoneware or porcelain. Forming the pot is the part of the process that I most enjoy -- actually feeling the wet clay slide through my hands, the pot taking shape from the pressure and gestures of my hands. I tend to like simple glazes and fire pots in a gas-fired kiln to about 2400 degrees. Over the past several years, I’ve been firing pots in a salt kiln. Salt firing dates back to 15-century Germany, when potters discovered that throwing quantities of common salt in the kiln when it reached high temperatures caused a chemical reaction with the clay, forming an attractive natural glaze.
KIPPIAN INGLIS YOST
At the side of a wonderful seamstress, friend of our family, who made clothing for her own family, I learned at the age of 6 how to make clothing for my baby doll. I never stopped sewing after that. In college, I majored in Costume Design and Construction for the Theatre, continuing to add to my knowledge and enjoyment of sewing. When cross-stitch, needlepoint, and quilting crossed my path, I gladly took up learning each new technique. At the very first Smithsonian Folk Life Festival on the mall, I was completely taken by the ladies from the Ozarks who sat around a quilting frame demonstrating their quilting skills. Raising my first child on my own, I went to work full time in law offices in the Washington, DC area and went to night school to get a degree in Computer Programming. After I remarried, I was introduced to working with wool as an appliqué embellishment to doll clothing. Since I have a deep love of American history, I researched and learned about using wool in clothing and discovered penny rugs, wool work that came to this country from many different cultures.
I now design and sell kitchens, baths, and studios (anywhere one can use cabinetry) in Rockville and sell my wool, patterns and supplies at a few local quilt shows each year. My sewing, however continues, as it will as long as I can. It is my solace, my sanity, and my avocation for life.
I am a Washington, DC native and live with my husband, youngest child, cat and assorted wildlife in our Rock Creek neighborhood in Rockville, MD.
JULIE ZIRLIN
Julie Zirlin received a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland California and apprenticed for 3 years with a Japanese potter in Kyoto, Japan. Her current work integrates organic forms found in adobe architecture and small wheel thrown vessels. Her multiple piece structures are intended to for the viewer to interact with them and set them up in various configurations. She currently works in the Glen Echo Studio in Maryland.
