WELCOME TO OUR CLAY COMMUNITY!

Cara Jung is a relatively new transplant to Whidbey Island, and has finally found her "home" here in the Northwest. Her love of the outdoors has grown tremendously over the past several years, it's begun to influence her ceramic work. Cara creates biomorphic ceramic sculptures that are inspired by a variety of animals. She's especially drawn to birds, mollusks and microscopic animals like tardigrades. Cara also makes a line of functional pottery.    

Cara has been a working ceramic artist for 20 years. She took her first pottery class in college and hasn't looked back. She earned her BA in Art and Communication from Luther College in 2001 and went on to earn her MFA in Ceramics from PennWest  in 2008. She enjoyed several years as a production potter at Banner Oak Pottery in New London, MN. She also worked as summer apprentice at Clay Bay Pottery in Ellison Bay, WI. Cara has taught ceramics to students of all levels- including college courses, kids classes, high school and adult classes. She exhibits her work regionally and nationally.       

Cara has been the proud owner of Whidbey Clay Center since 2019. She enjoys sharing her love of clay with others and strives to provide a lively group setting where artists can inspire and help motivate one another to create great work. Cara is extremely grateful for the support of her studio members and the Whidbey Island clay community.

You can follow Cara on Facebook, Instagram, or her website.     

My slab-built structures reflect dwellings, agricultural buildings and landforms. I work with both earthenware and stoneware. Stains and broad strokes of sheer bright glazes highlight multi-layered surface textures and incised designs. Narrative is central to all my work and I communicate stories through images etched into the surface planes of buildings, through the groupings of buildings or through the interaction of elements with each other and with their surroundings.  

Stories often emerge from the marks created by the clay texturing process which I try to keep loose and spontaneous.  My latest work explores the intersection between our dwellings and the environment they exist in. I enjoy exploring the juxtaposition between the geometric form of buildings and the more organic shapes and muted colors of the landscape.    

A video and interview of my inspiration and process can be found on the Brumfield Gallery website; brumfieldgallery.com and Live Broadcast: Karen Abel and Patricia L. Giraud 

My work is available at Museo Gallery in Langley, Washington; Gray Sky Gallery in Seattle, Washington; Brumfield Gallery in Astoria, Oregon; Gallery One in Ellensburg Washington; and 1+1=1 Gallery in Helena, Montana.

Jordan Jones creates functional pottery with playful and lively animals carved onto her pots. She creates stories and scenes with these critters, they are characters that people can see, relate, and connect with. Like many potters, she believes that using handmade objects brings joy to people in their daily lives.  

Aside from clay, she enjoys plants and animals. She tends to a small garden and variety of houseplants, and enjoys the company of a flock of chickens, two sassy goats, two nosey geese, two snarfely bully-mix dogs, and two elderly cats.

Jordan has taught pottery classes for many years to both children and adults. We're so  excited to have her on board teaching at WCC this spring!

Follow Jordan and her work on Instagram! 

The adventure of creating with clay started 7 years ago with a class at The Paint Escape. I had been a medical illustrator, graphic artist and pastel painter for years and had not sat at a wheel since college where I took a class, demonstrating that I could make something and quit (with a passing grade). This time the clay captured me!   

I experiment with different styles, clays and glazes. I love to teach, to help and to play. You are only limited by your imagination when it comes to working with clay. Follow Kristine and her work at McMud Pottery. 

My goal is to create “art that walks in the world”.  I want to create art that gives you a sense of place and that provides a bridge of empathy between science and nature.
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I relocated to Whidbey Island, WA in 2019 after careers at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Rutgers University.  I realized that art could serve as a conduit to improving understanding of science, but that science could benefit from artistic perspectives in ensuring that there was an emotional connection from the data to the policies that emanate from scientific understanding. My formal training in clay, glazing, and firing techniques took place at the NY/NY Academy of Ceramic Arts.
My exploration of art is a way to enhance public understanding of ecology, environment, and social justice.  My ceramic pieces reflect interconnectedness in aquatic environments, forests, and soil.  I will continue my artistic journey by collaborating with fellow scientists and artists at the Whidbey Clay Center, and creating art that enhances emotional connections between people and their environment.  

I got an Interior Design degree from Iowa State in 2007. I learned to make pots in high school, but focused my creative drive on a number of other outlets through college. Once I graduated, I treated my love of clay as a hobby for the next several years while I worked for an environmentally friendly home improvement store, managed a Permaculture design non-profit, designed and built a few buildings out of natural materials, taught myself graphic design, and waited tables to fill in the gaps. I started taking clay seriously in 2015 when a friend encouraged me to participate in a pop-up craft show.

Since then, I've been spending as much time as humanly possible in the studio. I've been fortunate to participate in residencies and assistantships that have taught me a lot about the kind of artist I want to be. In 2016 I moved to Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, and at the beginning of 2020 I opened my very own studio in Coupeville. The timing couldn't have been worse, but two years in, I don't know what I would have done without this little shop. I feel fortunate to have a space to make and sell my work.

My style is somewhere between Midcentury Modern, Scandinavian, and Contemporary West Coast. I offer work that from far away might look machine made, but up close you can see the ridges where my fingers pulled up the walls, the slight wobble in the lines that I inlaid by hand, and the unique curve of the individually molded handle of your new favorite mug.