Student Pick Up Hours:
Easthampton Clay will alert students via email when their class or workshop pieces are ready for pick up.
Please kindly refrain from reaching out for updates on the status of your work- our team is working to move your pieces through our kilns quickly! Once alerted, students are welcome into the studio to pick up their work during student pick up hours.
Please help yourself in and head to our student pick up shelves to find your pieces. Practice time monitors will be able to show you to student shelving upon request. Weekly student pick up hours are listed below:
Tuesdays 12-6PM
Sundays 8AM-6PM
Studio Masking Hours:
Keeping our immunocompromised community members in mind, the studio will be mask mandatory during the following hours each week:
Tuesdays 10AM-2PM | Saturdays 1PM-3PM
Sundays 8AM-10AM
About Us
Easthampton Clay was founded in October 2018 by Liz Rodriguez, a former corporate executive turned full-time potter.
Liz knows first-hand the positive effects of clay. She has longed to host a pottery community where people could unplug, connect with one another through this beautiful craft, and get back to the earth. Clay grounds us in a way that no other medium can. It soothes us, and demands a great deal of our presence simultaneously.
Easthampton Clay (EHC) is a community based pottery school and cooperative in the heart of Easthampton, Massachusetts. EHC has offered the Pioneer Valley a unique opportunity for clay work and play since October 2018. We offer a range of entry points for clay enthusiasts at all levels through classes, workshops, summer camps, outreach programming and events focusing on the ceramic arts. Our space is one where artists can be creative, receive a rich and varied educational experience, and participate in a large artistic community.
As a community of ceramic artists, we strive to cultivate a safe and inclusive space under our roof that fosters growth and development. At EHC we believe that clay can be a medium to promote connection, learning, healing, and creativity.
Our Mission
Easthampton Clay (EHC) aims to exude a spirit of connection, friendship, and joy. For some, the studio may provide respite from work, difficult parts of our lives, or a place to disconnect from technology. We value the sacredness of time spent in the studio, and strive to foster a culture of creativity and self-expression.
EHC is committed to maintaining a culture of inclusivity in all interactions with and amongst students, teachers, members, friends, and neighbors. We stand firmly in our commitment to fighting social inequalities, and strive to be a space of inclusion and diverse representation. We are dedicated to creating a community that is free of any kind of harassment. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, citizenship, national origin, or veteran status.
EHC Equity Statement
Easthampton Clay stands with Black communities, communities of color, and all those fighting to end racism in overt and covert forms. We strive to create a welcoming environment in our studio and are proud of the inclusive and warm community that exists at EHC. There is so much more that we must do to ensure we are truly living our values as an arts organization. We are committed to devoting the time, energy, and resources to examine our implicit biases, and to support racial justice and social equity.
To further these efforts, we founded a diversity, equity and inclusion committee to examine how the studio can increase access to the space and how we can provide advocacy and education opportunities for our students, members, and leadership. In 2021, we began fundraising for the Manny Rodriguez Scholarship that will support BIPOC individuals (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) in taking classes at EHC. We commit ourselves to broadening our audience through continued outreach and scholarship opportunities. We welcome your input and voice to work with us towards these goals.
Meet Our Leadership Team
Liz Rodriguez (she/her) founded Easthampton Clay in 2018. She moved to Western Mass from the Boston area after falling in love with the area as an invited artist of the Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail and Paradise City Arts. Liz studied fine arts and design at FIT in NY and business at Northeastern University in Boston. Her ceramics education began in 1994 at Mudville and subsequently Mudflat Pottery schools in Somerville, MA. In 1999, Liz became a Mudflat studio tech and a member of the board learning the innermost workings of a large pottery studio. In 2010 she left the corporate world to become a full-time ceramic artist and Mudflat teacher. Liz travelled around the country to participate in high-end craft shows and in 2017, her work was featured at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Knowing first-hand the positive effects of clay and community on one’s mental and physical health, her greatest desire was to create a space here in Western, Mass similar to that of Mudflat where a warm, diverse community thrived in a creative environment.
Liz Rodriguez - Owner, Founder, Teacher
Kayla (she/her) has had her hands in clay since 2016 when she took an elective ceramics course and fell in love. She loves pops of color and texture which is portrayed in her functional pieces. A vessel you use to eat/drink out of should be fun to touch and bring joy visually. Kiln-loader Kayla can always be found in the studio.
Kayla McFarland - Kiln Manager & Teacher
Kaleigh (she/her) first discovered her passion for clay while taking an elective college course in 2016. After joining Easthampton Clay as a member in the fall of 2021, she quickly became part of the team behind the scenes. Aside from being our studio administrator, Kaleigh also teaches private lessons, mixes studio glazes, and manages our gallery space and co-op program. You can almost always find her in the studio, feel free to say hello!
Kaleigh Jarvis - Studio Operations Manager
Hadley Byrne (they/them) fell in love with clay in 2019 and has been joyfully curating their craft and style ever since. Hadley’s illustrative ceramics work draws from themes of daily ritual, vices, death and rebirth, the inner child, the masculine and the feminine. In addition to being an active member in the studio herself, Hadley has been managing our membership program and the studio’s marketing and social media since January of 2023. It’s a joy for them to watch and support our community members’ growth and expression!
Hadley Byrne - General Manager
Molly (they/them) has been with Easthampton Clay since March 2019. They began a transition away from food service and is now pursuing ceramics full time. Don’t be afraid to say hello... Molly can be a bit quiet when in the zone, but loves chatting and getting to know everyone.
Molly Smith - Teacher
Ashley (she/her) first fell in love with ceramics back in 2015 while she was in college. After a short break she found her way to Easthampton Clay and is now a full time ceramic artist. Ashley is a studio tech whose task is to mix glazes for the studio. She mostly creates work out of her home studio, but you can catch her at EHC several times throughout the week. Feel free to say hi when you see her! She loves meeting new people and hearing about your interests in clay.
Ashley Ripolone - Teacher
Grace Morrill - Kids Class Teacher
Michele Shibley (she/her) has been teaching ceramics for 18 years in the Springfield public schools. She began her clay journey in 1995 when she first took pottery in high school and fell in love with clay. When she was a Visual Art Education major at Westfield State University, Michele dove deep into three-dimensional art and focused on ceramics. After many years of making work on her own, Michele wanted to become a part of a community of likeminded clay lovers and began taking classes at Easthampton Clay in early 2022. She will now be teaching handbuilding on Monday nights.
Michele Shibley - Handbuilding Teacher
Grace (she/her) serendipitously found the art of ceramics when she chose a random elective in college; ceramics 1. A few years after college she yearned to do pottery again and in 2018 the stars aligned when she found Easthampton Clay. She's been doing pottery ever since and has made her own home studio. She will now adventure into teaching the Thursday kids class.
