About Us

  • Easthampton Clay is located in the heart of Easthampton, MA’s vibrant creative arts and mill district. Since opening our doors in 2018 we have grown to be the area’s largest pottery studio, offering classes, workshops, memberships, private lessons and more to our community. Whether you’ve never touched clay before or you’re a professional ceramics artist, there’s something for you at Easthampton Clay.

  • MISSION STATEMENT
    Easthampton Clay is boldly committed to fostering an inclusive community. We proudly welcome all people into our studio with open arms, no matter their age, color, gender identity, race, ability status or economic background. Easthampton Clay is first and foremost a safe and inclusive space for individuals to find their creativity and to build community.

    EQUITY STATEMENT
    Easthampton Clay stands firmly and proudly with our BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. We are committed to fostering an inclusive space where people of all walks of life feel safe and supported to be their most creative selves. In a world that is actively threatening the freedoms and rights of so many of us, we are dedicated to offering a place of respite, and to empowering and educating anyone who is interested in creative expression and community building. 

    To help facilitate our goals of offering a safe and inclusive space we created the Manny Rodriguez Scholarship Foundation, a program that provides financial support to BIPOC individuals looking to take classes at Easthampton Clay. Through a variety of private fundraising efforts we are able to provide full ride scholarships to students of all ages each term. We are committed to broadening the scope of our foundation in the face of the current U.S. administration.

  • Easthampton Clay will inform students via email when their class or workshop pieces are ready for pick up, roughly 1 month from the end of your term, workshop or private lesson.

    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

  • Keeping our immunocompromised community members in mind, the studio will be mask mandatory during select hours each week. Please be aware that if you enroll in a class during one of the times listed below, you will be asked to wear a mask to class.

    Tuesdays 9:30AM-2PM | Sundays 8AM-10AM

  • We are eager to hear from you! Our team is available Monday - Friday, 8AM-4PM.

    Please reach out to info@easthamptonclay.com with any questions or inquiries.
    Current students can connect with EHC leadership, teachers and fellow students via Slack.
    We are open for studio tours by appointment only, please email us to learn more.

Meet Our 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

Hadley Byrne (they/them) fell in love with clay in 2019 and has been honing their craft and unique 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, Hadley has serves our community as the General Manager of Easthampton Clay. You may hear from Hadley if you reach out via email or Slack as a student, member, or otherwise! Hadley loves our clay community and is eager to hear from you.

Hadley Byrne
General Manager

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 & 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

Meet Our Teachers

Ashley
Ripolone
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.

Grace Morrill
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 our teens class.

Michele
Shibley
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.

Lucas
May
Teacher

Lucas (he/him) has been working with clay since 2017. After graduating college he completed a three year apprenticeship with Maya Machin to learn more about the wood firing process. While he still enjoys participating in the many wood firings around the valley, he is happily exploring mid- and low-fire work and all of the bright colors they have to offer. In his own practice, Lucas creates functional ceramics using both the wheel and handbuilding techniques that explore themes of identity, relationships, and connection. He finds teaching to be a wonderfully rewarding and inspiring addition to his personal studio work.

Sophia
Aussant
Teacher

Sophia (she/her) first started working with clay her freshman year of high school and quickly fell in love with the art form. She has since continued her studies apprenticing with a number of ceramic artists in Massachusetts and Vermont, learning more about her craft and finding her own artistic style. Her work is vibrant and whimsical, often featuring unique and detailed surface design. Sophia started teaching officially in 2020 and eventually found herself at Easthampton Clay!