Our Incredible Teaching Staff
Kirsten Bassion
Kirsten Bassion, owner, founder, and teacher, received her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York in 2004. She did her undergraduate studies at Skidmore College where she majored in studio art and graduated in 1997. She uses dark brown stoneware with a porcelain slip, paper stencils and layers of underglazes to create unique and useful pottery. She has been making, teaching, and running the Clay school for 18 years. She lives in Marblehead with her husband and two teenage girls and her exchange student from Spain.
Kirsten's work has been shown in galleries throughout the country.
You can see more of Kirsten's work at www.kirstenbassion.com
Kirsten's work has been shown in galleries throughout the country.
You can see more of Kirsten's work at www.kirstenbassion.com
Elizabeth Bocknick
Elizabeth Bocknick, Teacher and Studio Tech Extraordinaire, has been working in clay for over 20 years. She has been working with us since the beginning of The Clay School and is a wonderful resource. On top of being the studio's main technician/studio manager and Kirsten's Right-hand-girl, Elizabeth teaches beginners to advanced students and brings a whimsical and gentle approach to clay and her classes.
Elizabeth has done the SOWA show in South Boston as well as other local craft shows. You can see Elizabeth's work at our annual Open Studios the weekend before Thanksgiving each year.
Elizabeth has done the SOWA show in South Boston as well as other local craft shows. You can see Elizabeth's work at our annual Open Studios the weekend before Thanksgiving each year.
Kimberly Allison
Kim Allison, teacher, is a studio potter in Salem, MA whose wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics are inspired by Nordic nature, design, and culture. Kim is fascinated by pottery’s unique ability to convey visual and tactile experiences simultaneously. She uses porcelain forms with mishima inlay, carving techniques, and slipped surfaces to create or obscure texture in an effort to explore the relationship between what we see and what we feel when we interact with ceramics. Kim fell in love with clay in 2012 when she took her first ceramics class as a date night with her husband. She spent four years in classes and studio workshops with the amazing teachers at The Clay School before deciding in 2016 to shift careers and pursue ceramics full time. Born in Southern Massachusetts, Kim studied film production and graphic design at Boston University, graduating with a B.S. in 2005. She spent more than a decade as a corporate graphic designer in Boston. Her backgrounds in film and in design contribute to her love of storytelling and her enthusiasm for the art and joy of making by hand.
www.kallisonceramics.com
www.kallisonceramics.com
Erica von Schilgen
Erica von Schilgen, teacher, received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Sculpture from Mass College of Art in 2002. Over the past 20 years, her evolution as an artist has taken many paths. She has developed a body of sculpture work, making intricate “kinetic collages”, shown in galleries and museums throughout New England, including the Fuller Craft Museum and Cape Cod Museum of Art. She also worked for many years as a handbag and accessory designer, creating and selling her unique wares. After moving to Boston’s North Shore, her search for an artist community led her to The Clay School, where clay became her new medium. Here, at The Clay School, she has incorporated her artistic skills, whimsical style, and warm color palette into her pottery, creating a distinct body of work inspired by her love of gardening, nature, fabric and children’s books. Her ceramic pieces often have elaborate surface details and she incorporates both wheel-throwing and hand-building in her process. Erica lives in Nahant, MA with her family where she can be found working in her barn studio or keeping busy in her garden with her two young boys and six chickens.
You can see more of Erica’s pottery work at Instagram.com/BarnMothStudio/
You can see more of Erica’s pottery work at Instagram.com/BarnMothStudio/
Conor Pickett
Conor Pickett, teacher, has been working with clay for over 10 years. After graduating from Eckerd College in 2013 and receiving a BA with high honors in Visual Art, Conor moved back to Salem, MA where he was lucky enough to get his first job teaching youth classes and volunteering at The Clay School.
In 2014, he moved to San Francisco joining the team at Clay By The Bay where he taught and led the operations and program development for 5 years. Conor returned to the North Shore in 2020 and looks forward to rejoining the warm community at The Clay School and sharing what he’s learned. He is now the ceramics teacher at Pingree School in Hamilton, MA as well as with us!
Conor's work is mostly hand built, soft slab forms that mimic the functional, but are often quite impractical when put to use. His lack of concern for the function of a piece provides room for the whimsical and gestural shapes that emerge as he interacts with the clay. This playfulness and freedom to explore informs his style of teaching.
In 2014, he moved to San Francisco joining the team at Clay By The Bay where he taught and led the operations and program development for 5 years. Conor returned to the North Shore in 2020 and looks forward to rejoining the warm community at The Clay School and sharing what he’s learned. He is now the ceramics teacher at Pingree School in Hamilton, MA as well as with us!
Conor's work is mostly hand built, soft slab forms that mimic the functional, but are often quite impractical when put to use. His lack of concern for the function of a piece provides room for the whimsical and gestural shapes that emerge as he interacts with the clay. This playfulness and freedom to explore informs his style of teaching.
June Lee
June Lee, teacher, was born in Hong Kong and moved to the U.S. while she was 17. At age 18 she was introduced to ceramics at Wellesley High School. June graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She has been a student at Mudflat Pottery School since 2009 and become a full time studio artist and faculty member since 2019. June is passionate about making her students (at any age!) fall in love with clay and she is skillful on teaching beginning wheel throwing while incorporating handbuilding and decorating tips. June’s work has been known for “happy pottery” that makes people smile; her works are functional and mostly decorated with underglazes - see them at www.simplejourney365.com
Andi MacKay
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Andi MacKay, Studio Assistant and Kids Class Teacher, originally from Southern New Hampshire, started working with clay 7
years ago in her sophomore year of high school. She graduated from MassArt in 2022, where she earned a Bachelors in Fine Arts for Ceramics. During her time at MassArt she found her niche in creating multiples and miniature scenes that work to convey a deeper connection to her emotions, self-healing, and our internal and external worlds. During her final year at MassArt, Andi found a passion for teaching ceramics after being a TA. During the summer after graduating, she had the opportunity to teach kindergarten through 8 th graders at a summer camp where she aimed to inspire creativity and self confidence in art. She is excited about helping other artists find their own passion in ceramics and teaching them an incredible and versitile art form. |