Introductions

Hello and welcome to The Ceramic Shop Blog! It's our first post so how about we share a little about ourselves? The Ceramic Shop is located in Philadelphia and was created by artist and educator Mark Lueders. Mark taught at the University of Pennsylvania and was the driving force behind introducing ceramics into the university's curriculum. Years later, Mark invented a style of fast drying, durable bats known as the Hydro-Bat. His business started off small, but quickly outgrew the facility he was located in. Now a beautiful old knitting mill houses our warehouse, show room and several artist studio spaces. We've done a lot of growing. We carry all the top brand products including Amaco, Skutt, Shimpo, L&L, Kemper, Spectrum, Speedball, Laguna, Olympic, and Paragon. We are also the leading manufacturers of kiln stilts, bead racks and specialty kiln furniture.

What makes The Ceramic Shop unique? Besides just selling ceramic supplies, many of us use clay which allows us to give personal incite on products and techniques. I thought I'd take a bit of time and introduce you to all of us here at The Ceramic Shop.

Aaron started at The Ceramic Shop packing stilts and Hydro-Bats for shipping but now mans the front desk. He has attended both California College of Art and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He knows everything there is to know about working with stilts and whole sale accounts. If you need to set up a whole sale account or fire something on stilts this is the man you need to talk to. He doesn't have a favorite clay tool but he's exceptionally good at driving the fork lift.

Birgit is a Master Herbalist, Yoga instructor, and personal trainer. She does a lot of background work around The Ceramic Shop as our accountant. She is also a consulting Herbalist and sells her herbal supplements at www.brigitcare.com. Apart from raising two girls, running her own business and being our accountant she's also Mark's wife (which must be a full time job in itself).


Danny handles all of our online orders.  He is from Brecksville, OH.  He attend MICA in Baltimore where he got his BFA in Ceramics.  He is currently in the work exchange program at The Clay Studio as well as working at The Ceramic Shop.  If you've ordered something online he's packed and shipped your items (unless your order was wrong and then that was the elves).

Duc is one of the newest members of The Ceramic Shop. He graduated from Tyler School of Art, Temple University for Ceramics. He's in charge of our post department. If you stop by you might see him busy extruding posts for furniture kits.

Gina has an MFA in ceramics and is currently working on her PhD in Archaeological Ceramic Analysis. She used to run a studio at a university. She just might know everything there is to know about glazes and is good to answer any questions on glazes and slip. She also takes care of all our special orders and is able to tweak your glazes to your liking.

Justin goes the extra mile to help out our customers...literally. Here at The Ceramic Shop Justin is our truck driver. He makes all the driving deliveries like a pro. He will always call you before dropping off your order and likes to skateboard in his spare time.

Megan has been with us since almost the beginning. She attended the University of the Arts for Ceramics. She just got accepted into Graduate School at Temple University studying Occupational Therapy. Congratulations to Megan! She is very knowledgeable in glazes, both color and texture, and if you are a returning buyer she might just remember what you bought last time. Her favorite tool is the Mudtool's red number 0 rib and her favorite clay is MC65 smooth stoneware.

I'm Melissa and I'm one the newest additions to The Ceramic Shop. I started at the beginning of February and I'm in charge of our online presence. I studied History at California State University, Fullerton and minored in Art where I focused much of my creative attention on glass and ceramics. I will be doing most of the writing here at The Ceramic Shop Blog, but will be working with everyone here to provide you with the most in depth information about the wonderful world of ceramics as possible.

Mike is called the “kiln master.” He's in charge of firing all the stilts that are produced here at The Ceramic Shop. Mike attended Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and has worked at The Ceramic Shop for over 3 years now.

Samson hails from Lakewood, Colorado, which is a small town with big birds. When asked about what he does at The Ceramic Shop he told me he's, “put some tape of boxes before.” In actuality, he packs most of the items that are shipped from The Ceramic Shop.  It is said that he can pack a Hydro-Bat and ship it to Hawaii without it breaking.

Tracy graduated from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University which she studied (you guessed it) Ceramics. She is more than proficient in slip casting, mold making, plaster modeling and making Hydro-Bats. Oh, did I mention she makes all the Hydro-Bats? I mean ALL the Hydro-Bats. Apart from pumping out all those Hydro-Bats, she also works for the Claymoblie where she teaches children ceramics. Her favorite tools are power tools. You can check out her work at www.tracyjlee.com.

Victoria studied Ceramics at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She manages the store and can be caught holding down the fort, so to speak (AKA the front desk) with Aaron. She can answer any questions you have about our in-store products. Her favorite clay is Bmix 5 that she uses to make a lot of functional work. If you have any questions on how to make your work functional, Victoria is your girl.

Our stilt making department consists of Mike (“the kiln master”), Alket, Leonora and Majlinda. Alket's job consists of a variety of things including extruding, preparing clay for press molds, slip molding and much more. He's been with us for about 6 months. Leonora has been making stilts for about 2 years. She's had many years experience using molds and continues to knock out stilts every day. Majlinda has been with us for 10 months and works with Leonora to make the large amount of stilts we produce.

Zach, in conjunction with Mark, does almost all our kiln repair services. He graduated from the Cranbrook for Ceramics and is an excellent potter. He has done some in-store demonstrations before and we're hoping to do more. If there is something you'd like seen demoed let us know and we'll force Zach behind a wheel!

That's all of us here at The Ceramic Shop. But, enough about us! We want to know a little about you. We are hoping to provide inclusive information about the world of ceramics, so what would you like to know about? We pride ourselves on being knowledgeable and are open for questions, suggestions and discussions on what you would like to see here. From all of us at The Ceramic Shop, thanks for joining us!

-Melissa