When you start selling your work, it can be hard to know how to present it. All sorts of questions come to mind — how do I price my pieces? How much work do I put out? What will people like? The truth is, all of these answers will come with time, but the key is to start with your best guess, and then learn and adjust.

We just wrapped up our application for next year’s scholarship funding. Our partners at OASIS—especially the ever-motivated and generous Barbara Camph—have been working tirelessly to put it together for the Community Foundation’s Arts & Culture grant program. I’m feeling deeply grateful to the late Earlynn J. Miller, and to our wider community, for building such strong support for the arts here in Harrisonburg.

We love that membership at Friendly City Clay & Art Center spans such a wide variety of ages, backgrounds and styles. Camille is one of our youngest members, and I love hearing how working with clay has been an outlet while she finishes her degree at JMU. Here Camille shares what she has learned since beginning her clay journey.

This month, we are celebrating one of our first staff members, Desirae. She has followed our journey from the beginning, and she was so excited about the art center that she volunteered to help us set things up in the first months before we even opened. I loved hearing more about her journey here, and I hope you will too. And give her a wave next time you're in the studio! 

Sean is such a light in the studio — he’s always got something interesting he’s working on, and his smile is infectious. We’ve been ooing and ahing over Sean’s incredibly thin wheel-thrown work since he joined in March 2024, and he never stops evolving. First it was creative underglaze decoration, then sgraffito animal portraits, now tall carved vases…we can’t wait to see what he’s making. Here we asked him about his creative practice, and if he has any advice for new potters.

Oh Jeanne, what can we say? What an incredibly kind, curious, and thoughtful person you are, and we’re so glad to have you in the studio. Jeanne took a handbuilding class in March 2024, and joined as a member of our studio soon after. There aren’t many days you come in and don’t see her working on projects in the studio. Here she shares with us her thoughts on what clay has to teach us, and her 100 mug project.