Our Story
THE BEGINNING
Sarah is a ceramic artist native to Oregon. She followed a winding path through geochemistry, farming, outdoor education and guiding, and nearly went to architecture school. In 2015, Sarah landed back at her most addictive and inspired hobby, ceramics. After a year and a half of graduate studies at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, Sarah started Wolf Ceramics in 2016 and began producing work out of her NW Portland studio.
WORKING WITH CLAY
Sarah enjoys the physicality of working with clay as well as the design process and the satisfaction of creating goods that will be used by her friends and community.
INSPIRED BY COMMUNITY
In starting her business, Sarah worried she might find herself lonely, working alone in the studio every day. Soon she discovered the opposite was true! Producing ceramics has been a constant source of fruitful collaborations and connections with other small business. As the business has grown, Sarah has built a team of four people working together to hand throw, glaze, pack and ship ceramic orders all around Oregon and throughout the US. As repeat customers have become friends and friends have become customers, the web of community and connection feels stronger and stronger.
Working as a team
As Wolf Ceramics has grown and changed, Sarah’s values remain steadfast. We are here to make goods that we are proud of, both for their function and their beauty. We want to make goods that our customers will find joy in using for years to come and we had better have fun while doing it. A commitment to fair and caring work environment is at the core of Sarah’s philosophy. The price points of our handmade ceramics are dictated by carefully calculating the time and energy that go into each piece, supporting a fair and decent wage for all of our team members.
The Team
Sarah Wolf
Founder and creator of Wolf Ceramics. Once a solo studio potter and now the happy leader of a team, Sarah splits her time between production, design, and all the nitty gritty logistics of running a business. She enjoys making goods that will be well used by her friends and community, and she values time spent in the mountains just as much as a day’s work in the studio. Sarah loves running her own business because it allows the freedom to constantly try new ideas, knowing that some will succeed and some will fail, and that’s ok!
Joey Rose Cardoso
A glaze and shipping extraordinaire, Joey Rose's shrewd attention to detail and efficiency are integral to operations at Wolf. She studied at OCAC with a concentration in fiber and metal arts which she developed into a business, designing and creating accessories and leather goods that incorporate fur, animal bone, fiber, and metal. Joey Rose started at Wolf handling shipping and now she is a jill-of-all - working on glaze, production scheduling and studio management. Find her work here.
Skylar Clarke
Skylar started in pottery two years ago after taking a job in a small community studio as a tech. She would spend evenings working on the wheel, moving on to teach introductory wheel classes, with the goal of working in production. Skylar joined us last winter as a thrower and has also taken on projects off the wheel, working with our website and making tools for the jigger. She continues to teach wheel classes outside of her work at Wolf.
Daisy
Daisy recently completed her BA at Bennington College with a concentration in environmental science and visual art. There she fell in love with ceramics while taking a course centered around wheel throwing and atmospheric firing. Daisy enjoys making functional work in her personal practice and in her role as production potter here at Wolf.
Kate Lepore
Kate joined our team this summer, making the move from Queens, New York to Hood River. She has both a BA in Art and Design from Alfred University and a Masters of Science in Historical Preservation from the University of Vermont. Kate has worked with clay for over a decade, making primarily hand built work. She is bringing her expertise to finish work here at Wolf, as well as her bright attitude and wonderful pup Lupa. See Kate's work here.
Peter Skutt
Peter is pursuing a graduate degree in art therapy at Lewis and Clark. A skilled potter, Peter has been throwing with Wolf for two years. Peter’s personal work is primarily sculptural, exploring form and memory. His work can be viewed here.
