Kate Brown has worked as a potter for all her adult life. Her first touch of clay at age 19 assured her this was the substance her hands were waiting for. Her formative apprenticeship at Jugtown Pottery in Seagrove, North Carolina in the early 1970s set her goal to work as a rural potter. She still draws inspiration from earthenware traditions: the Anglo-American potters of the former British colonies, and that of the Mexican-American borderlands, where she has made her home for the past 25 years. In 1983 she established her studio Kate Brown Pottery in its present location in Southwest New Mexico. She added tile to her production in 1994.

Kate has become a master of slip-decorated, clear-glazed terra cotta ware. She is currently experimenting with glaze color and texture over her slips. She says, “I love clay and working with clay slips. I mix them from my own recipe and I enjoy their creamy sensual texture. They are painterly and they move like clay.”

Over the years, she has made thousands of pots. Many of these pieces have an intimate place in the every day lives and celebrations of their owners. Throughout her years of production, Kate has focused on the clay as a canvas. Her patterns reflect her life in foothills near the Gila wilderness: plants, animals, sky and human forms, bold and loose. She is preparing for her 40th anniversary show At What’s a Pot Shop in Silver City, New Mexico, Oct 2006, working on a body of tile paintings. These pieces are the current expression of her long love affair with clay.

Four times a year, once a season, I offer One Day Intensive Tile-Making classes in my studio to share what I have learned. Usually the classes fall in January, April, July, October. Limit eight per class. $95 to make tiles from a 16"x20" slab. Class times are 9am - 5pm, held in my studio in the Mimbres.

Detailed Workshop Description . . . . . . . . .Examples of Student Work

10th Annual MRAC
Weekend at the Galleries