
Our Story
In the summer of 2020, located amidst a scrap yard in the heart of industrial Calgary, a ceramic studio was born. mud URBAN POTTERS started as a haven for family and friends to come together to explore, create and find a sense of inner-balance during difficult times. The playfulness of clay provides a creative medium that has helped bring people together and the mud community continues to expand.
mud URBAN POTTERS' core values lay in staying grounded and humane and caters to anyone seeking to explore, create and find a balance between the organic and the inorganic world. Our open-collaborative and friendly space allows both experienced and new potters to thrive and practice their skills and craft.
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Jenna Crawford
OWNER & INSTRUCTOR
Meet Jenna! Studio owner and business woman extraordinaire. Jenna has been practicing pottery since 2017 and now finds herself waist deep in the art world. Pottery presents her with challenges and rewards, and is why she finds ceramics so addicting!
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Megan Phillips
STUDIO MANAGER & INSTRUCTOR
Megan first tried out wheel throwing while attending ACAD in 2012. After being successful on the wheel, she changed her major and focused all her attention on ceramics. Watching people learn and grow is her favourite thing, and teaching is a passion of hers; she also has her Bachelors of Education!
In her own pottery practice she likes to make funky functional objects that spark joy in everyday rituals.
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Jill Lahring
OPERATIONS & ADMIN
Jill has been dabbling in ceramics since taking her first wheel-throwing class in 2019. A longtime drop-in member at Mud, she started out making pots to house her growing plant collection.
Today, she helps keep things running smoothly behind the scenes! Jill primarily manages all scheduling, web, sales, memberships, and answering your emails!
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Pat Jaffray
STUDIO TECHNICIAN & INSTRUCTOR
Pat's love affair with clay began in the 90's and it's continued ever since (when he wasn't being pulled away by his other career as a minerals chemist). He's lived and worked in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. For the last ten years he was the owner/operator of a teaching studio in Malaysia. He is drawn to the joy of discovery. Even after all this time, he still finds clay revealing new mysteries all the time.
@pat_jaffray
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Katie Romansky
INSTRUCTOR
Katie studied ceramics at AUArts, trained as a geologist before that, and has always liked rocks whether in their natural or artistic form. She loves teaching and sharing what she knows about clay! She met an incredible woman named Jenna in 2020 and was brought on board to help build Mud Potters. When she is not at the studio Katie tries to get out into nature as often as possible to camp, ski, bike, and climb.
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Hanna Ferreira
INSTRUCTOR
Hanna first fell in love with pottery at the young age of 14 when she discovered the wheel at a local art studio. She is so excited to find herself working and playing with clay day to day and loves to share her passion with others.
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Jacquie Brown
INSTRUCTOR
Jacquie has been throwing clay and teaching for many years after graduating from AUArts. With an impressive background in glazing, she has shared some invaluable recipes with us. Jacquie loves working with clay and glazes and hopes to pass along her love of all things pottery to her students!
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Emily Mireault
INSTRUCTOR
Emily is the ‘em’ behind CERemICS CERAMICS, and she has been hucking mud since October 2021. Originally part of the marketing and digital design world, pottery became a ‘hands-on’ creative outlet for her without the safety net of an undo button. Curiosity quickly developed into a passion, and with over a decade of teaching experience in power skating, the transition to instruction came naturally. Emily specializes in functional shapes and sets, and adores going down the rabbit-holes of techniques and science that ceramics involves.
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Melanie McEwing
INSTRUCTOR
Melanie has been working with clay for years but has been on the wheel since 2019. She has taught both wheel throwing and hand building classes in her home town. She is currently a student at Alberta University of the Arts taking a bachelor of fine arts, majoring in ceramics.
@melanie.mcewing_art -
Madde Sullivan
INSTRUCTOR
Madde found her love of clay by accident when she stumbled across the pottery studio on her college campus. 5 years after an immediate switch into the arts program, Madde is still throwing pots and no where close to getting sick of it. She has a love for teaching and is stoked to call Mud her home. If you hear someone obnoxiously whistling around the studio, nine times out of ten, it will be Madde.
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Amy Hein
INSTRUCTOR
Amy Hein (she/her), received her BFA in 2018 from AUArts, and graduated from the Visual and Creative Arts program at Sheridan College before that. Amy has been drawing and painting as long as she can remember, and now specializes in painting her botanical illustrations on pottery, all inspired by nature. Amy has been teaching painting, drawing and hand built ceramics for over 10 years. After finding Mud Urban Potters in 2021, she tried her hand at wheel throwing again, and found the studio community to be the welcoming art outlet she was missing. When not in the studio, Amy can most likely be found in her garden or enjoying the beautiful Alberta landscape.
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Jason Cripps
INSTRUCTOR
Bio coming soon :)