What one does with one’s life can be a complex question. My focus has been as a professional musician. I specialize in trumpet and historical brasses in a chamber music setting with the Grammy-award-winning Chestnut Brass Company of Philadelphia.

My trumpet career led to numerous recordings and to travel across the United States and internationally. I taught at the collegiate level (in the US and in Seoul) and have written a book for young trumpeters, Daily Routines for the Student Trumpet Player,  (Mountain Peak Music).

While living and working in Philadelphia, a trumpet-playing friend, Stan Slotter, showed me some pottery he had made.  He encouraged me to take classes at the Clay Studio. I took a beginning clay class and felt as if my possibilities in creativity had exploded.

At the University of Kansas, Joe Zoeller (ceramics professor) insisted that I sketch my ideas of pots onto paper. Though this was challenging, I found it helped my pots evolve. The drawings are organic, with many textures and patterns. Master classes with Robert Briscoe, Ian Currie, Joyce Michaud, and Stephen Hill all guided my journey in ceramics over the past 30 years.

I work in functional pottery made to be handled and used daily. I consider the color of the glazes and the feel of the glaze on the hands. I live in the world of “the favorite mug” syndrome. I want people to have their special mug, let it help them be ready for the day’s challenges. Every time someone tells me that they love their mug, it always makes me smile, mission accomplished!

I grew up like most people, never having held something hand-made. Now I believe that hand-made objects connect us as people. Pottery, like all the arts, brings us closer to the magic of being human.

I grew up in Nebraska and went to college at the University of Northern Colorado. where I got my bachelor's degree in art and a teaching certificate. I studied ceramics with Herb Schumacher and DickLuster. I went to graduate school at UNC and also took courses at Loretto Heights under Nan and Jim McKinnell. After graduate school, I set up my first studio in Greeley, Co. I have moved and expanded my studio three times, I have been making pots now for over forty years and still live in Greeley. I make mostly functional porcelain pots. At one time I made about half of my work in non functional earthenware. I do a lot of glaze testing and experimentation in an effort to keep my work looking fresh. I keep an optimistic outlook on my work and always believe that my next kiln load will be the best I have ever done.

The general focus of my work for the last thirty plus years has been function and form. It is important to me that the pots I make work well and are a joy to use, both physically and aesthetically. It won’t do to have a beautiful teapot that won’t pour well. It is important to me that people use my pots in their every day lives and, in this way, our lives will be somewhat entwined and enriched. I enjoy how many people tell me that they have coffee with me every morning. Nearly all of my work is thrown on a wheel and made of porcelain. I enjoy the white clay, it’s translucency and how it interacts with glazes. Much of my inspiration comes from historical and contemporary ceramics, nature, and technique. I find that one technique is developed from another and keeps my work fresh and exciting to me. My hope is that the pots I make invite use and that my pleasure in making them will be shared by those who use them.

A native of Colorado, Carole Merriman has lived most of her adult life in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. She lives in Greeley while building a straw bale home north of Taos, New Mexico.
Her introduction to ceramics began at UNC in 1989, where she learned hand-building. In 2021, Carole began wheel throwing at Aims Community College. Working primarily with porcelain, she uses glaze to mimic the flowing nature of watercolor, where glazes interact to create abstract landscapes. She juxtaposes matte and shiny glazes, brushing and dipping her pieces to create visual and textural contrast. When you lift one of her creations and turn it in your hand, Carole hopes you will find something new to intrigue and inspire you. As well as being a ceramic artist, she is a teacher and student of yoga, where she practices the art of yoking–balance, strength, and alignment. She has studied papermaking, painting, and printmaking.

Sue Smith is a UNC graduate as a fine arts education major. Now retired, Sue has been honing her ceramics skills at the Clay Center of Northern Colorado under the wing of Tim Preston for the past ten years. 

Working with high-fire stoneware clay and porcelain Sue uses slab-building rather than the potter's wheel. She creates large vases, decorative flowers, whimsical animals as well as her signature 'aspen' ware. Sue's stoneware shot glasses, mugs, and planters resemble aspen tree logs with tree rings on the bottoms to complete the aspen look. 

Recently Sue has been creating three dimensional mountain scenes that she paints with acrylics after the pieces have been bisque fired; the pieces are then framed and wired to display.

Sue can be reached at sue.e.smith48@gmail.com. Her Instagram account is sue.e.smith and Facebook page is Sue Smith.