clay festival annual juried exhibition
PERCEPTION
This exhibition is a call for ceramic artwork that explores the concept of Perception—how we see, interpret, and interact with the world around us.
All types of ceramic work are welcome.
The exhibition will be juried anonymously through the submission of digital images.
Perception invites ceramic artists to submit work that delves into this idea, examining personal, cultural, and sensory interpretations of their environment and experiences.
WHEN:
Opening Reception: July 4th, 5-7PM
Closing Reception: July 19 6-8PM
Perception will run from July 3rd - July 20th.
LOCATION:
209 W. Broadway, Silver City, NM 88061
Submission Deadline: June 3rd, 2025 11:59PM (MST)
exhibition
Think outside the glaze.
This workshop will focus on forms and surfaces outside the everyday glazed vessel. Students will concentrate on enhancing their wheel-throwing skills as well as honing in on their own individual aesthetic interests. Make pots then inlay designs and compositions into the surfaces in a manner similar to tattooing. Alongside demos, exercises, and class discussions, students will add their personal touches to complete a new body of work.
Location: Western New Mexico University
Date and Time: July 14-18, 2025
10am-5pm daily with lunch break
Price: $535.00
Workshop
A PATCHWORK OF PATTERN PLAY
With Artist Miranda Howe
A PATCHWORK OF PATTERN PLAY
With Artist Miranda Howe
In this 2-day hands-on workshop, we will create a slab constructed form that will become our ‘canvas’ for experimenting with surface decoration techniques with an emphasis on using underglazes. We will cover applications best done in the wet and leather hard stage including embossing, mishima (inlay), slip-trailing, creating paper and Tyvek stencils and silk-screening. Additionally, we will create ‘applique’ components created on a plaster surface and then transfer them onto our form. Come join the fun!
Location: Diana Ingalls Leyba Studio & Gallery 315 N Bullard St, Silver City, NM 88061
Date: Saturday, July 12th & Sunday, July 13th
Time: Class will meet 10AM-4PM each of these days.
Price: $350.00
Registration:
Please Contact:
email: dianaingallsleybastudio@gmail.com
or
phone: 575 388-5725
Workshop
Surface exploration and developmenT
with Jessica Wilson
Develop your own surfacing style.
Focus on development and exploration of surface treatments such as sgraffito, mishima, shellac resist, wax resist, paper resist, image transfer, slip trailing, decals, lithography printing on clay and glaze application. Students will learn these techniques as well as execute them and build their own surface vocabulary.
Location: The Bear Mountain Lodge at 60 Bear Mountain Ranch Rd, Silver City, NM 88061
Date: July 14th-16th, 2025 (3-Day Workshop)
Time: Class will meet 10AM-4PM each of these days.
Price: $250.00
To register for this workshop, please contact Linda Gills at The Bear Mountain Lodge.
Email: info@bearmountainlodge.com
Phone: (575) 538-2538
exhibtion
WEATHERED PATTERNS
Miranda Howe
Artist: Miranda Howe
Ceramic artist, Miranda Howe, grew up in New Mexico and comes from a family of artists. She received her BFA from Texas Tech University, studied at the Aegean Center for Fine Arts in Greece, and completed her MFA from Montana State University in 2002.
Miranda has been accepted into art residencies at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, LH Project, Roswell Artist-in-Residence and Kohler Arts/Industry Program. Coming full-circle in returning to New Mexico, Miranda established her studio, Bone Springs Art Space, in a renovated historic warehouse in Roswell. Through the ongoing development of Bone Springs, she extends her love of teaching and community involvement by providing youth and adult classes, gallery exhibitions, event programming, and maintaining a retail gift shop featuring artwork by local and regional artists .
Artist Statement:
My ceramic work moves in two directions- one satisfies a need to create utilitarian pieces that easily become incorporated into one's daily routine, while the other explores interests in larger sculptural forms. Though very different in scale, idea, and purpose, both continually run parallel to and echo one another.
Travels abroad have influenced the decorative and ornamental qualities of my work. Patterns, textures, and colors are often reminiscent of crumbling walls, inlaid marble flooring, tightly woven textiles, and ornate mosaics. These decorative elements propagate a rhythm and cadence, lending themselves to meditative qualities. I explore the properties of this rhythm, as well as highlight the breaks or voids which interrupt that flow. Geologic elements such as fault lines, crevices or fissures are used to disrupt the predicted regularity of the decorative, exposing the information beneath the surface and providing glimpses into the secret spaces within.
Gallery Talk and Reception
Sunday, July 13th 5-7pm
Diana Ingalls Leyba Studio and Gallery | 315 N Bullard St, Silver City, NM 88061
THE CLAY MARKEt at the HISTORIC MURRAY HOTEL
2025 CLAY FESTIVAL MARKET INFORMATION
The CLAY Market is an integral part of the annual CLAY Festival in Silver City, NM, allowing local and out-of-area artists to display and sell their clay-centric wares. More info here
LOCATION: Silver City’s Historic Murray Hotel
200 W. Broadway St., Silver City, NM 88061
(575)-956-9400
MARKET DATES/HOURS:
Saturday, July 19th …..10am-4pm
Sunday, July 20th ……..11am-2pm
Book Presentation and Live Mata Ortiz Pottery Demonstration
Saturday July 19, 2025 | 10:00pm – 3:00pm
Silver City Museum Annex
302 West Broadway
More info here
workshop
Sculpted Earthen Bench
With Athena Steen and Danielle Felgenhauer
Learn the fundamentals of natural building while helping craft a sculptural, functional earthen bench using clay, sand, straw, and stone. Participants will gain hands-on experience with cob construction, adobe and straw-clay blocks, stone foundations, and clay sculpting techniques.
Led by renowned natural builders Athena Steen and Danielle Felgenhauer, this workshop offers the chance to learn from Athena, a leader in the revival of earthen architecture with decades of experience in sustainable design and building.
Location: Whiskey Creek Zócalo , 11786 US-180 East, Arenas Valley, NM 88022
Dates: Jul 16 -Jul 18, 2025 (3 day workshop)
Time: 10 AM- 4 PM
Cost: $375
workshop
The Art of pigment hunting
with The Pigment Hunter
Explore Silver City’s geological landscape while learning to identify, responsibly collect, and process natural pigments and clays for use in ceramics, clay bodies, plasters, slips, glazes, and paints. Participants will use maps to study local mineral formations and prepare materials through levigation, sifting, and milling.
Led by The Pigment Hunter, an artist dedicated to working with naturally sourced materials in direct relationship with the land.
Location: Whiskey Creek Zócalo , 11786 US-180 East, Arenas Valley, NM 88022
Dates: Jul 14-Jul 15, 2025 (2 day workshop)
Time: 10 AM- 5 PM
Cost: $250
MATA ORTIZ DEMONSTRATION
with Anna Trillo
Anna will demonstrate the traditional painting of pottery using human hair. Her pottery will be available for purchase.
Anna’s Statement:
I was born January 26th, 1970. I was brought up in El Rucio a very small community nine miles south of Mata Ortiz, where I lived to the age of 15. I then moved to Mata Ortiz where shortly after that I began to raise my family and start to learn about making pottery. I have four boys who are all trained as potters as well. My boys are Adrian, Ricardo, Martin and Daniel.
I have had the opportunity to travel a lot in the United States doing shows and pottery making demonstrations. One of my goals is to continue learning English so that I can better tell about the history of Mata Ortiz pottery.
I continue to live and create beautiful pottery in Mata Ortiz and I have a Gallery and Studio at my home. Pottery and painting are my passion but I feel the purpose for my life is to share my art with the world.
Location: Light Art Space , 209 West Broadway, Silver City, NM 88061
Time: Friday, July 18th 11 am – 4pm and Saturday, July 19th 11 am – 3 pm.
Cost: Free
exhibition
shades of clay
with Kate Brown and Barry Gillen
Kate Brown uses a slip-decorated, clear-glazed terra cotta ware, experimenting with glaze, color, and texture over her slips. Her patterns reflect her life in the foothills near the Gila wilderness.
Barry Gillen uses a high quality porcelain to create a wide variety of forms with complex geometric cutouts and shapes. He draws inspiration from the triangle and pyramid, using these forms to create patterns and rhythm.
