Featured teacher: Emily Strogin

Emily Strogin: Clay as Focus, Teaching as Community

For Emily Strogin, ceramics offers something increasingly rare: focus. Working with clay quiets the mind by anchoring attention in the tangible — pressure, movement, balance, and form. In a world where much feels beyond control, clay responds directly to the hands, becoming both material and companion through difficult moments.

That same sense of grounding shapes Emily’s approach to teaching. She began teaching pottery with the intention of creating more than a skills-based class. Her goal was to build a space where people could slow down, focus on themselves, and feel safe enough to create — whether they were complete beginners or returning students.

Emily is drawn to the social nature of the pottery studio. She believes collaboration plays a crucial role in learning, particularly for those encountering clay for the first time. Pottery can feel overwhelming at the outset, but shared problem-solving, encouragement, and observation help students grow more confidently, both as makers and as people.

Teaching, for Emily, is a reciprocal practice. She values learning from her students’ diverse styles and perspectives, noting that growth doesn’t always come from mastering new techniques, but from discovering new ways of seeing. Over time, long-standing relationships have developed with students who return year after year, creating an open environment where experimentation and risk feel supported.

In Emily’s studio, ceramics becomes a meeting point — between control and surrender, individuality and community. Her classes offer more than instruction; they offer a place to connect with clay, with others, and with oneself.