Stories from Rising Stars 2026

Clay Art Center students Marjorie Madfis, Julia Baker, and Heather Vanek shared the stories behind their Rising Stars pieces.

The Rising Stars exhibition is an annual celebration of the work of students and teachers at all stages in their ceramics journeys. One of the truly great parts about working in a community studio is being able to celebrate one another’s triumphs - and to learn from them. The show offers a great opportunity to find inspiration for your next project, get a sense of a new glaze combination, or even discover a new teacher you want to work with.

Marjorie Madfis created her sculpture Rocks with the guidance of both Mara Gross and Christine Raposas. Her original inspiration was cairns, or stacks of rocks that people have been creating for millennia. Marjorie planned to make two “garden stacks” that would be evocative of cairns for her new waterfall garden. Making sure the stacks would come together and stand took careful planning: “I knew that the stack of ceramic rocks would need to be supported by a steal rod,” Marjorie shared, “Each rock would need two holes – top and bottom - to place on the rod and that each rock would have a rubber washer in between to reduce the friction of rock against rock. I sketched out two stacks with various sizes and shapes, color and texture. To keep the rocks light they needed to be hollow inside. Larger rocks were made by making two slab bowls and putting them together. Smaller rocks were made with two pinch pots. Each sphere was altered to create a realistic rock shape.” The pieces did well in the bisque firing, but then Marjorie came up against a big challenge: glazing. “I did not consider the problem of glazing on all sides of the spheres,” Marjorie said, “That caused a brief setback, but with August’s and Lucy’s help, I was able to balance some on stilts and others were naked on the bottom, and the staff were able to put them into the kiln.” All in all, the project took six months to complete, and Marjorie noted that its long-term nature was part of why she chose Rocks as her Rising Stars submission: she wanted to show how a multi-step project could be executed with the support of Clay Art Center teachers and staff.

Julia Baker’s Mr. Hippo is just one of her many animal creations, inspired by what Julia calls her animal obsession. From her very first pottery class, Julia has brought her love of animals to the fore: “I started doing pottery on the wheel, but I would always try to find a way to incorporate animals somehow either through altering the pieces or decoration. After being inspired by a movie called Microcosms I decided I wanted to make a sculpture of a dung beetle pushing a ball of dung. So I took my first handbuilding class at Clay Art Center with Abel and they helped me do that, and I fell in love with handbuilding. Since then I've just continued making different animals and sometimes food because those are my favorite things.” Mr. Hippo actually started out as a Malayan Tapir, but Julia pivoted once she noticed that he was looking more like a hippo. From there, it was a case of art imitating life: Julia added red-billed oxpecker birds to his back, which have a symbiotic relationship with hippos that she has always found fascinating. Julia keeps a running list of animals that she’s interested in sculpting, which she says has reached about 30. “When I'm starting a new project I narrow it down to about 5 I'm really interested in at the moment and look at pictures of the candidates,” Julia said, “I consider what shapes and textures and colorations of the animals would be fun to work on and get input from the teacher. Then I start with the body, which I almost always construct out of 2 pinch pots. I think it provides a sturdy but flexible base for the animal. If I'm ever not sure what to make I just make a body out of 2 pinch pots and go from there.” Which animal is up next? Julia is nearly finished with a big sculpture of a striped skunk and she’s just starting a short-beaked echidna.

Heather Vanek’s Butterfly was created in Mara Gross’s Handbuilding for All Levels class, but Heather says she also owes a big thank-you to ceramicist Christina Orthwein, whose workshop on 6-sided creations. Taking that workshop inspired Heather to play with shapes, and it was reworking the original templates from the workshop into new designs of her own that lead to the creation of Butterfly. Creating even 6-sided ceramics requires careful planning, but leaves room for playfulness, which fits in well with Heather’s clay process. “I often start with a strong vision,” she shared, “but along the way, the creative process invites a pivot or two—and I’m always happy to follow where it leads.” Heather noted that she loves how her pieces celebrates raw clay and balances that with playful glazing, which is why she submitted it to Rising Stars. For students just starting out with clay, Heather had this advice to offer: “Pottery is wonderfully humbling. Keep going, trust the process, and enjoy the journey.” Wise words that get right to the heart of Rising Stars!

Marjorie, Julia, and Heather’s work, along with the work of so many other talented Clay Art Center students, is on view in the gallery through February 14th, 2026.

Kelsie DaltonJanuary 21, 2026ExhibitionsComment