A Little About Us:
Welcome! My name is Annie Spikes and I am the daughter of the mother/daughter team for the Potter's Daughter Studio. We live and create in Claremore, OK, but we travel around Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and even New Mexico. At The Potter's Daughter Studio, we create thrown and hand-built pieces. No matter what we make, we strive to make fun pieces that bring a little more joy into the world.
Our Story
Creating ceramic pieces is a completely unique experience from other art mediums. Ceramic artists get to take a muddy mess and transform it in stunning, and often unexpected ways. Our story parallels the ceramic process in many ways. The Potter's Daughter Studio was initially born from a mess and has become a way to take that mess and give the world a little more joy.
My (Annie's) senior year of high school. I became overwhelmed with crippling depression. One of my mother's many attempts to find some joy amidst the hardship was to do a couple sessions with a local pottery studio. We both fell in love with it, and my mother went on to take classes at the local colleges. For years, she developed her pottery skills, particularly with throwing. Meanwhile, I learned to cope with my depression, went to college, and began working.
In 2018, my mother reached the point where she wanted her own studio, and began creating one in the garage. This was the first time in a decade that I had access to a studio and the opportunity to express myself through clay. The following year, a tornado destroyed the school I had been working at, and I suddenly had a significant amount of time to fill while figuring out what to do next. It was during that time that the idea to make The Potter's Daughter Studio a functioning reality.
We planned for beginning shows summer of 2020, unaware of the pending global pandemic. The pandemic put a halt to our plans, but it also opened a new opportunity. Some friends were looking for things their children could be involved with during the height of the pandemic and requested that I give their daughter some ceramics lessons. What was supposed to be a few lessons in the summer turned into a passion. The Potter's Daughter Studio became a place where any one's mucky mess can be fired into joy.
Meet The Artists
Elaine Spikes
Elaine has been a potter for more than a decade now, and she specializes in throwing beautiful consistent pieces. Left to her own devices, she would happily throw bowls till the end of her days. Fortunately, friends and family push her to use her considerable talent to create a wide variety of thrown forms. Elaine is also the originator of The Potter's Daughter Studio name. The studio name comes from Isaiah 64:8, "Still, Eternal One, You are our Father. We are just clay, and You are the potter. We are the product of your creative action, shaped and formed into something of worth."
Annie Spikes
Annie is all about the hand-building and sculptural side of ceramics. Most of her inspiration comes from nature, with an emphasis on aquatic life. Annie also loves to teach and help people find their own style and voice with ceramics, whether they are four or ninety-four. While the end products of ceramics are beautiful, Annie feels most inspired by the process of changing mud or broken things into new life and joy for others. She enjoys taking broken or failed pieces and transforming them into new creations.
