Ayumi Horie

12/06/16 • 23 min

Ayumi Horie is a potter, maker, and activist living and working in Portland, Maine. She is also a social media innovator in the craft world and the curator of the popular Instagram feed Pots In Action (@potsinaction). Her body of work embodies her belief that the best handmade pottery encourages connections between people and makes daily life better. Recently, as a recipient of the United States Artist Fellowship, she has turned her attention to learning and including digital and industrial processes in her work. As a part of this work, she has purchased a RAM press, which she will use to create prototypes that she can then individualize, a process she hopes to help her sustain a very physical craft over a lifetime.

Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. Make/Time is hosted by Stuart Kestenbaum and is a project of craftschools.us.

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Theresa Secord

Theresa Secord is a Penobscot basket weaver and founder of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. She was recently named an American Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts. A lifelong Mainer, she grew up off reservation and eventually became a geologist. Theresa came to basketmaking through studying her native language as an adult; the weaving was a tactile part of the language lessons, and Theresa soon realized was more artist than linguist, and she's never turned back. Her work with the alliance has resulted in a rejuvenation of the the basketmaking tradition; the number of weavers from Wabanaki tribes has grown from a handful to scores, and it has become a viable source of income and renown for native weavers again. Recently, Theresa has stepped down from her organizing work to return to her own artistry, where she focuses on fancy basket work and on using new materials in place of the sacred and endangered Brown Ash.

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Cristina Còrdova

Cristina Còrdova is a sculptor and ceramicist living and working in Penland, North Carolina. She grew up in Puerto Rico, where she earned her Bachelors from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Cristina then went on to earn her MFA in ceramics from Alfred University in New York. A trained dancer, she brings a sense of movement and musicality into her figurative sculptures. Recently, she has begun working on a larger-than-life scale, and she focuses on creating pieces that walk the line between representation and abstraction. She often works with her husband, Pablo Soto, who is a glass artist, and also recently collaborated with her brother Arturo, an artist and animator.