Meet Summer Brendlinger, a clay artist who can teach you to perform feats of clay!

Summer recently became the resident ceramic artist at Talent Maker City, where her classes introduce beginners of all ages to the basic pottery skills of hand-building “pinch pots,” constructing forms from clay slabs, “throwing” vessels on the potter’s wheel, and decorating their work with incised designs and glazes. You will find her class schedule at www.talentmakercity.org.

Want to see some of her artistry? Come to the Clayfolk Show and Sale at the Medford Armory, November 18-20, and look for her booth among the more than sixty clay artists showing their wares.

Show hours:

  • Friday, November 18, 10am-7pm
  • Saturday, November 19, 10am-7pm
  • Sunday, November 20, 10am-3pm
  • Admission is free!

Summer fell in love in high school…in love with clay. And the love affair continued throughout college. It took a back seat during the fourteen years she enjoyed teaching grade-school kids. But now, thanks to a position at Talent Maker City, she has found a way to combine her love of clay with her love of teaching—all of which seems to explain the name she chose for her business: Kilned with Kindness.

Ms. Brendlinger loves to make functional pottery—things that people can use, such as mugs, bowls, bud vases, salt & pepper shakers—anything with a surface that she can decorate using one of two techniques. The first is called, underglaze, which involves painting a decoration—a flower, perhaps—on the vessel with metallic oxides and glazes, sometimes of many colors, and then covering the pattern with a transparent, see-through glaze. The other technique, known as sgraffito (the Italian word for scratched) requires carefully scraping away nearly all a color layer, revealing the natural clay underneath but leaving just enough color to form a design on the surface. All her carefully crafted work is kindly fired in her kiln at nearly 2200 degrees.

Of course, you’ll want to see the work of the more than three-score other clay artists displaying wares of all sizes, colors, and shapes at the Clayfolk Show and Sale—where you’ll find whimsical raku, colorful earthenware, stolid stoneware mugs and bowls, delicate porcelain sculptures, and much more!

As always, there will be amazing demonstrations of “throwing” on the potter’s wheel and other clay-fabrication techniques. All the artists in the Show will be there in person and eager to talk with you about their craft. And if you come back on Sunday, you will have a chance to win the periodic drawing.

So, c’mon over to the Clayfolk Show Show and Sale at the Medford Armory, 1701 S Pacific Hwy, Medford, OR 97501. It’s just a few blocks west of the South Medford exit on I-5.

In the meantime, you can find Summer Brendlinger at Talent Maker City. Or, if she’s not there, look on her website: Kilnedwithkindness.com; on Instagram: kilnedwithkindness; or on Facebook: Kilned with Kindness Handmade Pottery.