About Miami Valley Pottery

"I founded Miami Valley Pottery in 2004 with my wife Jalana. The Pottery is located just outside the charming village of Yellow Springs where I grew up and was first exposed to the ceramic arts. As part of my school's 'Community Experience' program I spent two years of High School working in the studio of David & Keiko Hergesheimer. I then spent the next four years at Earlham College studying Ceramics with Mike Theideman, who worked with Warren McKenzie. Warren McKenzie was Bernard Leach's first American apprentice. McKenzie introduced the Leach tradition of functional studio pottery to the United States.

After graduation from Earlham, I returned to Yellow Springs and worked for three years in the Community Pottery. It was during this time I realized that I needed more training and chose apprenticeship rather than graduate school. I began by working with Cary Hulin at Holmes County Pottery in Ohio. I then joined his mentor, Todd Piker, at Cornwall Bridge Pottery in Connecticut, where I spent over two years. Todd had apprenticed with Michael Cardew, who was Bernard Leach's very first apprentice.

My apprenticeship at Cornwall Bridge Pottery thus initiated me into the long tradition of wood-fire potters who trace a direct lineage back through Michael Cardew to Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. My time as an apprentice taught me the technical skills necessary to produce large quantities of functional ware, and more importantly provided me with an understanding of what qualities distinguish a beautiful pot — and a successful pottery."

- Naysan McIlhargey        

The focus of Miami Valley Pottery is hand made, functional, wood fired pottery.

After graduating in Ceramics from Earlham College, Naysan was an apprentice to Cary Hulin of Holmes County Pottery and Todd Piker of Cornwall Bridge Pottery, where he focused on hand-thrown production pottery and firing large Anagama woodfired kilns.

In 2004, Naysan and his wife Jalana established Miami Valley Pottery in Yellow Springs, Ohio.