About

Ezh Clay is a small ceramics studio based in Oakland, California. The studio began in a local community space, shaped by generous potters, hands-on workshops, and many long nights at the wheel. Atmospheric firing quickly became home—wood, soda, and gas kilns where the fire has a voice in the final surface. Opening a kiln after a long firing, sleep-deprived and surrounded by friends, feels less like control and more like collaboration with flame, ash, and time.

Ezh Clay grew out of a long love affair with Japan, food, music, and clay. Years of taiko drumming tours led to repeated travels across Japan and sparked a deep admiration for Japanese aesthetics, everyday rituals, and the beauty of imperfection in daily objects. That same spirit now finds expression in clay.

Training in Seto, Japan deepened this connection. Working with 12th-generation potter Kato Hiroshige in one of Japan's historic pottery villages transformed the practice. Shigaraki clay has since become a distinct thread in the studio. Sourced from another region of Japan, its coarse texture responds beautifully to wood and soda firings and connects these pieces to a longer Japanese lineage.

Community wood firings in Oakland and across Japan followed. Through them came lessons in kiln building, experimentation with local materials, and exploration of new clay bodies. The firings—and the people around them—remain central to the work.

Forms at Ezh Clay are often influenced by nature, negative space, and the path of the flame. Surfaces emerge through layered slips, local materials, and introducing soda in different ways during the firing to invite variation and surprise. Every piece is made in small batches, and each pot is treated as a one-of-a-kind object—a record of process, place, and the unpredictable beauty of fire.

Ezh Clay works are sold through our Umami Pots Etsy shop.