Meet the Team

Name: Steve

Pronouns: He/Him

IG Handle: @rubyste

Website: www.stephenrubyceramics.com

Role at MC: Co-Owner

Bio:Steve Ruby is a ceramic artist based in Oakland. He has been making ceramics for 20+ years and co-founded Merritt Ceramics in 2017. Over the past few years, he’s been able to return to his own work, creating unique functional pieces in a Berkeley studio, working primarily in porcelain with wheel throwing, sgraffito, and altered thrown forms inspired by floral designs and process-oriented forms.

Random fact: I didn't get a BFA or a MFA in ceramics and started my ceramic journey at a community college ceramics 101 class after I graduated from college and was working at a restaurant in my mid 20's.

Name: Anna

Pronouns: She/Her

IG Handle: @anna_yuhkyung

Website: www.annayuhkyung.com

Role at MC: Co-Owner

Bio: Anna is a ceramic artist based in Oakland, where she co-owns Merritt Ceramics. After taking a hiatus from her practice, she is now creating a new body of work out of her Berkeley studio. She creates vibrant sculptural flowers, weeds, and imagined plant forms. Drawing from over 20 years of working with clay, she combines material exploration with an ongoing interest in cultural inheritance, observation, and the ways people are shaped over time. Through intuitive color, pattern, and form, she creates playful sculptures that reflect on the quiet process of unfolding and the beauty of things still becoming. Anna received a BA(hons) in Ceramic Design at Central Saint Martins in London, England.

Random fact: My signature dance move is the worm.

Name: Sofia

Pronouns: They/They

IG Handle: @sofia_draws22

Role at MC: Studio Tech

Bio: Sofia grew up in Cyprus, an island with rich ceramic culture and history. Hand building with clay since childhood, they started learning how to throw in 2016 and at the moment they're interested in the chemistry of glaze mixing. 

Random fact: I help host a weekly roller skating event in our neighborhood.

Name: Eli

Pronouns: They/Them

IG Handle: n/a

Website: n/a

Role at MC: Studio Tech

Bio: Eli first tried ceramics in 2022 in a community college class and since then has made it a core part of their creative practice. They’re especially focused on hand-building with all kinds of clay bodies, and intuitive methods of working with clay.

Random fact: Thrives in high humidity

Name: Sye

Pronouns: She/Her

IG Handle: n/a

Website: n/a

Role at MC: Studio Tech

Bio: Sye has been in a relationship with clay since 2021, and her favorite thing about it is how forgiving it is and how integral it is to Pakistani Shia culture. At MC, her go-to glaze is Fruit and Copper Island! Sye truly loves being a part of the MC community and the creativity it inspires.

Random fact: I count Harbor Seals for a data base in the Bay! 

Name: Emily

Pronouns: She/Her

IG Handle: @emtarnerart

Website: www.emilytarnerceramics.bigcartel.com/

Role at MC: Instructor & Studio Tech

Bio: Emily Tarner attended Indiana University and graduated with a BFA in Ceramics and a BA in Art history. She spent 2 years at the Brockway Center for Arts and Technology as an artist in residence. She currently resides in Oakland, California and teaches at Merritt Ceramics.When not playing with inside dirt, she can be found playing with outside dirt at a park. She is also an avid collector of tchotchkes and good rocks.

Random fact: I won a tshirt for chugging a Diet Coke in 5 seconds.

Name: Ryan

Pronouns: He/Him

IG Handle: @ryanmccullen

Website: www.ryanmccullen.com

Role at MC: Instructor

Bio: Ryan has worked in the world of ceramics for the past 18 years. He started in production pottery as his second job out of high school which led to a continued educational exploration in college. Halfway in his career he learned that his true passion is sharing his knowledge of various ceramic techniques through vocational and recreational education. Ryan’s personal work has been a direct comment on the rampant consumerism and throw away culture of U.S. society embraces and how it has changed the natural world.

Random fact: I’ve been an amateur preserve maker for the last 12 years.

Name: Phoebe

Pronouns: She/Her

IG Handle: @phoebedeutsch

Website: www.phoebedeutsch.com

Role at MC: Instructor

Bio: Phoebe Deutsch holds a BFA in Fine Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology School for American Craft. She has exhibited at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, The Palo Alto Art Center, Dyer Arts Center & Mehu Gallery in New York City, Massachusetts Audubon Society, as well as Transmission Gallery & The Drawing Room in San Francisco. Print publications include Carrier Pigeon Magazine, Issue 15 featured in the PS1 MOMA Store and Art Basel Miami.

Phoebe has been awarded artist in residency fellowships at Watershed Center For The Ceramic Arts (Maine, USA), Northcote Pottery (Melbourne, Australia), Guttenberg Art (New Jersey, USA) and Elf School For The Arts (North Carolina, USA).

She is currently a guest lecturer at The California College of Art in San Francisco, Northeastern University, and a long standing faculty member at The Potters Studio and Merritt Ceramics.

Her work explores the interconnectedness of natural systems. She believes that the natural world is not only an inherent part of us as human beings (and we of it), but that it is the original exquisitely sensitive mirror in which we find our own inner terrain and wildness reflected.

Random fact: I have swam in the Great Barrier Reef 

Name: Cathy

Pronouns: She/Her

IG Handle: @emtarnerart

Website: www.cathynilandart.com

Role at MC: Instructor

Bio: Cathy has been working with clay for nearly two decades and has been teaching since 2018. She holds a BFA in Fine Art from Pratt Institute and has lived in the Bay Area since 2014. Cathy enjoys making functional and decorative ceramics that feature detailed carvings and explores themes of compulsion and repetition throughout her work. As a teacher, she is dedicated to helping students build strong foundational skills through positivity and the belief that knowledge is for sharing.

Random fact: I am a distant relative of US President Grover Cleveland.

Name: George

Pronouns: He/They

IG Handle: @Georgie_pots

Role at MC: Instructor & Studio Tech

Bio: I’m originally from Berkeley and now reside in Oakland. Getting to turn my favorite hobby into my job has been such a joy these past few years. I’m a sculptor and potter with a love for fun surfaces and unconventional forms.

Random fact: I can make some pretty rad friendship bracelets