14320 NE 21st Street #20, Bellevue, Washington 98007
About Us
Our Studio:
Kokanee Clay Studio is a new community ceramics studio on the Eastside. Our 1916 square foot space has a main studio space, a classroom, a kiln and storage room, and a glazing room. Windows on 3 sides of the space provide plenty of natural light, plus our roll-up door can be opened for extra light and air on nice days. There is free, off-street parking in our lot, and we have 24-hour access for members. We even have air conditioning to keep us comfortable on hot summer days.
Our facility includes:
- 20 pottery wheels for student and member use.
- Work tables for hand-building projects
- Tools and equipment for throwing, hand-building, and decorating
- Two Skutt kilns
- A Shimpo slab roller
- A variety of mid-range clay bodies for purchase
- In-house and commercial glazes and underglazes.
- Ample storage space and shelving for in-progress work
- Lockers for student and members to store tools
We provide:
- 3-5 weekly classes for 10-12 adults with a duration of 10 weeks each quarter
- Membership tiers of studio access, up to 24/7 unlimited hours
- Regular firings of student and member work.
- Occasional workshops, studio events, and sales
- Team-building sessions and private events
- Private lessons
Heather Fitzgerald
Kokanee Clay Studio
Kokanee Clay Studio
Heather has a BA in ceramics and painting from Bennington College in Vermont. She has extensive experience in customer service, order fulfillment, and supply chain management in the tech industry, and has worked as an office manager for a financial consultancy. While starting a family and raising her two young children in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Heather was actively involved in the cooperative housing community where she and her family lived. Upon moving to Redmond, Heather rediscovered her love of and talent for ceramics as a volunteer camp assistant at Redmond Clay Studio, where she continued as a student and active part of its community of artists until it closed in 2017. She is excited to introduce more people to the joy of creating with clay, and to build a thriving community of artists.
Kokanee Clay Studio
Kokanee Clay Studio
Kokanee Clay Studio
Vicky and Heather met at Redmond Clay Studio, where they each took classes and created work until the studio closed in 2017. Both avid clay artists, they then searched for another studio with the strong foundation of instruction and community they had become accustomed to at RCS, Now Vicky and Heather have partnered to realize their vision and create a new collaborative space for ceramic artists and enthusiasts. They are dedicated to creating a welcoming, functional, and enriching studio and community for members, students, instructors, and visitors.
Come join them at Kokanee Clay Studio.
Vicky Hattori
Kokanee Clay Studio
Vicky Hattori
Vicky has lived in Sammamish since 1994. She has a BS in biology with a minor in chemistry from the University of Oregon. She has laboratory experience working as a research assistant at the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon and at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center in Seattle. While raising 3 children, Vicky created ad campaigns in PPC marketing on Google AdWords. Vicky learned all about ceramics at the Redmond Clay Studio, where clay art became a passion for her as she took classes for 8 years,. She taught hand-building classes at Renaissance Junior High School in Sammamish, as well as taking on college-age students one-on-one in her private studio. Vicky loves creating opportunities for people to get involved in ceramics, and sharing the excitement and exploration of this art form.
Our Instructors
Pat Colyar
Pat Colyar has been working in clay since 1980, and has been teaching pottery in the Seattle area since 1988. Her love of throwing comes through in her teaching and in her functional ceramics.
"I always enjoy helping students improve their throwing and glazing skills. In my own ceramic work, it's very satisfying to make mugs, bowls and other objects that people enjoy using every day".
Rupa Palasamudram
Rupa Palasamudram
Rupa Palasamudram
Rupa is a teacher at heart and passionate about teaching. She has been teaching since 2012 to adults and children of varying skill levels from beginner to advanced. She works hard to create a curriculum that is both challenging and personal to every class and take pride in the growth of every student. The focus of her teaching is to introduce new techniques, as well as building skills.
Rupa incorporates various surface decorating techniques and helps students explore and experiment in creating interesting surfaces to make it personal and unique to their work. She is constantly inspired by the fresh, unique and creative ideas that students bring with them. This helps her to experiment and fine tune new techniques that she, in turn brings to class and share with students.
You can view Rupa's work at
Rupa Palasamudram
Rupa Palasamudram
Sudhi Tirnahalli
Sudhi Tirnahalli
Sudhi Tirnahalli
Sudhi Tirnahalli
Sudhi Tirnahalli
Sudhi Tirnahalli is a Clay Artist, Musician and a Technologist born in India and residing in the Seattle. He believes it is a blessing for the right brain to take over and make pottery. He works with terracotta, stoneware and porcelain clay bodies with a surface décor that incorporates mathematical symbols/equations, code snippets, happy motifs from folk-art forms and ancient scripts from many languages. He loves exposing the raw clay body for its true color and character and hence most of his art work has little to no glazes on the outside. In the last few years he has been exploring other media to see how they can co-exist with clay. Sudhi creates art in his home studio and teaches pottery in other clay studios in the Seattle area.
Chanda Zea
Chanda Zea
Chanda Zea
Chanda Zea is an artist, teacher, and maker with a deep love for building community through clay. She maintains an active presence in the national field through her board service as the Programs Director for NCECA, the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts.Her diverse studio practice ranges from large installations to functional pottery and is inspired by the processes of making as well as objects of industrial and mid-century modern design. To learn more, visit her website chandazea.com, or follow her on social media @chandazea.
Chanda Zea
Chanda Zea