Life & Work with Carter Stone of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carter Stone.

Hi Carter, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
my ceramic journey began in 2005 when I took a ceramic class in college. it was an instant love. I started taking classes at the local pottery lab in boulder Co, at which point I started bringing home my handbill projects and would work on them in my apratment living room. needless to say I was obsessed. over the next couple years I began making the 1st versions of my current style. then life changed and I moved and ceramics feel to the wayside for a over a decade. It was during a battle with Lyme Disease (what Western society calls Lymes Disease) my body and spirit were shutting down, I was barely functioning. I heard the clay calling to me. I found a ceramic Urban Mud Ceramic studio and Gallery in Denver Co and joined. I brought home a bag of clay and once again I began making these ceramic forms on my kitchen table. It was at that point the only thing that I was able to successfully do was make ceramics, it was then that I knew the clay was going to be a major part of my healing journey. I quickly found myself in a galley show and my pieces selling. then I moved back to Atlanta Ga, in 2022. that first year back I was detoxing hard from Lyme and mold toxcicty, I was only able to walk a half mile, I was sleeping, in pain and turned my house into my ceramic studio. there is something deeply hurting and grounding about the clay it is a meditation for me away that I physically and tangible can process and heal myself through working with. I make a variety of sculptural ceramic decor piece and ceramic nature mixed media pieces.

it hard to say where my journey with art truly begins, because there are two aspects to my art. one is with the natural world and the wildlife that surrounds us. my love of nature and the natural world goes as far back as I can remember, as a child I was the one running barefoot int the woods, talking the the creatures and listening to the wind whisper through the trees. as a child it wasn’t a good day if I didn’t return home without an new scrape, cut, brusie or story to cherish. I know incorporate foraged elements skulls, antlers and bones, rocks, wood, plants intosome pieces and collections pieces of my ceramic pieces. This is par of my process of how I expececes the sacred, the deeper awareness and connection through cycles of death and rebirth, and honoring the experience of other living experiences. It’s how I honor that animals experience and share their story and educate people with all the other spirits that we share this existence with. I know find myself wandering in the woods, foraging for natural found object to add to my ceramic sculptures.

I have been in the holistic wellness industry for over 15yeras, I am a Certified Herbalist, Holistic Wellness Coach, and I am in the beginning stages of entering into the Birth World as A Doula. my love of understanding how to heal from a body mind and spirit approach are very important. I believe that ill-ness begins with Dis-ease in our spirit when we step away from our true self, it gets brought through energy and manifests in the physical body. I know this to be true from my personal experience. I have a great love for the plant alies, work in relationship. I spend a lot of my recent years in nature, hiking, camping, swimming in creeks, and finding a more harmony that works for me

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
no the road has not always been smooth. some struggles are when life is stressful and the creativity is is not flowing, the business side can be be daunting at times. when I’m not finding ways to sell the pieces, when I have zero inspiration, when I don’t know a technique and also I have been scared to talk openly about the depth of the connection that each piece is processing that the wildlife and nature holds to me for fear of being misunderstood, rejected, which goes back to childhood or not know how to be more successful at the business accept. social media is challenging for me. and not having a kiln of my own.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am most known for my ceramics and being in the holistic natural lifestyle. my ceramics and my love of the natural world and living a lifestyle that is more connected to the earths cycles and seasons, I have a deep spiritual side to me and am always nourishing that relationship. I specialize in large sculpture ceramic decor pieces, that would be center pieces for dining room table or a large coffee table, wall hangings My latest collections have been intergrating elements from the natural world into them. each one of my pieces is uniquely individual, not one is the same. I actually love the process of glazing and trying something new, glazing is the truly a moment of surrounding to be powerless and trusting the unknown, yes there are glazes and temperatures that do came out practically the same a lot of the time but there is other variable of what other glazes might be in the kiln firing at the same time, or where on the shelf the piece is sitting or they type of clay. I ultimately love the surrender and the surprise, I rarely do test tiles, only when I’m working on commissions. other. I also love when a piece cracks or breaks, it remind me of life and how we all experience challenges but its how we pick ourselves up put ourselves back together that counts and its not always a pretty experience, but in the end we’re more beautiful than the original unbleshied piece was. I embrace the challenge of the cracks and breaks.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
my greatest lesson has been to be myself with confidence.

Pricing:

• 400
• 1000
• 2500
• 5000

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carterstonestudio.com
• Instagram: @carterstonestudio