When a friend asked Veronica Medina whose job she would want out of anyone in the world, Medina immediately had an answer: her high school ceramics teacher. The question came after Medina graduated from college and began contemplating her next step.
“I just had this absolute, instinctive moment of clarity,” Medina said. “I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to spend my day-to-day.”
Steady hands
Sign up for one-time workshops or six-week courses at Community Clayworks by visiting communityclayworks.com. Check out the upcoming Valentine’s Day weekend classes on Feb. 13 and 14. The studio is located at 37 Industrial Way, suite 101-108, in Buellton.
The New Jersey native picked up clay when she was in high school and continued at New York University. She enrolled in a graduate-level course, suggested to her by the professor based on her experience.
“I was very functionally focused, and then I was in the world of sculpture and communicating ideas three-dimensionally, and that sort of changed how I thought about it,” the artist said of her college class. “I felt like it helped set this trajectory of a more well-rounded clay perspective.”
A lifelong creator, Medina loves the art of clay making. When she’s in the flow state on her wheel, it feels spiritual. Time just disappears.
“Clay was one of those things. I don’t know how to describe it exactly,” Medina said. “There are certain things that are so connected to your soul that you kind of can’t live without them, and this is one of them.”
After her ceramics-teacher-career revelation, Medina studied art education in graduate school and taught at the high school level for nine years in New York City.
Like taking up any new hobby, the keys are learning and having fun. Her advice to new potters is to find joy and playfulness in the challenges.
“I think there’s a very therapeutic effect of it being calming, clearing of the mind, but also really exhilarating when you feel like you’re creating something and you’re literally turning this pile of lumpy clay into something you’re excited about,” Medina said.
Ready for a change, she moved to California a decade ago, eventually starting up her own studio in the Santa Ynez Valley. During the pandemic she had to hold classes in her yard where everyone could keep their distance.
“I wanted to find a community that I could be a part of and that I could fit in where I could find people that were like-minded,” she said about opening her studio. “I felt like this was the only way that I could see finding that space for myself and for others. Essentially, it’s an extension of my classroom.”
Later in 2020 Medina secured a brick-and-mortar location in Buellton and named it Community Clayworks. This past November, the studio moved a couple of doors down to a space more than double its original size.
There are around half a dozen instructors at Community Clayworks, and a lot of them are clay makers who Medina met when she first opened her studio. Teachers have become friends with each other, and students who take classes or have memberships at the studio get close, too.
Medina and the other teachers offer six-week courses for beginner and intermediate levels. Students learn how to manage the potter’s wheel, use basic tools and shaping techniques, and glaze their creations. With experience from these extended programs, students often graduate to a membership so they can use the studio on their own time.
Every Saturday the studio holds sip and spin classes, allowing potters to bring beverages of their choice and experiment with clay. It’s a good introduction to the wheel, Media said.
Kids can join in on the fun at private parties and children’s workshops or summer camps. With young ones, shaping by hand and using basic tools is easier than working on the wheel.
No matter the skill level, Medina believes clay making is all about the fun, creative process rather than the result. The studio owner has worked hard for the past five years to give Community Clayworks heart and soul.
“It’s a place where you go to play and learn about clay, but it’s also a place to find connection with other people,” Medina said. “And I think that’s important nowadays.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in January 29 – February 5, 2026.