I’m Sarah, the founder of Sarah Kersten Studio. I work with my team in Oakland, California, where the combination of a rich and robust pottery tradition and the inspiration of coastal California combine to inform the nature of my work.

I started making ceramics at a young age and founded Sarah Kersten Studio in 2012. In the beginning, I hand threw my signature fermentation jars, working alone on the wheel. I quickly realized that working as a team of one wasn't sustainable and began learning about production techniques that would allow me to create my signature work on a larger scale.

Today, our team of nine people makes ceramics from raw clay to finished pieces in a 6,000 square foot studio in Oakland. All of our designs, molds, and clay and glaze formulas are custom made in-house. We utilize a combination of modern and traditional processes to make our work. Our ceramics are enjoyed by individuals in their homes and by chefs in their restaurants.

Our work is known for its beauty and durability, and we are thrilled to make ceramics that are truly used. Much of our aesthetic has grown out of the natural tendencies of the materials that we work with. We love high fired stoneware for the beauty of its features— which are always muted and subtle in hue— and for its strength. These traits, combined with a passion for seasonal cooking, a great love of being and making at home, and a deep respect for pottery tradition, make our work what it is.  So much of the world is plasticized and high-tech, but we look to pottery and its ancient heritage for grounding, and we lean into our commitment to show up day after day to move our work forward.

We aspire to create pieces that are sculpturally beautiful, effortlessly functional, and of heirloom quality. All of our designs respond to needs and wishes – needs we have in our own kitchen and wishes we've heard from friends and chefs we've worked with. We work slowly, considering shape, size, and the overall feeling of a piece for as long as it takes to get it just right — sometimes years.  We like it that way. We make objects that you live intimately with and will handle multiple times a day, and we take that honor seriously and joyfully. Pottery and its history is part of who we are as a people and a deeply meaningful way to spend our days at the studio. We love knowing that our work goes towards making people’s homes more beautiful and functional places to cook, live, and love.