Shooting Star potter, Martha Kelly, has been in Patagonia working as a studio potter since 1981. “Throughout my life, clay has always been the source of my true joy. The magic of making something out of nothing is truly a gift to the potter as well as the world.”
Martha was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. It was a month-long clay work workshop in Greenwich Village when she was sixteen that began her long journey into the world of clay. In the late seventies, she studied and became an apprentice potter to Barbara Clark at the Cascabell Clayworks outside of Benson, Arizona. Not long after, she moved to the small town of Patagonia where she opened her studio, Shooting Star Pottery.
She also serves as a ceramics teacher at the Patagonia Creative Arts Center. Her work is available for purchase at the Patagonia Trading Post at 317 McKeown Avenue.
Shooting Star Pottery is one of the last remaining working studios in Patagonia. It is located directly behind 431 Duquesne Ave. on Santa Rita Alley. Go down Santa Rita Alley from 4th Ave. and look for the sign.
Shooting Star Pottery features mostly functional pieces thrown on a potter’s wheel, specializing in tableware and dinnerware sets, as well as one of a kind pieces. The glazes can be bright and eye-catching, or a variety of more subtle earth tones. The use of white stoneware and porcelain clay allows for the true colors of the glazes to show.
Martha’s one-of-a-kind ceramic mosaics can be seen on panels at the Patagonia Creative Art Center, Patagonia Trading Post and on Naugle Avenue.
In Kelly’s own words, “Patagonia is my place and being a potter is my life. What a lucky and blessed life I live to have clay as my life work and to be able to share it with my family and the world.”
If you don’t find Martha at her studio, just give her a call and she will be happy to open her studio for you!