About Drake Bialecki

Drake Bialecki is a Farm Certification Service Specialist at CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), studio potter, pottery teacher, and social media advocate based in Santa Cruz, California. He received his BA in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Agroecology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. While in school, he also dedicated time pursuing an apprenticeship/production potter position at both Dark Horse Pottery and Santa Cruz Pottery. His professional experience includes being the 2014/2015 International Volunteer Potter at The Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall U.K., cellar hand at Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, CA, and a pottery instructor at Good Life Ceramics in Santa Cruz, CA. Drake founded Pacific Stone Pottery in 2017 and looks forward to connecting people with handmade pottery and farm fresh food.

Inspiration

Throughout history, art and craft has documented the existence of human civilization. From primordial times through today, our presence has been recorded in every medium imaginable. Although there are many ways of creating and expressing oneself in the 21st century, Drake has found his passion in clay and farming. Sitting and throwing at the wheel has become a meditative process that allows Drake to focus on each individual piece and produce an abundance of aesthetically pleasing forms. Drake's functional pottery is a product of his personal experiences in and out of the ceramic world relating to his formative high school ceramics courses, traveling the globe in search of wonderment and beauty, and most importantly, his apprenticeships at Dark Horse Pottery and the Leach Pottery. While it is true that Drake has been strongly influenced by his unique and knowledgeable instructors over the past 15 years, he holds a serious appreciation and respect for the natural world.