Samirah

@samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social

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ceramics | minerals and rocks | landscapes | earthy distractions samirahsteinmeyer.com

A porcelain mug with a sculpted skeleton (skull, hand and arm) embedded in a mossy, rocky landscape. Held by my hand. Primarily off white clay color with turquoise and green glazes in spots.
A porcelain test tiles showing a clear glaze made from the minerals and rock just behind the tile.
a video showing a tiny bit of my process because I can't seem to remember to film and put together a more comprehensive video. I'm holding a wheelthrown cup that has the beginnings of a sculpted canyon wall and I'm adding rocks and a cactus shape to it. The video ends with the finished (but unfired and unglazed) cup with more detail, rocks and cacti.
Four wheel thrown stoneware mugs, each decorated with one Palo Verde Beetle that I sculpted and glazed with a black-brown glaze. The top exterior is glazed in sky blue and the bottom is left unglazed.
Wheel thrown porcelain mug with a tarantula I sculpted, glazed in a light purple neodymium glaze.
A test bowl made with a blend of half high fire stoneware + half low fire local desert clay. The two clays together resulted in a mid fire blend.
There are two bowls filled with dry clay. Top left: this clay is a very light tan high fire stoneware blend. Bottom: is a low fire brown local desert clay I gathered by the side of the road. Two small wheel thrown pots site to the right of the bowls to illustrate how a blend of the two clays looks. It's a light chocolate brown color.
A young saguaro growing in a rock outcropping in Saguaro National Park.
In the foreground is a bucket with a mixture of three clays, minerals, and water. It is poured onto a plaster slab so it can firm up a bit, then removed using a plastic rib tool, then wedged into smaller lumps of ready to use clay.
I'm holding a porcelain mug that I sculpted to resemble a rocky outcropping with a fossilized human skull and cacti growing around it. The upper portion of the mug is glazed in a turquoise green. Available at samirahsteinmeyer.com
I'm holding a piece of granite (part quartz, tightly packed shiny muscovite, and a little bit of feldspar) that I found in the middle of a dirt road in the mountains.
I'm holding a ceramic cup with sky blue glaze decorated with a sculpted, rock outcropping and two cacti nestled within. Inspired by my Sonoran Desert.
A series of desert mountain inspired functional ceramic items are shown: a small ceramic altar that resembles a miniature desert canyon landscape, a tumbler that resembles desert geology with actual rocks embedded in the clay, another ceramic desert altar, a crystalline cup made with local Sonoran Desert calcium carbonate, and two views of a porcelain anthropocene fossil mug made with local mountain rocks embedded in the clay. All available Sunday at 2pm, PST in my online shop.
A stoneware cup with a homemade Caliche Aventurine glaze, with juicy crystalline drips.
A wheel thrown porcelain mug decorated to resemble a crumbling rock outcropping with a sculpted skull, moss, and actual rocks embedded. Five blooming cacti have sprouted from the skull.
A porcelain cup glazed with a homemade Caliche Aventurine, with calcium carbonate from my backyard. This glaze has a dark background comprised of a gradient from black to dark brown with subtle hints of green and purple. In the foreground are iron crystals varying in size and density, flowing downward like a crystalline shower.
A wheel thrown stoneware cup on a table surrounded by plants. The cup is sculpted to resemble a slab of granite with moss and veins of actual rocks embedded into the clay. The upper portion of the cup is glazed in a warm taupe color.
An unfired, unglazed, wheelthrown porcelain vase with sculpted elements added that resemble geological formations, veins of moss and actual rocks embedded in the clay. The vase is on a table surrounded by ceramic tools.
An unfired, unglazed porcelain mug sculpted to resemble a crumbling rock outcropping with cacti. Under the cacti is a sculpted skull.
A ceramic mug sculpted to resemble a miniature segment of a rocky desert canyon. A group of five cacti are perched in a rocky cliff, as well as two small cacti tucked within the handle (carved to look like precariously stacked rocks.
To the left of the photo is a closeup of a saguaro with dark columns of spines on bright apple green skin. The right side of the photo shows a desert landscape.
A miniature depiction of a rocky desert landscape, with cactus sculptures surrounding a reflective, blue pool and a single cactus perched on a rock within the pool. A tiny integrated vase within a rock outcropping holds dried yarrow flowers that resemble a tree.
A tall rock formation in a US National Forest in Arizona with an upside down American flag, a symbol of distress or political protest.
A cup with an aventurine glaze made with local calcium carbonate rock, caliche. Each batch looks slightly different because of variations in the chemical composition of the caliche. This one has teeny glittery sparkles in a black glaze matrix along the rim, the crystals gradually growing in size taking on a coppery color and drifting downwards in a reddish brown and greenish glaze matrix. The crystals rain down, gathering in a carpet along the bottom of the cup.
A ceramic altar that was sculpted to resemble a rocky desert canyon. A tiny cluster of sculpted cacti sit to the right of a pool below a waterfall. A found rock is pressed into a small pile of desert sand within the pool area. A built in vase has two dried flowers that look like balls of sunshine.
A desert trail surrounded by a rocky hillside with saguaro cacti. Many deer are in the photo, but not immediately apparent due to their camouflage.
One pint sized and two quart sized containers with a variety of pulverized minerals combined in three recipes. Awaiting water and blending. Then they'll be ready to use as ceramic glazes.
Three small ceramic test tiles dipped in three versions of one crystalline glaze recipe. The glaze is transparent, red brown color, with small spiky metallic crystals of different densities concentrated along the edges of the tiles.
An aventurine glaze. At the top of a mug, the glaze is densely packed with tiny sparkly crystals that transition to larger sparkly crystals until it becomes a transparent reddish brown glaze with larger pointy, silvery grey metallic crystals as well as yellow gold crystals floating in it.
Peaceful protest at Saguaro National Park in solidarity with our National Parks and staff.
An unfired, unglazed, sculpted, carved clay altar made to resemble precarious canyon geology. Two tiny integrated vases are on either side of crumbling canyon walls, decorated with dried seed pods. A small pool formation is in the foreground of the piece where one can place special rocks or other small items. A work in progress.
Four miniature, light tan stoneware clay vases sculpted to resemble boulders. Dried flowers are placed in five small vase slots.
Four ceramic mugs with a sky blue glaze on the upper exterior and raw clay on the lower exterior. The raw clay is a speckled tan. Each mug is decorated with a desert plant: an agave, a saguaro cactus, a prickly pear cactus with fruit, and a joshua tree. The bottom has a foundation that looks like it was drawn in AutoCAD resembling a rocky ground plane.
Me holding a mug by the handle. It is made with porcelain clay, the handle and lower exterior are sculpted to appear rock-like. The upper exterior has a glossy sky blue glaze. Sculpted within the rocky foundation is a skull with flowering columnar cacti growing out of it.
My hand holding a rock layered with three colors: a speckled tan on the bottom (pretty sure its a rhyolitic welded tuff), followed by an orange/tan ochre in the middle, and a brick red on top. Out of focus in the background is the Sonoran Desert.
An unfired and yet to be glazed clay wall/tabletop altar that is sculpted to resemble canyon walls comprised of precarious, shifting, geological formations. A dry flower is placed in a tiny, built in vase embedded in the rocks. A cluster of cacti are perched within rocks surrounding a pool.
Granite boulders in a shallow part of a desert canyon with rainwater pooling at the base of the outcropping.
An unfired, unglazed clay sculpture resembling a rocky desert landscape with cacti and a tiny hole in the rocks to place dried flowers. A work in progress.
A row of unfired clay cups/tumblers sculpted to resemble a section of canyon wall with a ribbon of moss embedded with small rock chunks.
A clay cup that is in the process of being sculpted to resemble a rocky cliff with pockets of moss. As I sculpt, I see a shape that looks to me like a face...Been doing that since childhood.
A porcelain mortar and pestle sculpted to look like light colored rock with green moss veins/clumps in cracks. Rocks are fired into the clay, resembling what I see in my nearby mountains.
Clay being sculpted to resemble a rocky canyon in the background and a pool shape carved into the foreground surrounded by boulders. There's a cluster of four small sculpted cacti to the right of the pool.
Six small rock samples of different sizes and colors. The three on the top row were used to make one 90% local rock glaze, and the bottom three to make another version. Both versions made a clear glaze. So...more testing in 2025
A cup made with white, tan, brown and green marbled clays, the marbling stripes are vertically oriented. A saguaro and barrel cactus made with green clay are situated atop a small sculpted ledge.
A view of the Cacomixtle del Desierto Sonorense (Sonoran Desert Ringtail Cat) head sculpture that I worked on, on display at the Philadelphia Airport. Two smaller anthropomorphic animal head sculptures made by George Rodriguez are to the left, as well as a larger Jaguar head sculpture worked on by Alejandra Carrillo-Estrada. The sculptures were all made in collaboration with Mexican sculptor George Rodriguez, as part of El Zodíaco Familiar group show comprised of 13 Mexican/Chicanx artists. I am half Mexican, and Cacomixtle means 'half cat' in Nahuatl...which was a starting point for me to contemplate how I relate to this cute little animal who feels at home on both sides of the US/MX border.
A grid with nine squares showing a variety of functional ceramic work included in my current solo exhibition in Tucson, Arizona. The pieces include cups, a mug, wall tiles, vases, and a molcajete. Each piece integrates a local ceramic material, such as calcium carbonate in a dark glaze, a local red clay, a sand glaze, and whole rocks embedded in clay.
First pot ever.
A simple porcelain cup with an Aventurine glaze that is almost black with teeny crystal sparkles at the top, gradually shifting to a shower of larger iron crystals as it becomes more copper brown, then the crystals fade to a small shore of lighter brown with yellows, greens and sometimes flashes of blue (especially in full sunlight). This cup sits on top of a piece of Caliche, which is a calcium carbonate rock from my backyard, and also an essential ingredient in this glaze.
A porcelain basket with a wheel thrown base resembling a rocky landscape, glazed with a turquoise interior and upper exterior. A precariously stacked handle was sculpted to resemble a hoodoo arch, inspired by hoodoos in my local mountains.
A cholla cactus in the foreground with more cholla and a desert mountain background.
A closeup of a porcelain molcajete, sculpted to resemble a rocky canyon wall with a stack of thin sheets of a local mineral wedged into an opening in the rocks. The sheets look like copper after firing.
A video showing landscape and rock inspired pottery that features rocks/minerals embedded and fired into the clay body.
Unfired ceramic mug resembling rocks/earth, made with a milk chocolate colored wild clay. A raw, unprocessed clay chunk is next to the mug.
A small clay sculpture made to resemble a miniature segment of a rocky desert canyon. It has sculpted cacti, a little hole/vase to place a dried flower/plant, and a pool of dark, sparkly glaze to represent the night sky reflected in water. Can be mounted on the wall, used as a cone incense burner or jewelry dish.
A layer of dried, cracking wild clay soil taking up 3/4 of the photo in the forefront. In the background is a desert landscape.
A video showing a raw calcium carbonate rock from the potter's backyard called Caliche, a vial of the rock in several forms from crushed to pulverized to represent how finely the potter processed the rock for use in her Aventurine glaze, which is shown towards the end, applied to a simple porcelain cup. The video ends with chunks of Caliche in her backyard that she's gathering. The chunks were actually excavated by squirrels who were digging a hole for a tunnel. Thanks squirrels.