WHO WE ARE
Third Coast Clay is a unique minority artist owned, women lead artist run ceramic studio in the Independence Heights area of Houston, Texas. The studio is founded by master ceramist and Texas native Lotus. She is joined by her husband Tino who contributes his talents as a ceramic community cultivator. They believe ceramics is for everyone and develop opportunities to create accessibility to a diverse and vibrant clay community.
Of all the ceramic studios in Houston we have the most multicultural and gay and sexual minority instructors, studio techs, students, and members which reinforces our goal of building an inclusive ceramics community by increasing the awareness of representation and allows ceramists to share their voice and experience. Because of all this hard work through inclusive community building, Third Coast Clay is the largest artist owned and minority run ceramic community studio in SE TX. We continue working to cultivate connections with artists, arts partners, and teach the next generation of ceramists to keep the clay community thriving and impacting the artistic landscape of the Greater Houston area and throughout Texas
A Note from our Founder, Lotus:
“As an undergraduate student my mentor Huey Beckham impressed upon me that community is the key to our success as ceramicists.
I have now been working in clay for almost three decades. I became a college professor like Huey, and even taught where he taught for nine years, helping 1,800 students find their way with clay, but it wasn’t enough for me. It wasn’t just about teaching ceramics, it was about the ceramics community and how I could impact even more lives with clay, and who those people were.
The goal of Third Coast Clay is to build an inclusive ceramic community by offering classes and workshops taught by professional working ceramic artists. Tino and I are proud to have a network of academically trained artists, so that there is a variety of perspectives to find your voice in the medium. We have worked hard to make the tools of ceramics more accessible to artists that would like to learn and explore more in our membership programs. We want to empower and support the dreams of people like me who felt their voice should be heard through our artwork. We aim to establish opportunities for those wanting to expand their knowledge of ceramics. As well as being a hub and those wanting to establish themselves as ceramic artists in Houston.”