Christine Williams
Owner, Instructor & Ceramic Artist
Chris graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art as a ceramics major. She returned to her love of clay after raising her three girls. Chris has owned New Phoenix for 15 years and is now a proud grandmother. Chris enjoys making functional pottery and focuses on the calming and healing benefits she has discovered when working with clay. In addition, Chris loves sharing the joys of exploring clay with others.
Lynne Molner
Instructor & Ceramic Artist
Lynne has been an artist and teacher for over 30 years, and has a diverse range of influences that inform her personal and creative work. She earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s of Science, majoring in Clinical Psychology, from Loyola University. She started exploring her love for clay and expanding her skill-set through various workshops with master potters. She then transitioned to teaching pottery at Baltimore Clayworks and has now been a prominent teacher in the ceramic community for many years.
Lynne’s current work infuses functional pots with playful, painterly images that are joyful in expression and comforting in their familiarity. Her classes offer a developed curriculum that includes clear objectives and learning outcomes. Her instruction focuses on craftmanship and knowledge of fundamentals. She encourages her students to explore and be open to the possibilities of their creativity.
Charlene Randolph
Instructor & Ceramic Artist
Charlene has a Master’s Degree in Ceramics from Hood College. She has been a ceramic artist and teacher for over 27 years. She has shown and sold her work across the United States, has won several awards, and has had her work featured in prominent trade magazines. She has vast amounts of technical knowledge and experience with potter’s wheels and kilns and isn’t afraid to dive in and get her hands dirty to solve big problems.
She encourages her students to be free and explore their own creativity and guides them through learning proper form and technique. But most importantly… she is addicted to all things clay!
Tez DeJesus
Instructor & Ceramic Artist
Tez runs at a steady 97.6 degrees. She has been playing in the mud for over 30 years and is an accomplished sailor and a scuba diver. She has sailed around the Bahamas and scuba-dived on the Great Barrier Reef. She discovered her interest in clay after collecting pottery as souvenirs during her travels. She is self-taught and believes that the constant practice she has done throughout the years has broadened her as an artist, as well as YouTube, which has been her most consistent teacher. She isn’t afraid to try new things – in pottery or life.
Tez brings her life experiences, decades of practice, and sense of adventure into the classroom to offer a unique and fun experience for students who want to try out the potter’s wheel. She can help anyone curious about the potter’s wheel to tap into their potential.
Stephanie Imbierowicz
Instructor & Ceramic Artist
Stephanie recently received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from Salisbury University with a concentration in ceramics. While at university she excelled at her craft, placing first in her senior exhibition. She enjoys creating expressive sculptural work that explores the sub conscious mind, using androgynous characters that unravel their stories to the viewer through unique, relatable personal narrative.
Stephanie strives to create a fun and safe classroom environment for students of all ages to feel comfortable expressing themselves and their innermost creativity through the highly-versatile medium of clay.
Ben Freund
Instructor & Ceramic Artist
Ben Freund is an artist who creates objects that follow his lifelong love of learning coupled with the thrill of discovery. Much of his current work is an investigation of humanities relationship with empirical knowledge through his fascination with the archeological and anthropological. By creating artifacts that enshrine math, science and engineering he tries to explore the idea that the scientist is the true driving force of civilization and culture.
Luke Gibson
Instructor & Ceramic Artist
Luke left a two-decade-long marketing career during the pandemic to spend time behind the pottery wheel. Driven by a newfound passion for ceramics, he immersed himself fully in the art of pottery making. What began as a personal exploration soon blossomed into skill, as he devoted countless hours to learning everything he could about ceramics and honing his craft. Today, Luke creates one-of-a-kind pieces that marry functionality with artistry, and he loves sharing the joy and passion he found playing in the clay with new people.
