Rinny Ryan hovers over a potter’s wheel in her trademark clay-smeared overalls with a bandana tied around her head. From a cedar-and-cypress studio on the edge of the Everglades, she throws thousands of vessels each year. About 1,500 this year will be destined for the Empty Bowls Naples fundraiser. The rest range from pig-shaped trays to elaborate vases interwoven with reeds. But as prolific as Rinny is as a potter, her larger legacy may be as a teacher.
Rinny knew of only one other potter in Naples when she arrived 35 years ago, started teaching private lessons and took a job as a ceramics instructor at Edison State College (now Florida SouthWestern). Jim Rice, owner of The Clay Place in Naples, had already carved out a niche, teaching lessons and making staples like coffee cups, pool tiles and garden decor. But the ceramics community remained relatively small until 2000, when Rinny’s friend Patricia Fay left her teaching job in Pennsylvania to lead Florida Gulf Coast University’s emerging ceramics program. Soon, Rinny joined Patricia at the university, and the pair’s friendship deepened. “The community has just gotten so big, so wonderful,” Rinny says.
Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Today, The Clay Place hosts an annual 5 Painters & a Potter show, and exhibits from Alliance for the Arts to Artis—Naples spotlight hand-thrown or hand-built collections most seasons. Two longstanding FGCU traditions started by Patricia—the Annual Pottery Sale and an Empty Bowls fundraiser—have been going strong for two decades. Classes at artistic institutions like Arts Bonita, Marco Island Center for the Arts and Clay More Ceramics run almost year-round. And in 2023, Punta Gorda artists established The Southwest Florida Potters Guild; in three years, the guild has grown to 80 members. While there have been many influential figures in regional pottery over the decades, when you talk to working potters today, the conversation usually returns to Patricia and Rinny and the outsized role they had in shaping a community where new ideas, styles and innovations flourish.
These days, Christine Cutting is known as the artisan behind the nature-inspired ceramics at Harold’s Restaurant, The Silver King Coastal Kitchen, florists and pop-up shows across town. Six years ago, she was a student in one of Rinny’s classes at Arts Bonita, learning alongside other newcomers. In one class, Christine couldn’t seem to get her wheel-thrown piece to come out the way she envisioned in her perfectionist mind. Rinny’s advice was blunt, but effective: ‘Get over yourself.’ “It was really freeing to hear that,” Christine says.
1 of 2
Courtesy Christine Cutting
women of swfl ceramics pottery christine cutting in studio
Nature is a common muse for the local ceramics scene, as seen in Christine Cutting’s sea creature-inspired dishware (pictured next), used at Harold’s Restaurant and The Silver King Coastal Kitchen.
2 of 2
Photography by Anna Nguyen
women of swfl ceramics pottery christine cutting bowl
It may seem like a counterintuitive prompt in a medium often evaluated by its functionality and balance, but over the years, Rinny has found the middle ground between the practicality of function and the artistry of the unpredictable. Her mentality is influenced by the Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy, which holds that beauty exists in flaws. For Christine, the idea translates into rippling dishes and flowering vases that mimic the Gulf’s tidal pull or blooming subtropical foliage—all of which is achieved through processes that are more intuitive than planned. “It’s almost like it comes from my subconscious at first,” Christine says.
Likewise, Erica Klopf draws on nature for inspiration, paired with Rinny and Patricia’s teachings for technique. An FGCU graduate, Erica grew up along the water in Old Naples. Her Tidal series of vases is a tribute to the coast. She takes clay trimmings, usually discarded during the wheel-throwing process, and reattaches them to her work. It looks as if shells or coral have merged with the vessel. They’re not symmetrical, but neither is the coast. “I’m recreating that feeling of walking along the beach holding a handful of broken seashells,” she says.
Erica remembers Patricia as an exacting teacher, someone who always challenged her to stretch herself creatively while mastering technique. Patricia sees rigor as a form of investment. “I push the students hard because I really believe that they have so much to offer,” she says. “I’ve seen them grow and develop as artists and people, and it’s just a beautiful thing to watch.”
Functionality remains a priority in the work. Estero potter Jordan Blankenship, who studied under Rinny and Patricia and now teaches part-time at FGCU, defines her practice by that ideal. Where Erica and Christine’s works straddle the line between decorative sculpture and practical vessel, Jordan’s creations are conceived with daily use as the driving principle—beauty is more incidental. Each mug is designed to rest comfortably in-hand, and each tea set stacks neatly. Her signature method involves incorporating cork into her work. She was bothered by the fragility of a ceramic mug and the gritty sound it makes when it gets set down. She uses the cork to create a built-in coaster.
1 of 2
Photography by Anna Nguyen
women of swfl ceramics pottery jordan blakenship in studio
Estero potter Jordan Blankenship, a former student of Rinny and Patricia who now teaches part-time at FGCU, credits the women with keeping the community connected through events like FGCU Empty Bowls.
2 of 2
Photography by Anna Nguyen
women of swfl ceramics pottery jordan blakenship candlesticks
Now following in the footsteps of her former instructors, Jordan sees the larger picture of what her teachers were able to create for ceramics in Southwest Florida: community, collaboration and continuity. “We all sort of know what everyone’s doing because Patricia always brings us back together for different events,” she says.
It’s taken years to form a strong community and presence for ceramics that allows today’s Southwest Florida newcomers to have a seamless entry. Alice Bonilha, a native Brazilian, arrived in Naples about five years ago with decades of experience in ceramics. She joined Naples ArtCrafters and now sells earth-toned, stencil-glazed ceramics regularly throughout the season at places like Art in the Park in Downtown Naples. For Alice, pottery’s lasting relevance is in its attention to detail, its legacy. “It’s easy to go to Target to get a bowl, but you don’t have the connection with the artist. It is a different energy.” A potter’s work has a story behind it, just as that potter has a story shaped by their community.
Potters like Rinny and Patricia have helped foster a sense of inclusivity in the community; it doesn’t matter your skill level, you are welcome in a class if you’re willing to learn and help others. “The studio is a community,” Patricia says. “It’s not just individuals doing individual things. It’s collaborative. It’s what I like best about the whole field of ceramics: It’s the way that people come together.”