Let us introduce ourselves…
Sara & Naomi
owners
Sara and Naomi started Studio T/M in January of 2016 as their personal studio space. Over the years the studio grew, and they began taking on studio assistants and teaching classes. In the summer of 2020, Sara left her full-time teaching position at Gainesville High School to run the studio full-time. In July of 2023 the new home of Studio T/M opened just a mile and half from the original 1,000 sq. ft. studio. You can see Sara’s work at saratruman.com or follow her on Instagram @sbtruman
CR
Admin
CR Dean is a transplanted California sunflower pursuing her doctorate in English literature at the University of Florida, who took a ceramics class to de-stress but fell in love with the craft… and now spends all her time (spare or not) at the studio. She handles all of the administrative work of the studio, and you can find her making or writing both in the studio and around town.
Check out her work on her Instagram @thepettibear
Claire
Studio Manager | Instructor
Claire Lenahan is an artist who works in a variety of mediums, currently focusing on interactive installations of pottery. Her work subtly disorients the viewer by queering western domestic conventional objects through failure, the performance of our daily actions, queer phenomenology, and social engagement. She received her MFA in Studio Art (Ceramics) at the University of Florida.
Claire teaches our Saturday classes both Introduction to Wheel Throwing and Intermediate/Independent Study Wheel. Claire is also our studio manager overseeing the day to day operations of the studio! You can see more of her work on her website https://www.clairelenahanart.com. She is available for booking private lessons! Email us to schedule.
Meg
Lead Instructor
Meghan is our Lead Instructor, and teaches several wheel throwing and hand building classes a week! Meghan is from Jacksonville, Florida, and received her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Florida in 2007. She makes beautiful pots and incredible figure sculpture, and you can often find her enthusiastically sharing her deep knowledge for clay with anyone in the studio!
You can also join Meghan on Monday or Thursdays for your wheel-throwing or hand-building instructor. She is available for booking private lessons! Email us to schedule.
Jack
Studio Assistant Lead| kiln room technician | Instructor
Jack Manfredi is a Gainesville, Florida local who found his passion for clay in Sara’s class at Gainesville High School! He started volunteering at the studio when he was 15, and became Sara’s apprentice and the studio’s first employee at 19! His enthusiasm for functional pots and the ins and outs of clay are limitless. In 2021 Jack and Sara were awarded the Studio Potter Apprenticeship Grant, which supported Jack financially for a year as Sara’s apprentice. Jack is the youngest recipient to ever receive the grant. He completed a second year apprenticeship before continuing as her assistant, and now Studio Assistant lead. He is available for booking private lessons! Email us to schedule.
Check out his work @jacks_pots
Jenn
Instructor
Jennifer Hartz is a ceramic artist from Cleveland, Ohio. Jenn took her first wheel throwing classes during the mid-1990s through the Cleveland Institute of Art Continuing Education Program. Jenn continued developing her innovative approach to ceramics as a member of the Brick Ceramic + Design Studio in Cleveland’s Waterloo Arts District. Jenn has had a long career teaching elementary and middle school science with a creative flare. While working at Hawken School she was exposed to Maker Education and learned to use many of the machines in the school maker space, including her favorite, the laser cutter. Jenn is interested in creating tools to use in the making of wheel thrown and hand built pieces. Her favorite tools to use in her own work include the laser-cut rolling pins she develops from hand drawn images. She is available for booking private lessons! Email us to schedule.
Check out her work @jennhartzceramics
Sophia
Instructor and Studio assistant
Sophia Zavarse is one of our newest staff members, and is also another Gainesville local! Sophia began taking classes at Studio T/M and it was no time at all before she joined our team. Sophia makes beautiful functional pottery, and teaches both our Introduction to Wheel courses as well as our Spanish Immersion in Throwing course. Sophia also teaches our Family one day events and Sip n’ Spin as well. You can find Sophia on the weekends when it’s cooler out with a beautiful table of her wares at our local makers markets. She is available for booking private lessons! Email us to schedule.
You can find more of her work @cricketclayworks
Dustin
Events & Party Instructor
Dustin Romans is a transplant from Kansas City, Missouri who found his way into our studio looking for community. After a year of classes Dustin joined our membership, and quickly became our members liaison! He became a staff member that fall and is your events and market specialist, as well as runs the Sunday morning Introduction to Wheel classes! You can see more of Dustin’s love for pots over on his Instagram and visit him on Saturday nights as your Sip n’ Spin instructor! He is available for booking private lessons! Email us to schedule.
You can find more of his work @dustypotsceramics
Daun
Studio Assistant
Daun is a studio assistant and PhD candidate at the University of Florida whose dissertation focuses on the visual art and lyrics of the British musician Poly Styrene, aka Marianne Elliott (1957-2011), of the London punk/new wave band X-Ray Spex. You can find her in the studio creating with a vibrant energy that lifts those around her.
Lilly
Studio Assistant
Lily is a recent graduate of the University of Florida where she earned her BFA. Primarily a handbuilder, you can find her bright and intricately patterned work in our studio. A curious spirit with a wealth of glaze knowledge, she is an excellent person to find around the studio as she is always happy to share knowledge.
Jackson
Studio Assistant
Jackson is a recent graduate of the University of Florida where he earned his BFA and certificate in ceramics. He works interdisciplinary in fiber arts, ceramics, and painting, and has exhibited work in his home state of Florida, as well as in Maryland, Colorado, Mississippi, and North Carolina, most recently being awarded “Best in Show” at the National Juried Exhibition in Oxford, MS. His work revolves around themes of queerness, community, craft, memory, and environmental ecology in the face of the anthropocene.