Elizabeth and Ben Owen III connected during the summer of 2022 at Peters Valley Craft Center and helped assist in the workshop firing the Anagama wood kiln.  Elizabeth began working for Ben Owen Pottery in October 2022 as a studio assistant and retail manager.  Elizabeth will be making a variety of work for Ben Owen Pottery, along with managing some of the retail and online store.

In her spare time, Elizabeth makes her own signature work to sell in our retail store and, now, online!  Elizabeth enjoys creating patterns and designs on her wares and is deeply influenced by her love of elements and designs found in nature.

Elizabeth McAdams is a North Carolina native that grew up on her family’s farm in Efland, NC. She attended the University of North Carolina Wilmington and graduated with a degree in Studio Art and a minor in Art History in 2012.  During that time, she focused on painting and drawing, but also took a few pottery classes. She worked as a wedding floral designer in Wilmington, NC for five years after graduating, and during that time, found clay again and began taking classes at a local community arts center and joined the local Clay Guild.  She decided she wanted to pursue her passion for Clay further and did a year-long wood firing ceramics residency at Cub Creek Foundation under Director John Jessiman, in Appomattox,Va. during 2018.  Her time there was a catalyst for a deepened appreciation of pottery and furthering her exploration in clay.

In 2019, she participated in the working artist program at Longwood University in Farmville, Va.  During the summer of 2019, she was a studio assistant at a craft school, Sugar Maples, in Maplecrest, NY.  From the fall of 2019 to the fall of 2021, she apprenticed for potter Silvie Granatelli in Floyd, VA, which enabled her to learn what life would be like working as a full-time potter and began her business Elizabeth McAdams Pottery, selling wares at various craft shows and online.

She continued her journey in Floyd, Va working as the pottery studio manager at the Floyd Center for the Arts from fall of 2021 to spring of 2022.  During that time, she took a last minute opportunity to work as a studio assistant in the pottery studio for the summer of 2022 at Peters Valley School of Craft in Sandyston, NJ.  It was there that she met Ben Owen and helped assist in the workshop that he did firing the Anagama kiln.  Elizabeth began working for Ben Owen Pottery in October 2022 as a studio assistant and retail manager.