Hi! My name is Siobhan (pronounced Shavon) Holden. I’m in my 20s and live in lovely Florence, Oregon.

My main focus is ceramics, with an emphasis on bright colors. I learned how to throw on the pottery wheel when I was nine years old and was instantly hooked, as I found using my hands to make art significantly easier than having to work through a pencil or paintbrush. In high school, I convinced my painting instructors to let me use clay in their classes and spent my summers teaching children how to throw and sculpt.

I had every intention of pursing a BA in ceramics, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced me into a drawing major. I bought my own wheel and kiln at the height of the pandemic when it became clear that in person classes would not resume for the foreseeable future. I moved to Oregon in 2025, and my work changed dramatically from exposure to the beautiful temperate rainforest that I now get to call home. I shifted my focus to be more nature inspired, incorporating native flowers, reptiles and sea life into my pieces. To challenge myself, I also started making large scale sea life sculptures – which I find to be a nice change of pace from throwing, as I have to be much more analytical to ensure a sculpture won’t fracture in the kiln.

My pieces are truly handmade from start to finish. Every design on my functional ware is freehand carved and painted – not made with the assistance of decals or transfers. I was dissatisfied with both the performance and waste of commercial glazes, and learned how to make my own after completing a glaze chemistry course through Ceramics Materials Workshop with Prof. Mathew Katz out of Alfred University. Learning the science behind glaze chemistry revolutionized my ability to make pieces I was happy with, as I now have my own glaze that performs exactly as I want it to, in addition to being lead free and completely food and dishwasher safe!

When I’m not working strictly with clay in all its messiness, I also enjoy working with metal, wire, paints, and most other materials I can get my hands on. My main personal art series focuses on anatomically correct human hearts based on song lyrics, and through them I experiment with many different materials and ways of making.

If I’m in the studio, I’ll probably be drinking tea and singing along to hard rock music while I work. Ceramics is a workout and I find that I need energetic music to keep myself going, even if that means the pieces I make are decidedly more peaceful than the music I listened to while making them! When I’m not making art or working at my day job, you can find me taking a beach walk or hike and looking for birds along the way.