Rising Stars: Meet Stephanie Shaffer of South Broadway, Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Shaffer

Hi Stephanie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I knew I’d never be someone who would work in a cubicle like so many Gen X girls were preparing for. I wanted to be a forest ranger. After chipping away at a degree in biology for 19 years while raising two young girls, I switched to ceramics in my final years of college. By then I was in my 30s and figured if I spent all this time getting a paper, I might as well have a good time doing it. In college, I had a job teaching ceramics in an after-school enrichment program. I loved creating with my hands, and it was something I could share with my girls, demonstrating to them that there are other career options beyond working behind a desk. But what do you do with a BFA in Ceramics? Like everyone else with art degrees, I got my teaching certification. In teacher’s school, I was told that finding work in art would be difficult because most schools only had one art teacher. After receiving a diagnosis of a processing disorder at the age of 21, I decided to pursue special education in addition to art. If I could find mental peace and clarity by creating things, I knew children with cognitive disabilities could too. For almost 20 years I taught ceramics, sculpture, and special education. I found working with children on the spectrum the most fulfilling and the most personal growth and healing.

After being in university all of my adult life, I felt unsettled after graduation and applied for my master’s in art education. It takes me a long time to learn new things, so I took my master’s program slowly and loved the camaraderie among my classmates. I acquired a plethora of learning strategies to get me through the program and was eager to share what I learned with my students who shared the same difficulties in auditory comprehension and writing. After five years, I finished my master’s in art education.

With a new master’s degree and more confidence than I have ever felt, I thought I could help even more students and my community by advancing into school leadership. So, I applied for my PhD in art education with principal certification. I was a year into my PhD coursework when the pandemic hit and everything changed. By this time one of my girls had graduated high school, and my youngest was also my student at the local high school.

By the time schools had opened fully to in-person everything, it had all changed. I learned that one of my conditions makes me immunocompromised. I was teaching in Texas and began making plans to move out of state. I got my big break when a recruiter from Denver Public Schools emailed me and asked if I would consider teaching art in Denver. I applied, interviewed, and got the job. Within a month I had sold my house, quit my job, and moved to Denver in January 2024. I was teaching in my classroom for less than a week when I was told that the school that just hired me was reducing its staff due to low enrollment and that I would have to reapply. I knew this was the end of my teaching career.

I had always planned to open a ceramic studio and be a full-time artist when I retired. But the pandemic taught me not to wait to do the things I’ve always wanted to do. Live the life you really want, and things will fall into place. I signed a lease on a warehouse space on South Broadway that had been vacant for far too long and spent the rest of the semester making renovations and purchasing the necessary equipment for pottery using the money from the sale of my home. I opened my studio in June 2024, tumbled a bit, and reopened in October 2024.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
This is an emotional question. Everything has been difficult: being a teacher in Texas during the pandemic, being a single parent to two girls while working and going to university, having cognitive disabilities and a compromised immune system. EVERYTHING. IS. A. STRUGGLE. An example is right when I had just opened my studio and I got sick. My contract with the school had just ended, so I had no health insurance and was focused on opening my business. I was very weak and very thirsty. Within a week I was struggling to walk. I was unable to keep any food down. Another week when I was unable to comprehend speech or talk and had lost 25 lbs. With my service dog, I went to the ER and collapsed in the lobby. They insisted I was having a heart attack, which I knew was wrong. I tried to sign my symptoms, and they got me an ASL interpreter. The interpreter was on a video monitor, and he was unable to see or understand my finger spelling. I was trying to tell the interpreter that I needed potassium. I wound up staying in the ER for 11 hours and never got the relief I needed. I left there and went to another ER. This time I wrote down my symptoms, the duration, and that I needed potassium. I realize that potassium was the issue because something similar had happened years ago. I wish I could eat a couple of bananas and everything would be right as rain, but that would be easy. At the ER, I was taken to a room and given a sedative. I woke up three days later alone in my apartment, not knowing where I was or how I got there. I was so weak I couldn’t get out of bed. My best friend from Dallas has been trying to get a hold of me and couldn’t, so she called my neighbor to come check on me. When he told her about my condition, she flew to Denver, boarded my dogs, and flew me back to Dallas. The next day she took me to a gastro doctor and was admitted to the hospital, where I stayed for a month being pumped with steroids and potassium. After being released from the hospital, it took another month before I was strong enough to come back to Denver. When I got back, I hired a ceramic instructor to teach classes at my studio while I continued to recover. Everything is a struggle.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am obsessed with cylinders like Yayoi Kusama is obsessed with polka dots. I make a dozen cylinders on the potter’s wheel every day! I keep them in an airtight container and use them for mugs, honey pots, and garlic keepers. The work I enjoy most is making long, thin cylinders. My current work is making giant 30 oz beer steins. My idea is to have a mug that is big enough to keep you from having to keep getting up for a refill. I’m always impressed with how lightweight my functional pieces are. I’ve always felt that if a piece feels comfortable in the hand, it easily becomes the most used piece of dinnerware. I sell my steins at music and beer festivals across the country. However, I’m most known for my Raku pieces. In an exhibit, you can spot my work from across the room because of the bright copper glazes I use. I love the instant gratification you get from raku. Its faster than a kife fiht in a phone booth. I enjoy working with glaze composition and the way it captures the path of the flames. I am most proud of my raku portraits. These are the most challenging sculptures to fire because, with 20 pounds of clay, they are prone to cracks.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Denver is an active community, full of people looking for new experiences and eager to learn new things. This will create a demand for learning how to use the potter’s wheel. Plus, it’s muddy good fun! As far as handmade pottery, I find the community is super supportive of its local artists, not just for ceramic artists but also musicians and thespians as well. The city is constantly providing opportunities for artists to display their work at festivals and art fairs.

Pricing:

• $240 4 week Wheel Throwing Class
• $240 4 week Handbuilding Class
• $75 Wheel Throwing- Single Day
• $75 Handbuilding- Single Day
• $200/ mo Studio Membership

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.denverceramicstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denverceramicstudio/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-shaffer/
• Youtube: https://www.studiohabits.com
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/denver-ceramic-studio-denver

Image Credits
Cover photo by Jill Shih