John Jaspert
I’m John Jaspert, a ceramic artist and teacher based in Vista, California. Ceramics is my full-time work and the craft I have chosen to build my life around.
I’ve spent a lot of years trying to get clay to do what I want, and probably just as many learning that it does not really work that way.
I care deeply about skill and making things well. But the longer I work with clay, the more I understand that control is only part of it. There is always something else to notice, adjust, or learn.
I think I will always be a student of clay.
Learning through making
I found the wheel in high school and became obsessed with it pretty quickly. I was always chasing the next thing: throwing taller, using more clay, or trying to make a form I could not make yet.
My parents helped me get my first wheel, and when I started working, most of what I saved went back into ceramics. Clay, tools, equipment, and eventually a kiln.
More than anything, I wanted the freedom to keep making.
Later, I studied ceramics with Yoshimi Hayashi at MiraCosta College. I came into his classes confident in what I could do on the wheel, and he kept pointing me toward everything outside of that comfort zone.
At one point he asked me, “Are you a potter or an artist?”
That question stayed with me for years.
Eventually I realized I did not need to choose. I wanted the discipline and skill of a potter, but I also wanted to remain curious enough to move beyond whatever I already knew how to do.
Repetition and skill
I later spent years working as a production potter at The Wheel Stoneware.
Production changed the way I understood consistency. Two plates could have the same diameter and still not stack correctly because the angle of the rim was slightly different. A cup could meet every measurement and still feel wrong in your hand.
Repeating forms day after day taught me proportion, weight, efficiency, and how much a very small decision can change a finished piece. It gave me an amount of practice I never could have created for myself.
I learned that consistency does not have to mean sameness.
That idea still shapes my work. I want pieces to belong together without removing the throwing lines, subtle changes in curve, glaze movement, and other evidence of how they were made.
Teaching and making
For a long time I thought becoming a better potter mostly meant spending more hours alone at the wheel.
Teaching changed that.
Explaining a movement to someone else forces you to understand what your own hands are doing. You have to figure out why a wall collapsed, why pressure works in one place but not another, and when someone needs your help versus when they simply need another attempt.
Sometimes, to learn how to make a pot, you have to break one.
I do not want students to simply copy the way I make. I want them to understand what the clay is doing, why something works, and how to make their own decisions with more confidence.
I have taught more than 1,000 students through studio classes, private lessons, school programs, and events. Teaching at Raw Rhythm Ceramics in Oceanside has been an important part of my growth as well. Brad Chambers shared his curriculum, his studio, and his approach to teaching with me, and being part of that community changed the way I thought about what could be learned from other people, not just from the material.
Watch the full 2022 film
I love craftsmanship, and I work hard to make pieces I am proud to put my name on. But I have never been very interested in keeping everything I make.
A pot takes on a different kind of value when it leaves my studio and becomes someone’s favorite mug, part of a restaurant table, a gift, or something made in memory of someone they love.
The work leaving gives it a life beyond me. It also gives me the reason and the space to make the next thing.
Making is still the part I love most.
Explore my workABOUT JOHN
Ceramic artist and educator.
I am a ceramic artist and educator based in Vista, North County San Diego. My practice centers on wheel thrown functional ceramics, private instruction, restaurant and business projects, and thoughtful problem solving at the wheel.
Jaspert Pottery is my studio practice. If you reach out about a lesson, commission, wholesale project, or kiln firing, you are working directly with me.
WHERE I TEACH
Alongside private lessons through Jaspert Pottery, I teach wheel throwing classes and workshops throughout San Diego County. I have taught hundreds of students—from first-time beginners to experienced potters—and have led school outreach for groups as large as 90 young students.
I currently teach at Raw Rhythm Ceramics in Oceanside. Studio classes there are booked directly through Raw Rhythm.