Chris Johnson

“I make my living one piece at a time,” says Chris Johnson, who throws anywhere from 500 to 800 pieces in a given week. “You come in, bang it out, do good work.”

Chris began his studio artist career at Portland Community College where he studied ceramics. Chris then worked and learned under the professional guidance of his father-in-law, the late Jay Stewart of Otter Woods Pottery studio in Hamlet, Oregon.  After his apprenticeship under Jay, he completed a six-month Artist-in-Residency at the Rochester Folk Art Guild in Middlesex, New York.

In 2009, Chris established his own studio in Tacoma, Washington, making pots and working for Seattle Ceramist Matthew Patton.

In 2012, with his wife Rebecca, Chris moved back to the Oregon coast community, working in the studio at Otter Woods Pottery, continuing the tradition Jay Stewart established 35 years ago.

In May of 2015, Otter Woods Pottery studio and the property the Stewart Family owned was put on the market and sold. Shortly thereafter, Chris and Rebecca relocated back to the South Puget Sound Region, with new studio prospects and new full-time employment for Rebecca.