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samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Samirah
@samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
1.2K followers 270 following 530 posts
ceramics | minerals and rocks | landscapes | earthy distractions

samirahsteinmeyer.com
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samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Samirah @samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social · Jan 14
Hello! I'm Samirah and I just joined Bluesky a few days ago.

I've been making nature inspired functional pottery in a range of styles for 13 years. Here are photos of past work. Recent work incorporates regional rocks and minerals into my clays and glaze.

#portfolioday
#ceramics #pottery
A close up of a sculpted porcelain skeleton with her hand on her skull. Embedded in clay that was sculpted to resemble a rocky, mossy surface. Several desert inspired ceramic mugs wheel thrown using a tan clay with the lower exterior unglazed and featuring sculpted flowering cacti. The upper exterior is glazed in a sky blue. My hand holding a porcelain mug with a sculpted, glazed dung beetle (and a ceramic ball of dung behind the beetle). The mug is glazed with a dark, sparkly aventurine glaze that I developed in 2019. Several porcelain clay pots sculpted to look rocky, with cacti or moss wedged into fractures in the clay surface. In the front is a ceramic basket form with a handle shaped like a hoodoo arch bridge. The interior is glazed deep turquoise.
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
My landscapes always look like they're at risk of collapsing. Want a little precariousness with your favorite beverage?

There's a band of igneous stones embedded and fired into the porcelain.

#ceramicart #ceramics #pottery #pottersofbluesky #ceramicsofbluesky #porcelain #geological #cacti #desert
September 26, 2025 at 2:31 AM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Meet my Sky Islands clear glaze! The recipe consists of 90% locally scavenged calcium carb, quartz, and feldspar (1st photo). 2nd photo shows earlier attempts at making a clear desert mineral/rock glaze.

#geology #rocks #minerals #ceramics #ceramicglaze #glazenerd #pottersofbluesky #artprocess
A porcelain test tiles showing a clear glaze made from the minerals and rock just behind the tile. Three porcelain test tiles in the foreground. Left to right: The left tile is a gritty primitive attempt at making a rock glaze using local materials. The middle tile is another attempt using local materials that created a tan, cracking glaze. The right tile is finally looking like a clear glaze! Yay!
May 17, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Samirah
universal-sci.bsky.social
Stunning: A pair of emerging stars in Lynds 483 have sculpted this radiant, hourglass-shaped cloud of gas and dust.

In a few million years, each star could grow to match the Sun’s mass, leaving behind only a thin disk where planets might eventually take shape

(Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)
May 5, 2025 at 3:06 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Over here sculpting rocks with rocks in the rocks.

#rocks #minerals #geology #ceramics #ceramic #workinprogress #potteryofbluesky #pottersofbluesky #ceramicstudio #desert #handmadecup #cactus #landscape
April 29, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by Samirah
amyraehill.bsky.social
You look a little down, have a bowl of cosmos
#sciart
Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies. (Side). Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies.
April 28, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Samirah
trematomus.bsky.social
For the fifth day of #Invertefest a minoan mashup cup, kamares ware outside, marine (and invertebrate) style inside.
#pottery, #ceramics
Black clay cup with a white and red waves and circles pattern outside, marine creature with shell and tentacles inside Inside of a black clay cup with two white marine creatures with shell and tentacles on the two sides.
April 28, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Samirah
luxomancer.bsky.social
Today I want to share with you all one of my favorite #MacroPhotos I have ever taken. On July 18th, 2014 I had a magical encounter with this #dragonfly, the Great Blue Skimmer, #Libellula vibrans and I was able to capture this focus stack.

#invertefest
#insects
#Photography
#MacroPhotography
A photo of the face of a dragonfly with intense blue eyes from the front. The large blue eyes mottled with black spots surround the roundly rectangular pale blue central face area. There is a small black triangle at the top of the face between the eyes where there are three small oceli, small primitive eyes.
April 27, 2025 at 3:14 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
An older design to share for #InverteFest. Very few people enjoy seeing a #cockroach on a mug they're drinking from, which is why I just had to make these. Only a customer with a particular sense of humor brings this into their home.
#potteryofbluesky #ceramicmug #ceramics #wheelthrown #bugs #roach
April 26, 2025 at 10:02 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Another post for #InverteFest

The Palo Verde Beetle, one of my favorite local invertebrates. They emerge during the monsoon season in the Sonoran Desert and freak people out due to their size and clumsy flying style. They're harmless and I love them.
#beetle #ceramics #pottersofbluesky #pottery
Four wheel thrown stoneware mugs, each decorated with one Palo Verde Beetle that I sculpted and glazed with a black-brown glaze. The top exterior is glazed in sky blue and the bottom is left unglazed. This sweetie is a Palo Verde Beetle clinging to a branch on a Sweet Acacia tree in my yard. They're notoriously clumsy and when they emerge I'm on the lookout for any that need help after accidentally landing onto their backs and need to be flipped over.
April 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Sharing for #InverteFest

(Reposted bc I got the hashtag wrong the first time!)

I used to make tarantula mugs, this one was testing a neodymium glaze on the tarantula. Usually I glazed them in browns/blacks to resemble my local tarantulas.
#tarantula #arachnid #pottersofbluesky #ceramics #pottery
Wheel thrown porcelain mug with a tarantula I sculpted, glazed in a light purple neodymium glaze. Same mug, side view Same mug, side and handle view
April 24, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Samirah
amyraehill.bsky.social
A hike on Mars!
Yarn bowl featuring three hikers on a Martian landscape at sunset. Yarn bowl featuring three hikers on a Martian landscape at sunset. (Left) Yarn bowl featuring three hikers on a Martian landscape at sunset. (Right)
April 24, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Samirah
bergamax.bsky.social
Pufferfish skeleton. 🐡
These bones expand when the fish puffs up, creating a near-impossible-to-swallow defense against predators.

Fun Fact: pufferfish carry deadly toxins, even more dangerous than cyanide! ☠️

#nature #fish #skeleton
April 23, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Samirah
jasonlimon.bsky.social
Paper Horse, 16x12 #acrylicpainting
April 23, 2025 at 4:34 AM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
For those of you who wanted to see how the 1/2 high fire stoneware + 1/2 low fire local clay blend test emerged from a mid range firing, see the first photo. Photos 2, 3 and 4 are the same local clay w nothing added, fired to different temps. More info in alt text.
#clay #wildclay #pottery #ceramics
A test bowl made with a blend of half high fire stoneware + half low fire local desert clay. The two clays together resulted in a mid fire blend. This is the same local clay but with no additives and fired to cone 01 (2046°F), its peak temperature. The next two photos show earlier tests that helped me determine its peak temp. This is the same local clay with no additives and fired to cone 1 (2079°F). It is overfired, indicated by bloating, lighter weight, and shinier surface. The same local clay, no additives, fired to cone 5 (2167°F). This is a verrrry overfired clay...it has gone from a tiny bowl shape to a slightly bubbly puddle. (In the background you can see other clay tests that also overfired).
April 23, 2025 at 5:53 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
I mixed a blend of 1/2 cone ten (2345°F) stoneware clay and 1/2 cone 01 (2046°F) local desert clay to find out what its firing temperature will be. I'm guessing it'll be mid range, but who knows!
#clay #wildclay #localclay #pottery #ceramics #pottersofbluesky #ceramicstudio
There are two bowls filled with dry clay. Top left: this clay is a very light tan high fire stoneware blend. Bottom: is a low fire brown local desert clay I gathered by the side of the road. Two small wheel thrown pots site to the right of the bowls to illustrate how a blend of the two clays looks. It's a light chocolate brown color.
April 22, 2025 at 11:47 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
I like locating rocks that I'm interested in identifying on a USGS map and then hiking to them. Yesterday I wanted to find fossils in Paleozoic limestone. Found the limestone. Not sure if what I found are fossils. It was a fun desert hike regardless.
#desert #geology #usgs #rocks #landscape #fossils
A young saguaro growing in a rock outcropping in Saguaro National Park. Grey Horquilla limestone from the Permian/Pennsylvanian Period with tan-brown inclusions that look similar to fossils I have found in this desert in the past. I'm not quite certain about these though. Another interesting form within the limestone. The USGS map. A key with different colors corresponding to specific rock groups is shown on the left. To the right is the topo map showing the location of each group.
April 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Mixing stoneware clay and dehydrating it on a plaster slab before wedging. This is the part of the creative cycle where I prep my materials for the next batch of pots.

Online shop closes tonight, then reopens after this next batch is completed.
#clay #stoneware #pottersofbluesky #pottery #ceramics
In the foreground is a bucket with a mixture of three clays, minerals, and water. It is poured onto a plaster slab so it can firm up a bit, then removed using a plastic rib tool, then wedged into smaller lumps of ready to use clay.
April 18, 2025 at 8:40 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Anthropocene fossil mug.

www.samirahsteinmeyer.com

#pottery #potteryofbluesky #pottersofbluesky #ceramicart #ceramics #ceramic #ceramicmug #anthropocene #coffeemug #natureinspired #geological #desert #desertlandscape #cacti
I'm holding a porcelain mug that I sculpted to resemble a rocky outcropping with a fossilized human skull and cacti growing around it. The upper portion of the mug is glazed in a turquoise green. Available at samirahsteinmeyer.com
April 17, 2025 at 8:13 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Feeling inspired by this rock I found yesterday, made by my absolute favorite artist, Nature herself. What a show off✨️

#ceramicmaterials #geology #geological #rocks #granite #muscovite #inspiration
April 14, 2025 at 6:09 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Ever want to wander into the desert, lay on a boulder and watch clouds float by? I want to just hear birds, wind and no words for a bit.

Desert inspired tumblers, cups and altars available in my ceramics shop: www.samirahsteinmeyer.com

#pottery #ceramics #desert #cacti #ceramiccup #landscape #art
I'm holding a ceramic cup with sky blue glaze decorated with a sculpted, rock outcropping and two cacti nestled within. Inspired by my Sonoran Desert.
April 14, 2025 at 12:58 AM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
When your country is imploding due to completely avoidable, manufactured chaos, greed etc how does one respond? By continuing to make fancy pots, of course🫠
Restock Sunday at 2pm, PST.
#pottersofbluesky #potteryofbluesky #ceramicart #ceramics #pottery #clayart #functionalart #desert #geology #art
April 12, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Samirah
tamiwicinas.bsky.social
I just finished a pair of little skeletal fish plates using the sgraffito method of carving into the underglaze. I love how they came out!
#ceramics #fishart #sgraffito
A pair of fish shaped dishes sit on a wood grain surface. They are each painted black with a white fish skeleton design. One has tiny sharp teeth. Both have a glossy glaze surface.
April 11, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Samirah
smallwildshop.bsky.social
A sparkly little baby.
daniellepedersen.com
Handmade green ceramic chameleon pendant with twenty-two karat gold details is displayed on a velvet ring box.
April 11, 2025 at 5:49 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Using a digital microscope to explore the landscapes within the glaze drips on one fresh new cup. I spent hours filled with awe and curiosity while wandering around entire places invisible to the naked eye.
#glazenerd #ceramicglaze #glazechemistry #potteryofbluesky #sciart #microscopic #ceramics
A stoneware cup with a homemade Caliche Aventurine glaze, with juicy crystalline drips. A magnified, microscopic view within a glaze drip. On the left is a pattern of dappled and striated blues and greens overlaid on the right by a shimmery, iridescent crystal. A magnified, microscopic view within a glaze drip. It looks like a vibrant green dragon's eye or a green leafy structure with a golden crystal formation above the green. A magnified, microscopic view within a glaze drip. I see a rabbit like face and ears within a purple and golden crystalline formation.
April 4, 2025 at 5:10 PM
samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
Even my skull looks exhausted.

#pottersofbluesky #pottery #potteryofbluesky #porcelain #ceramics #ceramic #ceramicart #skull #rocks #artshare #art #cacti
A wheel thrown porcelain mug decorated to resemble a crumbling rock outcropping with a sculpted skull, moss, and actual rocks embedded. Five blooming cacti have sprouted from the skull.
April 3, 2025 at 11:05 PM