Josie Jurczenia graduated from the California College of Arts and Crafts (Oakland) in 1978 with a degree in textiles. She founded a children's clothing company (Sweet Potatoes) and was president and design director there until 2004.
She began making her hand built, textile inspired pots upon her retirement. Her pieces are made of mid-fire clay slabs that are cut using paper patterns, assembled and darted for volume. They are decorated using a variety of processes: scratching, mishima, stenciling,silk screening.
Combining her passion for clay and her love of textiles she began cutting the paper patterns she uses to form her ceramic pieces in thick wool felt. These textile pieces are then embroidered, painted and glued together. This work was first shown, together with their clay counterparts, in a solo show, Hard & Soft - Clay & Felt, October 2018 at Roscoe Gallery in Oakland. In 2019 she crated a new body of work using these techniques for her second solo show at Roscoe, Still Life and Shadow.
Josie has served on the board of directors for the Assoc of Clay and Glass Artists, Richmond art Center and the ACCI Gallery. She was the founder of Fourth & Clay Gallery in Berkeley, CA (2007 - 2017). Her work has been shown in galleries across the US including Kohler Arts, Trax, Palo Alto Art Center, Gumps, Cooley Gallery, Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Roscoe Ceramics Gallery. Her pieces can be seen in the Lark publications: 500 Teapots and 500 Vases. You can read about her process in the March 2015 edition of Pottery Making Illustrated.
