Process . Ceramics

If you missed meeting us in this beautiful place for our last retreat you’ll have another opportunity to experience the magic.

We’ll be announcing some exciting updates about our next retreat soon!

Process . Ceramics updated their phone number.

The Process Ceramics retreat experience expands your body, mind, and soul while embodying a fun, adventurous, artistic, and relaxing vibe alongside a community of empowering women.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
During the retreat you are guided through an ancient ceramic process for foraging, cleansing, hand-building, and pit-firing wild clay paired with introspective personal-growth exercises, meditations, yoga, and myofascial release sessions—all while soaking up the stunning beauty and magic of our luxury beachfront retreat property.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
𓄬 Leave the retreat feeling revived, focused, centered, and empowered with a new perspective on how to navigate day-to-day life based on what matters most to you
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
𓄬 Carry home a priceless wild clay vessel you've created from clay you forage in the jungle of Mexico — serving as a talisman to your personal growth & creative journey.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
What you’ll get :
• 6 nights luxury accommodations at a stunning property on a secluded beach
• 3 healthy, fresh, whole chef prepared meals a day made with local ingredients
• 2 yoga sessions daily
• daily ceramic instruction (scaled to your ability)
• myofascial release sessions
• guided meditations
• life coaching exercises
• a wild clay + personal growth guidebook
• a welcome kit with lots of unique goodies for all your adventures
• airport transfer
• golf carts for adventuring into town
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Join us for this unique self-care experience offering you the perfect balance of creativity, community, growth, relaxation, & adventure
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Feb 6-12, 2023 in Sayulita, MX!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
For more info & to apply for a spot visit the link in our bio
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The Process Ceramics retreat experience expands your body, mind, and soul while embodying a fun, adventurous, artistic, and relaxing vibe alongside a community of empowering women.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
During the retreat you are guided through an ancient ceramic process for foraging, cleansing, hand-building, and pit-firing wild clay paired with introspective personal-growth exercises, meditations, yoga, and myofascial release sessions—all while soaking up the stunning beauty and magic of our luxury beachfront retreat property.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
You will leave the retreat feeling revived, focused, centered, and empowered with a new perspective on how to navigate day-to-day life based on what matters most to you. You will carry home with you a priceless one-of-a-kind wild clay vessel you've created from clay you forage in the jungle of Mexico — serving as a talisman to your personal growth and creative journey.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Join us for this unique self-care experience offering you the perfect balance of creativity, community, growth, relaxation, & adventure
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Feb 6-12, 2023 in Sayulita, MX!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
For more info & to apply for a spot visit the link in our bio

Being an over-thinker / over-analyzer has served me well in many aspects of my life. In my professional career it allowed me to notice connections between seemingly unrelated aspects of an experience. It helped me notice alternative ways of living; ways around the traditional system. My hyper vigilance kept me safe in many situations—noticing peoples mannerisms, their nonverbals, their shifts in energy.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
But, the constant noticing, thinking, analyzing also led to spiraling all-consuming thoughts. It led to me create stories, fixate on them, replay painful messages. I would get stuck ruminating on thoughts that brought sadness, made me feel insecure, led me to lose trust in myself, my perception, my reality.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Many people suggested meditation to help with my overthinking. For a long time I saw meditating as something silly; Some new age bu****it at the end of a yoga class.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It wasn’t until in my desperation to feel ok during my divorce that I sought out guided meditations. At the time I was looking for anything that could help me feel ok.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Maybe it was that I was selecting mediations that resonated for me at the time. Or maybe it was that anything would have helped. But, during that time the power of meditation became so clear to me I could never deny it again.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The most impactful moment for me was when I realized that meditation is not “not thinking”, but more being aware of your thoughts. Recognizing your thoughts are not who you are & that you have the power to control them, redirect them, guide them to where you actually want to be focused. That awareness opens up everything & sets you free.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If you’ve never meditated do yourself a favor & give it a shot. It’s truly a spectacular experience when you submit & allow the power of your mind to work its magic.

On Wednesday (July 13), the moon will arrive at its closest point to the Earth in 2022 making it the supersest of super moons this year.

Astrologer Richard Nolle wrote that "a full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee)" would get the "super" branding.

I see any opportunity to intentionally reflect & cleanse as an important ritual for reconnecting with life / with living authentically.

We do this with wild clay we gather during the retreats by taking time to consciously reflect on thoughts, words, feelings that feel genuine to us. Through grounding ourselves in who we truly are we can more clearly see those narratives, messages, voices do not belong to our true selves and are able to intentionally remove those things from the pure source. As we remove debris, fibers, rocks from the clay we remove those stories, voices, narratives that don’t belong to us; our true selves. Once those elements are removed the clay is in its purified state — ready to transform from dust into a one of a kind piece of art.

I hope you have an opportunity to take some time Wednesday evening to look up at the super moon, reflect on how vast & limitlessness it all is. Under the brightness of its light can more clearly see your life, what is true to you, your desires, your vision, what you love, & reconnect with your intuition, your heart, your inner knowing. Then choose consciously & intentionally to cleanse everything & anything that does not belong — preparing yourself to transform your life into a one-of-a-kind piece of art.

📷

“A life can only know the life that it has lived. If we allow ourselves to predetermine the future by remaining captive to the experiences of the past we will exist in a life consumed with what we don’t want.” - Guy Finley

Join us in reconnecting with our limitless potential through the exploration of healing & creativity by way of wild clay.

Explore, create, learn, grow, liberate, empower, ground and cleanse your mind, body, and soul.

May 27th - 30th we only have a few spots left so sign up soon!

Link to register in bio

No power on earth can constrain the soul that seeks its liberation in the irrepressible truth of intuition.

When we take the time to reconnect with ourselves, with our inner knowing, we free ourselves from the pain & suffering of fighting what is in our day to day lives. When we trust the journey we are free to live fully—knowing each and everything that happens has a purpose that is guiding us exactly where we are meant to go.

You know the way! You just have ti slow down & listen.

I turned 37 a few weeks ago. I started getting grays when I was around 25 and was excited to see the streak emerging front & center. Overtime I’ve gathered more and more grays, each one a surprise and adding more dynamism to my wild head of hair. I’ve always seen grays as a testament to living fully — like my soul is peeking through to say “I’ve lived”.

My son noticed the grays about a year ago and with concern asked “are you going to die soon, you have lots of gray hair”. Which makes sense, society dictates that gray = old = death. But, in my view aging has never equated to death, it’s always been a celebration of all that you’ve seen, done, experienced and the incredible story of living. I responded to him “each one of my gray hairs is something I’ve lived, each one a story of an experience I’ve had”. He picked one out and held it, looked at me inquisitively and asked “what’s this one”. I responded “that one is from when I washed a baby elephant in a river in Nepal”. He smiled and picked another one “and this one” I responded “that one is from when I went skydiving in New Zealand”. His jaw dropped, shocked that I would do something so wild, so carefree, so youthful.

He was doing what many of us do — shaping his idea of me based on how he knows me today not realizing that there’s a story behind the years and memories that have brought someone to who they are today. We forget that everyone has a story, their own unique history. We focus on grays meaning old rather than grays meaning lived, wise, brimming with stories to share.

It was always interesting to me that we’re told to be ashamed of aging, to hide signs of it, to color over or get injections to make go away. Because in my mind aging is what it’s life is all about — the stories we collect, the memories we carry with us, the life that belongs to only us.

📷

•••••

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” - David Bayles, Art & Fear

📷

•••••••

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” - David Bayles, Art & Fear

📷

•••••••

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” - David Bayles, Art & Fear

📷

•••••••

When I first stayed a LWOTL I knew. In my soul I knew this was the place I’d plan to host the retreats. It had everything I was looking for and more—close to town, unique lodging, an Austin vibe, on the lake, fire pits, a hot tub, but best of all it had incredible clay.

We use this stunning place to reconnect and ground ourselves through the abundance of materials available to us. We use the stand up paddle boards to explore the lake. We use the quant paths to adventure, the foliage to learn, the bank of the river to explore, gather clay, and wash ourselves & our vessels clean. We listen to the waterfall to find serenity. We sit under the trees to protect us from the sun while we meditate. We use the scattered tree limbs to fire our pots.

We use this incredible space to find & source everything we need both internally and in creating our wild clay vessels. And, we focus of gratitude for all this place offers us throughout.

Join us at this serene lake front property for our Spring retreat. We only have 2 bungalows left!

Link in bio

📷

•••••••

Meet .conscious.chefstef, our incredible Chef for the retreats. Chef Stef provides us with 3 healthy, scratch made, Ayurvedic meals everyday of the retreat.

Beyond her delicious and nourishing food, her energy is what makes her special and a cherished member of the retreat team. Always smiling, Stef bring intentionality to her food that can be tasted and felt in our bodies — providing us with the perfect balance of fullness & lightness to feel prepared to take on the physical and spiritual work throughout our days together.

Beyond the beauty she brings to the retreat experience through her food & smile, you can always count on her for a boost of good vibes as she prepares our meals & jams to hip hop in the kitchen.

We’re so grateful for you Stef.

We only have 2 bungalows left. Make sure to get your spot soon!

Registration link in bio!

📷

•••••••

I post Samba videos frequently in my stories because movement is a huge part of my life and mental health.

We can sit, create, ponder, journal, meditate, but there is a power in movement that can unblock, shift, release energy that has been static internally.

Moving my body — specifically through dance, helps me clear my mind. The primal nature inherent to *feeling* sound and letting it guide my body allows me to let go & let things pass through me.

That is why we’ve included 2 yoga sessions during the wild clay retreats.

One session serves to counter the time we spend hunched over digging, processing, & creating with our wild clay. It is a restorative practice to rebalance our bodies & minds through acknowledging the physical nature of working with wild clay and replenishing & nourishing our bodies through gentle movements.

The second session is in the early morning to energize us, wake us up to the beautiful day ahead, and set the tone of expansion, strength, balance, focus & flow before we continue our work on our vessels.

Our wild clay retreats are holistic experiences that will leave you feeling grounded & revived.

Registration for our May retreat is open—link in bio.

📷

•••••••

"What started out as a giveaway prize turned into an opportunity to reconnect with nature, with art, and ultimately with myself, in a space among such strong and inspiring women. Now, as I look at my creation, I see us digging into the earth searching for clay. I hear the sounds of granite being pulverized to make temper. I feel the clay in my hands, between my fingers, drying and hardening like an outer skin. I smell the smoke billowing from the fire, a reminder of how life's trials and tribulations may hurt or burn us, but also transform us. I hope to live my life as this vessel - resilient and imperfect, filled to the brim with love that pours from the spout and ripples into others."
-

We plan to gift a spot to our Spring retreat in the next month. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime be sure to share process ceramics account with anyone you feel could benefit from the grounding & energizing wild clay women retreat experience.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
📷 :
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
••••••••⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I post samba videos frequently in my stories because movement is a huge part of my life and mental health.

We can sit, create, ponder, journal, meditate, but there is a power in movement that can unblock, shift, release energy that has been blocked internally.

Moving my body — specifically through dance, helps me clear my mind. The primal nature inherent to *feeling* sound and letting it guide my body allows me to let go & let things pass through me.

That is why we’ve included 2 yoga sessions during the wild clay retreats.

One session serves to counter the time we spend hunched over digging, processing, & creating with our wild clay. The first yoga session is a restorative practice to rebalance our bodies & minds through acknowledging the physical nature of working with wild clay and replenishing & nourishing our bodies through gentle movements.

The second session is in the early morning to energize us, wake us up to the beautiful day ahead, and set the tone of expansion, strength, balance, focus & flow before we continue our work on our vessels.

Our wild clay retreats are a holistic experience and one that will leave you feeling grounded & revived.

Registration for our May retreat is open—link in bio.

I made the vessel in these photos about 1.5 yr ago — as a way to process how I felt getting a hysterectomy. ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
I was struggling to ground myself and feel ok in knowing I could never have children again. I saw my uterus as a beacon of feminity, of womanhood. I was having a hard time processing how I would understand my womanness after the surgery. I felt ashamed that I was upset & scared, because my overly simple view of what made me feminine lead to fear that without a uterus I’d no longer be a “woman”.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
I had massive tumors causing me a lot of pain (that I had learned to ignore over the years). Once out of surgery my body felt different; I was more comfortable; I felt like a load had been lifted from me.​​​​​​​​

📷

•••••••


​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
After 3-days of recovery I decided to make this pot to reclaim my story. I realized I could decide what the experience meant for me. That instead of feeling or seeing the it as a loss of womanhood I could see it as a cleansing of what did not belong, what was not truly a part of me. I the fibroids physical manifestations of bu****it I’d been carrying with me, ignoring how much pain they were bringing me. The fibroids were my struggle with body dysmorphia; the shame and confusion I felt around motherhood; the fear that people wouldn’t love me if I wasn’t “a woman”; the fear that I had no value if I didn’t fit into what society had told me was “right”. I let it all go.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
I made this pitcher in memory of my uterus—filled with fibroids, but still pure inside. And even when filled with tumors it could still pour from a spout and nourished the things around it.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
I made this piece to remind myself of what I have let go of, how it pushed me to grow, and how I always have the freedom to choose my reality and find the value in every experience.

We’re excited to be teaching at lots of events this spring. Check out these accounts to learn more.

: Feb 20-27 co-ed survival skills / primitive pottery

: April 30th wild clay pinch pot & core values workshop

: April 23-26 co-ed survival skills / primitive pottery

: Our process ceramics Wild Clay Women retreat May 27-30 — a healing & inspirational weekend of primitive pottery & personal growth for women to reconnect and empower one another—link to register in bio

~•••~ Limitations series ~•••~ ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
“Never accept defeat — as long as there’s a place to learn we cannot be defeated.”​​​​​​​​
—
​​​​​​​​
Working with clay reinforces this idea. Each time there’s a mishap or we make a “mistake” in the process of creating we have an opportunity to reflect on our actions and learn, expand our knowledge, our skills, our understanding of what we thought we knew. ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
Each lesson furthering our craft as we apply what we’ve learned to the next pot we try to create. ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
It is all in service of the journey, expansion, growth. The only limitation is the perception that limitations exist.

📷

•••••••

My son saved my life. And not in the sense of beautifully gliding through life in an apron making cookies b/c I’m so overjoyed with motherhood. He saved my life because having him opened my eyes to the life I lived as a child. Watching him grow reminds me of times in my childhood when I was scared.

Creating boundaries to protect him from having to endure the same abuse I was subjected to has opened my eyes and through my unconditional love for him and uncontrollable drive to protect him I have come to find the strength to love and protection myself.

Keeping him safe has shown me all the ways I never realized I was not safe as a child. Has allowed me to connect with the little girl inside me who wished someone would protect her from all these hurts people projected onto her.

Through being his mother I have become my own mother.

Through loving and accepting him I have found love and acceptance for myself.

Through wanting to be a healthy mother to him, I have found where I need to heal and grow.

Through protecting his light I have come to see my own and while for a long time I allowed other peoples hurt to take my light down to a glimmer I have found the strength & resolve to never allow that to happen again—for either if us, because of my limitless love for him.

📷

•••••••

“Going into the wild clay women’s retreat, I approached it with an open mind; curious and without expectation but hopeful that I would find some mental clarity in the quietude of nature and the inspired energy of making art.

The retreat was very thoughtfully curated by our host Jess who created a beautiful, inviting space for us to be open and vulnerable while learning the primitive craft of hand sculpting with natural clay.

Every step of the process was imbued with deep meaning and made deliberate with intention, which turned the art of pottery building into something reverent and transformative.

Jess gently guided us through our respective journeys by not only providing a safe platform, but sharing with us her own story of growth and healing through the practice of wild clay building.

This was an unforgettable exploration where art and healing are confronted and embraced in tandem.

I have immense gratitude and love for all the women who participated and contributed to my experience during this retreat, which I can only adequately describe as ✨magical✨ “
reflecting on her experience at our Fall ‘21 wild clay retreat

📷

•••••••

“Going into the wild clay women’s retreat, I approached it with an open mind; curious and without expectation but hopeful that I would find some mental clarity in the quietude of nature and the inspired energy of making art.

The retreat was very thoughtfully curated by our host Jess who created a beautiful, inviting space for us to be open and vulnerable while learning the primitive craft of hand sculpting with natural clay.

Every step of the process was imbued with deep meaning and made deliberate with intention, which turned the art of pottery building into something reverent and transformative.

Jess gently guided us through our respective journeys by not only providing a safe platform, but sharing with us her own story of growth and healing through the practice of wild clay building.

This was an unforgettable exploration where art and healing are confronted and embraced in tandem.

I have immense gratitude and love for all the women who participated and contributed to my experience during this retreat, which I can only adequately describe as ✨magical✨ “
reflecting on her experience at our Fall ‘21 wild clay retreat

📷

•••••••

First impressions of this account may misrepresent me as being very outdoorsy. Growing up in NC I was raised to hike & camp, get leeches off with lighters, build fires without helper logs and just generally be outside, but I was also sent to cotillion, told to have “class & grace”, and moved to NYC when I was 15. ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
All that is to say, yes, I enjoy outdoorsy things, but I also enjoy the finer things in life like a delicious meal shared by candlelight, sipping a nice wine at sunset, lavender-scented bath salts, laughing through the night in a hot tub, a nice clean bed to sleep in covered with too many pillows to make sense.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
This is why I intentionally and thoughtfully crafted the retreat experience to be a balance between the grounding work of creating with wild clay paired with unique and refined accommodations, activities, and amenities. ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
One example of this balance is our closing dinner — after a day of pit-firing our vessels, sweating, covered with soot and ash, we clean ourselves up in our private accommodations, sit down at a landing overlooking the fire encompassing our vessels, gazing out at the lake at sunset, and enjoy a delicious meal made by our Chef Steph, served with a nice bottle of wine by candlelight.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
We can do the hard work and enjoy the things we love about life all in one experience. The retreat is about healing and empowerment. For me, that means enjoying some "fancy” aspects of life after a day digging in — emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically.

At the end of the day we can take a deep breath in and sigh out a relaxed release while we are being nourished and nurtured.
​​​​​​​​
Join us to see what it's all about—link in bio​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
📷​​​​​​​​
•••••••​​​​​​​​