What if learning to work with clay could be about more than making pottery? What if it could be a way to slow down, practice gratitude, and reconnect with the things that give us life?
The rituals you put your energy into are what shape your life.
Are you shaping your life?
Or is life shaping you?
These are the questions at the heart of Shaping Rituals.
We are Kelly Elizabeth and Ivan Lopez , artists and the people behind Artillery AG Pottery Studio. Through our work with clay, we've come to see ceramics as more than a craft. It is an opportunity to connect with the natural world, explore our creativity, and create objects that hold meaning in our lives.
With Shaping Rituals, we want to share that experience with you.
Not by telling you exactly what your creative practice should look like, but by inviting you to discover it for yourself.
We guide. The Elements Teach . You create.
We are Kelly Elizabeth and Ivan Lopez , artists and the people behind Artillery AG Pottery Studio. Through our work with clay, we've come to see ceramics as more than a craft. It is an opportunity to connect with the natural world, explore our creativity, and create objects that hold meaning in our lives.
We Are Guides.
The Elements Are Our Teachers.
When you join this Shaping Rituals experience, we aren't asking you to follow us blindly or create something exactly as we do.
We are here to guide you.
The real teachers are the elements: earth, water, fire, and air. They are present throughout the process of making ceramics, from the clay we shape with our hands to the fire that transforms it into something lasting.
Working with clay asks us to pay attention. To feel the material. To observe what happens when we add water, change the pressure of our hands, allow something to dry, or expose it to fire.
We begin to learn by doing, observing, experimenting, and responding to what is happening in front of us.
This is part of what makes ceramics such a meaningful creative practice.
We aren't simply learning how to make an object. We are developing a relationship with the materials, the process, and our own creativity.
Our role is to help you explore that relationship.
Kelly Elizabeth’s POV : Why We Created Shaping Rituals
I'm an artist with a million ideas, a busy mom, moving from city to city to caregiver for family and an environmentalist at heart.
Like many people, I can feel pulled in a hundred different directions.
There is always something to do, something to think about, something else asking for our attention.
What brings me back to myself are my rituals.
Not necessarily elaborate routines or practices that require hours of our day. Sometimes, they are small moments that remind me to slow down, give thanks, and reconnect with what matters.
I believe we need these moments in our lives.
We live in a world that constantly asks us to produce, respond, achieve, and keep moving. It can be easy to spend our days reacting to everything around us without making much space for what we want to nurture within ourselves.
For me, creativity and gratitude are ways to return to that space.
Shaping Rituals grew from the desire to bring these practices together through clay.
What if making something with our hands could become an opportunity to pause?
What if the objects we create could remind us of what we are grateful for?
What if we could bring more intention into our everyday lives, not only through the things we say or think, but through the things we make and the spaces we create around us?
These are the questions we explore through Shaping Rituals.
The Sacred Vessel
What if making something with our hands could become an opportunity to pause?
What if the objects we create could remind us of what we are grateful for?
What if we could bring more intention into our everyday lives, not only through the things we say or think, but through the things we make and the spaces we create around us?
Creating With Intention: The Story Behind a Sacred Vessel
Our first online ceramics experience begins with the creation of a vessel.
A simple vessel made from clay.
But we invite you to approach it with intention.
As you work with the material, you have an opportunity to reflect on the elements that make our lives possible and consider what gratitude means to you.
You might choose to use your finished vessel as part of a personal altar, a space for reflection, or a ritual of gratitude. You might place it somewhere in your home where it reminds you to pause and appreciate the world around you.
The object itself does not have to begin with any particular meaning.
You bring your own meaning to it through the intention you set, the process you experience, and the way you choose to use it.
This is one of the things we love about creating with clay.
We begin with a material from the earth. We give it our time and attention. We shape it with our hands. And through the creative process, we make something that can become part of our lives.
You are not simply making pottery to place on a shelf.
You are exploring what it means to create something with purpose.
And you don't need to consider yourself an artist to begin.
You Are the Creator. You Are the Artist.
We want Shaping Rituals to be a place where you can explore your creativity without feeling that you need to get everything right.
You don't need to know exactly what you want to make before you begin.
You don't need to create something that looks like everyone else's work.
And you don't need to have years of experience working with clay.
You can begin with curiosity.
As you become more comfortable working with the material, you may discover other ways to bring clay into your everyday rituals.
A handmade cup that invites you to slow down and enjoy your morning tea.
A candleholder that becomes part of an evening practice of reflection.
A small sculpture that represents a dream, a goal, or something you want to nurture in your life.
A vessel that reminds you to give thanks for the earth and the elements that sustain us.
These are only a few possibilities.
The intention is not to prescribe what your rituals should be. It is to create the space and share the tools that allow you to discover what feels meaningful to you.
You are the creator.
You are the artist.
We are here to guide you.
Bringing Our Creative Practice Back to the Earth
Our relationship with clay is also a reminder of our relationship with the natural world.
The materials we work with do not exist separately from the earth. They are part of the larger systems that sustain life.
When we work with clay, we have an opportunity to pay closer attention to the materials we use and the processes that transform them.
For us, this awareness is connected to gratitude.
Giving thanks for the earth is not only about how we feel. It can also inspire us to consider how we live, what we consume, and how we care for the places that sustain us.
We want Shaping Rituals to encourage that connection.
Through our creative experiences, we invite people to explore the elements, make meaningful objects, and consider how creativity can become part of a more intentional relationship with the natural world.
We believe that making space for gratitude matters.
And we believe that caring for the earth is one way to put that gratitude into practice.
Explore Shaping Rituals With Us
Shaping Rituals is an online and in-person ceramics experience created by Kelly Elizabeth and Ivan Lopez of Artillery AG + Ceramics.
Through clay, we explore creativity, intention, gratitude, and our relationship with the elements.
Our first online experience invites you to create a traveling altar vessel while learning the foundations of a home clay practice, exploring decoration and finishing techniques, and discovering ways to incorporate your creation into your everyday rituals.
It is an invitation to learn by doing, to make something with your hands, and to discover what that process can mean to you.
You don't have to know where the practice will take you.
You only have to be willing to begin.
Ready to create with intention?
Explore the Shaping Rituals online ceramics course and join us in creating your own sacred vessel.
Visit our website to learn more about the experience and find our current introductory offer.
We guide. The elements teach. You create.
Shaping Rituals is an online ceramics experience led by Kelly Elizabeth and Ivan of Artillery AG Pottery Studio Whether you're new to clay or looking for a more intentional creative practice, this course invites you to begin with what you have and discover what becomes possible when you make space to create. Begin Your Shaping Rituals by learning the following:
