Since Katie was a girl, nature’s material legacy and its accompanying textures have fascinated her. She’s always enjoyed finding objects, whether in a forest or on a beach. Now she incorporates these gestures into her work, mimicking their organic qualities or directly impressing them into clay. 

Whilst not all that Katie makes is expressly functional, in the pieces that are intended for use she seeks to elevate their function—to connect beauty to everyday life. In an era of disposables, Katie hopes that, as her work joins daily rituals, she’s making those traditions and routines more significant and perhaps more permanent, as each piece has the possibility of outlasting her and the initial collector.

Katie opened the first iteration of Illyria Pottery in Greenville, South Carolina in 2008. From 2009-2010 she was the artist-in-residence at The Gallery Upstairs and Torquil in Henley-in-Arden, UK. In 2012, she and her husband moved to Oxford for him to read for a DPhil in English Literature, and Katie launched her own brick-and-mortar shop in Jericho, where she made everything for her shop in her studio downstairs. After 7 years and with a baby on the way, Katie closed the shop, started the next phase of Illyria, and makes from her cottage studio in rural Oxfordshire.

Katie holds a Bachelor of Science in Art Education and an MA in Three-Dimensional Studio Art.