Photo by Brittany Lesavoy Smith

azure arts pottery & ceramics

When you look around your home, you’re surrounded by beautiful furniture, framed artwork, tableware, items you truly enjoy and that bring you comfort. At azure arts we design our pottery with you in mind. Each piece is created to be a beautiful part of your home design, to enhance your tableware and place settings, to be a signature part of your family gatherings and the pieces you reach for when company visits. More importantly, we want you to enjoy our pottery each and every day! When you need the perfect gift for someone meaningful in your life, you know where to go to find a thoughtful, distinctive handcrafted piece.

the studio

Established in 2015, azure arts studio is located on a beautiful rural property just two miles from Canadarago Lake. From the studio, you'll see gorgeous views with quaint farms set on the hillsides in the distance. It is surrounded by rolling fields, hedgerows with centuries-old maples, pines and apple trees plus a picturesque pond. The bright, open space is designed to be welcoming, comfortable and inspiring.

christina ely milliman, founder, educator and ceramicist

Christina has been teaching and making pottery for over 25-years. As an artist she designs, crafts and hand paints each piece of pottery in the studio in Richfield Springs, New York just north of Cooperstown. In her early college years, Christina transitioned her studies from instrumental music to the visual arts and education. Clay became her medium of choice, studying ceramics at SUNY Potsdam, then continuing at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts at UMASS Dartmouth and other studios. Over the course of her career, Christina has taught informally and formally as an educator in Museums and community pottery studios, and as a professor of graduate and undergraduate courses at multiple Universities. As the studio has grown, so too have the class offerings. Christina welcomes hundreds of students from local, neighboring, and regional communities, as well as one-time or returning visitors to our region openly sharing her passion for ceramics and teaching others in the studio’s active, creative and inspiring space.

brian milliman, studio manager

Without Brian there would be no studio! Building and creating the studio space several years ago and improving it consistently has helped the studio grow by leaps and bounds. Brian keeps the studio running efficiently and smoothly, solves every problem with all those things we take for granted (like lights, heat, air conditioning), maintains the kiln and wheels, builds custom furniture and problem solves improvements at every turn. Whenever there is an operational and structural studio challenge, everyone turns to Brian for his kind, patient and selfless help.

jasmine crowe, teacher/instructor

Jasmine joined the studio as an instructor in December 2022. As the studio grows, new classes are being added continuously as we offer more opportunities for current and new students to learn and grow. Jasmine will be teaching the second beginner wheel throwing class newly added to our offerings starting January 2023. Jasmine has been working with clay for over twenty years, starting off as a Ceramics major at Hartwick College with a minor in glass-blowing. She taught for several years at a local gallery before having her two children. When they were little, she began a decade of working primarily as a production potter for a growing company. There she was able to design a line of work and make items that bring joy and beauty to everyday rituals, to be used with friends and family, and to be simple enough to maintain a timeless esthetic. She's moving away from production now, looking to connect more with her community and customers in a new way. Learn more about Jasmine on her website and Instagram.

deb rankins, studio assistant

Deb has been taking classes at the studio since June of 2020. She specializes in wheel thrown functional work and has recently expanded her practice to her home studio where she works on specialty pieces and honing her technique beyond the classroom setting. Deb assists with “behind-the-scenes” studio maintenance, glaze testing/mixing, kiln firing preparation and loading, readying the studio for classes and workshops and many other duties. Deb retired from a career as a CT Tech at the Little Falls Hospital and soon after starting pursuing her interest in pottery which has become her passion alongside gardening, biking and kayaking.

views from the studio