My story
I’m Taylor Simpson, the Seattle-based ceramic artist behind Taylor Stone. My work is rooted in a fascination with transformation—how something as elemental as clay can become an object that feels unfamiliar, evocative, and a little otherworldly.
I’m drawn to the tension between control and unpredictability. My forms tend to combine sharp angles with smooth curves, while the surfaces introduce variation, texture, and chance. I work with nerikomi and agateware, graphic resist, handpainted details, and firing processes ranging from electric kilns to raku and pit firing. I often begin with a clear visual idea, but I’m equally interested in what happens when the material or the firing process pushes the piece somewhere I couldn’t have designed in advance.
Much of my visual language comes from the environments and objects I find myself paying attention to: the colors and geology of the Pacific Northwest, architectural forms and details, and the strange landscapes and imagined worlds of science fiction. I’m interested in translating those influences into objects that feel both grounded and slightly unexpected—pieces that can live comfortably in a home while still having the presence of art.
My path to ceramics was not a direct one. I grew up in Michigan, earned a BFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and spent my early adulthood in Brooklyn. Afer spending years working in UI/UX design, I began looking for a creative career that was more physical, exploratory, and connected to the way I wanted to live.
In 2024, a ceramics studio opened down the street from me. I took a class and quickly became absorbed by the physicality of the process and watching the materials fundamentally change through heat. Ceramics gave me a way to bring together the parts of design I had always loved—form, color, composition, and problem-solving—with experimentation, imperfection, and physical making.
Ultimately, I want to make objects that reward attention: pieces whose forms, surfaces, and small details reveal themselves over time, and that bring a little more curiosity and otherworldliness into everyday life.