With more than half a million Instagram followers and a thriving business, Curt Hammerly has turned his passion for ceramics into a full-fledged phenomenon. The Colorado native and founder of Hammerly Ceramics blends modern technology with age-old craftsmanship, creating geometric pots, mugs, bowls, and planters that are both functional and striking.
Hammerly’s journey into ceramics began after a life-changing accident in 2012. While recovering from a broken neck, he revisited a love for pottery sparked by a high school class. A course at the Boulder Potters’ Guild rekindled his creativity, and he soon found himself apprenticing at the guild, building a basement studio in his home, and experimenting with 3D-printed molds and custom glazes. Today, Hammerly operates out of a Westminster studio where his sleek, one-of-a-kind designs are brought to life. His technological approach to problem-solving and dedication to innovation have made him a standout in the world of ceramics. “There are no heady art ideas here,” he says with a grin. “I just like to play.”
Here’s what Hammerly had to say about his inspirations, processes, and what’s next for his growing ceramic empire:
Color theory: “I went to design and architecture school, not art school, so color theory isn’t intuitive for me. I mostly just make color combinations that I personally like. And I love purple, but it’s a hard color to work with. It’s not very common in nature, and I make all my glazes out of mined materials like copper, cobalt, iron, tin, and zinc. It can be tricky to make purple out of these, but our grape jelly and teal color scheme, named Dragon’s Blood, is super popular and probably accounts for 25% of our total sales.”
Problem solver: “I am inspired by technical challenges and coming up with ways to overcome them. All of my designs developed out of this problem-solving. With every new mold I make, I try something new. And social media provides a pretty instantaneous feedback loop of what is popular or not.”
His medium: “I will always work in clay. You can turn it into any shape imaginable. I can’t think of anything else with this amount of freedom. But once you start the kiln, there is no going back. You can’t paint over the mistakes.”
Copycats: “A follower just DMed me about a company in China that is ripping off my mugs. That’s why I don’t want to stick with any one style too long. By the time people copy me, I want to have moved on to my next idea anyway. My glazes help set me apart since most people in the industry aren’t hand-mixing custom colors, and I can pivot quickly.”
His next idea: “I would say that, currently, I am in my infancy as an artist. But I am building a new studio attached to my house that will act as a studio and research facility for building larger art. I’m excited to learn from the technical challenges that come with scaling up my work. My dream was never to make coffee mugs, but that funds my dream of creating other things. I’m trying to find that balance between making stuff that makes money and making stuff that makes me better at what I do. And with more space, I can buy more tech, and push the limits of size and function.”
