Ayumi Horie grew up in the 1970’s in Maine in an old mill town where huge brick factories lined the river. She learned to love working with her hands early on as her Japanese family fished, gardened, cooked, and often visited the beach. She learned about the materiality of the world through explorations in both the woods and in old attics where antiques were piled high. Her hand-eye coordination developed through many hours spent playing ball games, mini-golf, and Atari. The refrigerator was always crammed full of food and the table laid with dozens of Corningware dishes loaded with everything from sushi to apple pie. With a childhood like this, it’s only natural that Ayumi grew up to become a potter.

Ayumi received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1991, her B.F.A. in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1996, and her M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Washington in 2000.

Ayumi works as a studio potter in the Hudson Valley of New York, about 2 hours north of New York City. She has taught workshops and given lectures at many universities, art centers and residencies in the U.S. and abroad, including the Archie Bray Foundation, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Greenwich House Pottery, Penland School of Crafts, Peter’s Valley, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the Northern Clay Center, and the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark . Since 2004, she has been on the board of directors at the Archie Bray Foundation, where she was a resident for two years between 1996 and 1998. Her work is in various collections throughout the US.

In the fall of 2008, Ayumi curated and organized Obamaware, a fundraiser involving the work of 27 nationally known ceramic artists who made Obama-themed work specifically for the event. Put together in five short weeks, the three day auction held at the end of October, just before the election, raised $10,843.54 for the Obama/Biden campaign.

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