Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandria Roby.
Hi Alexandria, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My relationship with clay began while studying Graphic Design in college, where I took courses in wheel throwing and hand-building. I spent the next decade building a career as a graphic designer, but I always wanted to return to working with my hands away from a screen. After experiencing burnout in the tech industry, I left my full-time job and the stability it offered to continue freelancing while exploring various forms of art until I found myself in a ceramic studio.
Once I reintroduced myself to the material and craft, I knew there was a deeper purpose waiting for me. What began as a creative outlet quickly became my full-time practice. Starting with functional tableware thrown on the wheel, my work gradually evolved toward hand-built sculptural vessels, atmospheric firing, and a process that embraces imperfection and transformation.
Starting my business in the garage of a small apartment and later moving to the countryside, where my partner and I began homesteading, were defining chapters in my journey. As my ceramic practice grew and gained international recognition through exhibitions and gallery partnerships, living in the country profoundly shifted the way I saw the world. It brought me closer to my work, a slower way of living, my yoga practice, and ultimately, to myself.
After the end of a long-term relationship, my entire life shifted. I found myself back in the city, feeling like I had reached a dead end and knowing something needed to change. I packed my life into a backpack and spent the following year traveling through artist residencies in Spain, Peru, and Japan. Each experience reshaped the way I approach clay.
In Spain, limited studio resources encouraged me to question conventional ceramic practices. In the Peruvian Amazon, I learned alongside local artisans, working with wild clay, pit firing, and natural pigments gathered from the landscape. In Japan, hand-building and traditional anagama wood firing reinforced my belief that the landscape itself can remain an active collaborator in the work.
Alongside ceramics, my movement practice, yoga, and meditation became equally important teachers. Together, they revealed the same lesson: to slow down, pay attention, and trust transformation. Those practices eventually inspired my friend and me to create Embodied Elements, an immersive retreat experience that brings together ceramics, yoga, meditation, and nature. Today, both my ceramic practice and retreat work are rooted in creating spaces for presence, curiosity, and a deeper connection to ourselves and the natural world.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Some of the biggest struggles in my journey have come through periods of uncertainty and starting over. Leaving a successful career in graphic design to pursue ceramics full-time meant walking away from stability without knowing if it would work. It was a decision that required a great deal of trust in my own intuition.
Around the same time, the end of a long-term relationship meant leaving behind the home, studio, and life I had built. Starting over unexpectedly became a turning point. Living with one of my closest friends, a yoga teacher and sound healer, allowed me to fully embrace the slower rhythm I needed to regain my footing, one rooted in movement, meditation, creativity, and time in nature. That experience eventually inspired us to create Embodied Elements, the retreat experiences we now host together.
Another challenge has been creating without a permanent studio or kiln. Working out of borrowed spaces and artist residencies pushed me to simplify my practice and led me toward hand-building, wild clay, and atmospheric firing. Looking back, those challenges shaped the work I make today, teaching me to embrace uncertainty, trust the creative process, and find inspiration in the limitations themselves.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in creating one-of-a-kind wheel-thrown and sculptural ceramic vessels inspired by the textures, forms, and quiet beauty of the natural world. Working primarily through hand-building, I embrace organic forms that feel unearthed rather than manufactured. My work explores the balance between strength and fragility, refinement and imperfection, allowing each piece to develop its own unique character through the making process.
A large part of my practice centers on atmospheric firing and traditional ceramic techniques, including pit firing, wood firing, and working with wild clay whenever possible. Rather than controlling every outcome, I invite flame and material to become collaborators. I love observing the variations that emerge when working with clays from different regions. As I sculpt, I allow the material to crack and break when necessary, sometimes pushing its boundaries to encourage both intentional and natural fractures. Through atmospheric firing, I tap into ancient techniques that create surfaces that can never be replicated, making each vessel a record of both intention and transformation.
I also specialize in immersive ceramic experiences that invite people to reconnect with themselves through creation and movement. Through workshops, private clay experiences, and retreats, I weave together ceramics, movement, and nature to offer a slower, more intentional way of engaging with creativity. The process of working with clay and truly tuning in is just as meaningful as the finished piece. The final vessel, for me, is a culmination of the emotions I was able to process and release during the act of creation.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I owe so much of where I am today to the people who have believed in me along the way. A close friend who worked at the ceramic studio first planted the seed that I could sell my work, and he continues to encourage me to keep moving in the direction I know I’m meant to go. My dear friend and co-host of Embodied Elements retreats is my biggest fan, and I am hers. We’ve built our businesses alongside one another, always celebrating each other’s successes and encouraging one another through every challenge.
I also have a close network of incredible women who are each moving in such inspiring directions, and we continue to uplift and motivate one another every day. I’ve been embraced by an incredible community of friends, collectors, galleries, and shop owners who have supported my work and helped me grow. As an artist and small business owner navigating much of this journey on my own, no purchase, referral, or collector ever goes unnoticed. Above all, I owe so much to my parents. They didn’t always understand the path I was choosing, but they trusted me anyway. It’s difficult to explain the deep certainty I feel about where I’m headed, even when the path is unclear, but their unwavering support has given me the confidence to keep following it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alexrobydesigns.com/
- Instagram: @alexrobydesign
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