Meet more makers in the November/December 2026 feature.
Tony Treadway’s love story with clay began at age 14, but he says “the magic started” during a 2015 residency with the New Harmony Clay Project when he relocated to the Posey County town. “This is where I learned to go from being just your standard potter to experimenting and becoming more of an artist,” he says. “When I was younger, I wanted to do these big pots where I had a specific shape or a form that another artist had shown me. What I learned is that the clay tells you what form is in it, what you can do with it, how far you are going to expand it. … That’s all dictated by the clay. Once you learn and accept that, then you don’t become frustrated with it. You just learn to work within those boundaries.”
The Robinson, Illinois, native’s prior jobs in education, landscape design, and theater management also tapped into his creativity, but for the last 16 years, his primary source of income has come from clay. Much of his work — jars are his favorite — is created to sell at regional arts festivals.
“Any piece I throw, it takes maybe 15 minutes on the potter’s wheel, but I may spend three hours doing the textures and the decorative work,” he says. “I’m more concerned about creating an image and making that statement than I am the function of the piece.”
He enjoys sharing his love of clay with others. “What I really enjoy is when I see a child or maybe an 85-year-old come into my studio and start handling the pieces and look at them. You see that joy in their faces: They’re seeing the colors and the textures,” he says. “It’s very much that response from the audience that really does keep me going.”
Ask The Master
Tony Treadway recalls advice from Les Miley, his ceramics instructor at the University of Evansville. “Les used to tell us the first 5,000 pots are the tough ones,” he says. “Once you got to 50,000 pots, you’ve either wasted your time or you’ve become a master.”
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