Meet Hallie!

Hallie Mellendorf is the potter behind Spud Ceramics. She started working with clay in 2018 at the District Clay Center in Washington, D.C. and has since worked her way through various studios across the U.S. 

Hallie moved to Beirut in 2021 to pursue a Master's Degree at the American University of Beirut. Her graduate thesis, The Clay Remembers: An Investigative Study of Crisis-Era Lebanese Studio Ceramics, was the first ethnographic survey of Lebanon's contemporary ceramicists. It explored the cultural boundaries between craft and art in Lebanese fakhar and it's connection to modern artisans.

Hallie now works as a researcher with the Beirut Museum of Modern Art, developing local Lebanese clay for modern pottery studios. She has collected clay samples from all over Lebanon and is working to adapt them for high fire ceramics.