by Jessie Lee Cederblom
2026
There is something wonderfully unexpected about finding a ceramics studio in a city built around aerospace. Outside, El Segundo is busy thinking about satellites, aircraft and technology. Inside Standard Ceramics, people are sitting at pottery wheels with their hands covered in mud, trying to convince a lump of earth to become a bowl.
Rachel Yas, co-founder of Standard Ceramics, likes the contrast.
"We get a lot of those aerospace people at the studio," she says. "I think it's a nice juxtaposition for them to have their heads be so technical all day long, thinking so large, and then to come here and just be so simplified: ‘Okay let me just play with some mud.’"
"I think it's a nice juxtaposition for them to have their heads be so technical all day long, thinking so large, and then to come here and just be so simplified: ‘Okay let me just play with some mud.’"
I walk through the studio's big yellow door, surrounded by clay handprints, and Rachel starts showing me around. There are pottery wheels on either side of the room, long tables, plants, colorful aprons and shelves named after El Segundo streets. Then there are the kilns, cone 10 and capable of holding everything from bowls and vases to horse heads and busts.
Rachel cracks a kiln open while giving me the tour, letting it begin to cool. I ask about the gamble of putting something you've made into the fire. "Someone's piece can blow up next to your piece,” she says, with a laugh. “It's all bets are off." Ceramics, she says, have taught her not to get too attached to the outcome. "I'm such a sentimental person, but when it comes to ceramics, I'm like, ‘Oh that's gone.’" Clay covered hands are busy everywhere. Pieces are drying, waiting to be glazed or headed towards the kiln. The studio opened in January. It already feels like people have been here for years.
"I'm such a sentimental person, but when it comes to ceramics, I'm like, ‘Oh that's gone.’"
Rachel and Nancy van Doorneward, the other co-founder, met while working out of a community studio in Manhattan Beach. They loved the community but wanted somewhere people could work every day. They talked about opening their own place, somewhat idly, until one day Nancy showed up at Rachel's job at the Coffee Bar.
"I think it's time,” she told her. “I think we should do this."
The next day, they started looking at spaces. Neither had built a ceramics studio before. They visited studios, kiln manufacturers and suppliers, researched everything they could and started assembling a team. When they found the big brick building in Smoky Hollow, there was a four inch raised platform in one part of the room. "This speaks to us as a classroom, " Rachel remembers thinking. So they made it one.
The city became an important part of making the leap possible.
"The City of El Segundo was huge and integral in our process of getting this space going through the plan check and permitting process, " Rachel says "They were wonderful to work with. They helped us in every way. They helped us save money and expedite the process."
Rachel had studied ceramics in college and returned to it in 2020 after a long break. Nancy came to ceramics later, after raising three children, one with special needs, and working in entertainment. At 50, she found herself with a little room to think about what she wanted next. But she knew she wanted to do something different. "Just doing something creative,” she says. “And something I really want to do just for me."
Ceramics became therapeutic and meditative. But then something else happened. She found the people. "It really just brings people together." Nancy says. "And I wanted to create that for our community, and for myself, really."
That part is everywhere at Standard. Members range from their teens to their 80s, generations of potters sharing the same tables.
"We have people in their late 80s who have been potting for 60 years, helping people that are just starting, giving them tips,” Rachel says. “And passing the torch, in a way."
She gets goosebumps just talking about the intergenerational connections being made. "Those are friendships forming," Rachel says.
She sees the same sense of discovery in people who arrive insisting they aren't artists. "I think everyone has some artist in them," she says. "If you give them time and a little bit of support, they will find it within themselves."
Even a simple pinch pot can be a way back to that feeling. Rachel makes hundreds of what she calls her "anxiety pots."
"It brings me so much calmness to just make these really simple vessels," she says.
Nancy and Rachel are planning to host visiting artists, workshops, lectures, gallery nights and festivals. They are also creating a place where teachers and students can sell their work, especially people who don't have a platform or don't want to build their lives around social media. Many of their artists have expressed interest in showing their work.
"We are only too happy to make that happen," Rachel says.
For this year’s El Segundo Art Walk, Standard is taking its wheels downtown. At least ten artists will showcase and throw live at Main and Grand, bringing the process out of the studio and into the heart of the city. Standard Ceramics’ studio will also remain open for its members and for tours.
Even a simple pinch pot can be a way back to that feeling. Rachel makes hundreds of what she calls her "anxiety pots."
You don't have to know how to make a pot to belong at Standard. You can be 16 or 86. You can be an artist, an aerospace engineer, or someone who has never touched a wheel before. You can just walk through the yellow door, sit down and see what happens. Rachel and Nancy both told me something that made me smile: "Once your hands are covered in mud, you can't touch your phone." And maybe that's the invitation. Put the phone down. Sit beside someone you don't know yet. Make a pot. Find a new creative practice. Maybe make a friend while you're at it.
“This place has just been such a good third space for everyone and a place to feel connected to nature, and to community,” says Nancy. “And to people.”
In a city built around what's next, there's something pretty lovely about sitting down to engage in the most ancient of artistic practices, making something with mud and fire.
Standard Ceramics will be on Main & Grand Stage at The El Segundo Art Walk Saturday, Aug. 22, from 3 to 9 p.m. Free and self-guided. Maps at participating businesses and at elsegundoartwalk.com.
