Meet the Team!
Titled after Becca’s Thai middle name, Prakun Pottery is a co-labor of small-batch ceramics, locally produced in Indianapolis and made in the spirit of welcome. Though Becca is the main potter, the voices and skills of the women below continually shape and refine the vision of Prakun.
Together, we seek to gather people around a common table and celebrate hospitality in its culturally diverse incarnations. May the pots and words you find here invite you to set a place for others at your table as well.
Cheers!
Becca, for the Prakun Pottery Team
November 2024
Becca Ito: Potter
Becca is an Indy-based potter with roots in Thailand. Ceramics are her way of telling about the world. Now in her 14th year as a potter, she savors the way that wild riverbank clay and the inferno of a wood-fired kiln converge on something as domestic and dependable as a coffee mug. The craft is both formal and intimate: the shape of a piece reflecting millennia of tradition, its inner curve ridged by her fingerprints. She delights in throwing functional forms that invite folks to slow down, savor the ordinary, and extend their tables to friend and stranger.
Becca teaches Latin at the Oaks Academy, continually surprised by the consonance between turning clay and a good turn of phrase. Last summer she rediscovered the joys of kite-flying at Lake Michigan. She now travels with a kite in her car, awaiting favorable winds.
Leah McMichael: Marketing Manager, Story-teller,
Potter-Watcher
Leah is a writer, chicken maestro, and tender of the earth. She and Becca were roommates in college and several years after. As of August 2023, they’ve worked on five pottery shows together — her ink and Becca’s clay are a collaboration as intertwined as grapevines on a trellis. At any given point, it’s nigh impossible to tell which is the fruit and supporting structure, so well do they work together. Check out their latest collaboration “For The Love Of" — a gallery show at Harrison Center for the Arts.
When Leah isn’t writing about pottery, she’s likely to be found either wandering the the neighboor with her nose in a book or spinning stories set in the landscape of the early church. Visit her blog: In Praise of the Ordinary.
Jody Oetzel:
Operations Manager, Potter-Watcher
Jody is a PhD student studying political science at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and long-time friend of Becca. In the lead-up to art shows, Jody faithfully shoulders the indispensable responsibility of checking in on Becca, organizing and managing her extensive to-do lists, and generally keeping Becca fed and watered because she has a habit of forgetting. (Having traveling around the world with her, Jody always has a good sense of what she wants to eat and frequently must leverage that knowledge for the sake of Becca’s own well-being.)
In the little free time she has apart from her offices as research assistant and Potter-Watcher, Jody cross-stitches and day-dreams of life with a pet Corgi named Cardamom.
Katie Ito:
Potter, Ceramics Collaborator, Potter-Watch Double Agent, Head Chef
Katie runs an independent ceramics practice named Sobremesa Pottery, but always seems up for a collaboration with Becca at Prakun Pottery. She graduated from Taylor University with a degree in Pre-Art Therapy, and recently completed an Art Fellow and Artist-in-Residence at the Harrison Center.
In addition to being Becca’s sister, she officially joined the Prakun Pottery team in Summer 2021 as a potter experienced in surface design and studio tech. (She has also shown herself equal to the duties required of a Potter-Watch double agent, pretending in the studio to be as carefree and negligent of health as Becca, but slipping in snacks, stretching, and water breaks as needed — much to the relief and satisfaction of Potter-Watchers Leah and Jody.)
For her, art-making is a small way of doing justice, of loving a world in peril without being overwhelmed by despair. Known to cook at the slightest provocation, she’s spent the summer exploring the cathartic possibilities of an exploding-garlic dish she calls “Rage Ragù.” Her galettes and browned-butter frostings are legendary, and she enjoys making art that illustrates the mysterious and beautiful intersection of peacemaking and storytelling at the table. To see her work, visit her Instagram @_sobremesapottery.
Deirdre Noor:
Chief of Heraldry, Ceramics Collaborator Emerita
Deirdre is a writer and a poet, as well as an artist in graphite, textiles and clay. Among her many accomplishments, Deirdre designed and carved nine serving bowls in the style of medieval heraldry in 2021 for Becca’s first show at the Harrison Center for the Arts. She seeks to tell truth as she sees it, whether it leads through fields of wildflowers or medieval symbolism or battle maps of a bygone era. When she’s not creating things with friends, Deirdre works as a nonprofit consultant (Ktizo Solutions). She plays magnificent pranks and has a knack for foraging black raspberries in the city.
Katie Pourcho:
Artist, Art Educator, Ceramics Collaborator
Katie is an artist whose practice is rooted in excellence and generosity. For the ways she amplifies, empowers, and nurtures the creativity of her “kid artists,” she was recognized as Indiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.
Becca and Katie became friends through work and collaborated on a ceramics project highlighting precious Indiana habitats and the endangered species who live in our forested caves, grassy prairies, and dune-wetlands. “For The Love Of” was on display August 4-27, 2023 in the Speck Gallery at the Harrison Center for the Arts (1505 N Delaware St, Indianapolis, IN). Since then, Becca has made it available in an online format here. Enjoy!