Maria Andrade Troya
Resident Potter | Instructor
María is a ceramic artist working in Asheville, North Carolina. Originally from Quito, Ecuador she attended UNC-Asheville and graduated with a BFA in Printmaking. Afterwards she did a studio assistantship at Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts and pursued a pottery making career.
As a ceramic artist, María is deeply attracted to the reflective relationship between form and function in our homes. Pottery is the perfect embodiment of incorporating utility and beauty into daily rituals. Using white stoneware clay to throw pots on the wheel. Some of the decorating processes include: mishima/inlay drawings, wax resist, slip trailing and carving. The pots are then fired in an electric kiln to Cone 6 which allows consistency in the glaze surfaces as well as a wide palette of brilliant and jeweled colors.
She also has also added a body of work solely focusing on custom pet portraits. Using photos of your beloved pets to create unique drawings on mugs and other pottery pieces for one-of-a-kind work.
María’s pots also revolve around the love of cooking, entertaining and bringing the joy of gardening into everyday life.
