Jesse Brinkerhoff
Rest and Bloom
Earthenware and maiolica cremation urn, 6x5.5x3.5"

When my brother and his wife passed in 2020, I knew they needed handmade cremation urns that celebrated the beauty of their lives - something that honored who they specifically were. That knowledge created an opening in me. I quit my job, dove fully into clay, and drew on my ceramics degree from the University of Montana to discover what I hadn't yet known: that my own experiences with grief and gratitude would find their way into the work.

Although I've been a full-time ceramic artist for six years, it was my first summer at farmers markets where I discovered how deeply people wanted their loved ones commemorated in clay. I said yes to five complete strangers who reached out asking for custom urns. I had never made a single one.

I believe deeply in making things with our hands. My work slowly but beautifully has become about celebrating both grief and gratitude - the highs and the lows along the way. So with no real plan and one real intention, Gratitude Ceramics has become a place that holds the complexities of love and loss. My studio sits just outside Missoula, MT. This is where all the transformation happens - where clay becomes ceremony, and memories take form.