Hello, my name is Brendan Lada. Ceramics have been a passion of mine since I took my first art class at Rocky Hill School 13 years ago. I loved ceramics so much that between my junior and senior year, I apprenticed with my ceramics teacher Mike Chatterly. That summer is where I saw what it really took to run a studio, and how I could pursue ceramics as a career. I was exposed to so many techniques and skills such as how to mix glazes, how to run and maintain a kiln, and several new firing techniques. 

In the summer after my senior year at Rocky Hill, I apprenticed with Eben Horton and studied glass blowing. Working with a medium as unforgiving and impatient as glass, really gave me a new appreciation for clay. Clay allows you to take your time. I can leave a piece for a few days and come back to it when I’m ready to finish. With glass, it is much less forgiving. This helped me embrace a more organic and fluid process. Rolling with something that may not have been “perfect”  or letting a project develop in a way you may not have been expecting. 

My love for ceramics was strong, but at the time, I felt that I needed to work in a corporate environment in order to be successful, and moved away from my dreams of becoming a potter. It wasn’t long until my love for art resurfaced and I left my corporate career to pursue my passion. 

I took a leap of faith, bought a kiln and wheel off of Facebook Marketplace, set up a home studio in my basement, and Merrimack Mud Co. was born in the spring of 2023. Functionality and practicality are very important to me, and I consider them the core principles of my studio. I strive to make work that can be a part of people's everyday lives, without the disruption of having to think of how to care for it, so dishwasher and microwave safety are a must. 

I use a speckled mid-fire stoneware with striking glazes that bring out the clay’s natural beauty to create minimalist, utilitarian designs with modern aesthetic appeal. I hope that my work can help reduce waste in a world where so many products are made to be used up and thrown away.