Our Story

The Claw and The Sea is the brainchild of Ronald Shaw and Jeni Licata. Together, we create an array of functional and sculptural ceramics.

Ronald Shaw is a studio potter and teacher living and working in Boynton Beach, FL. His current body of work is being made using several different construction techniques to create pieces on a large scale, including hand building and sculpting, wheel-throwing, stacking and assembling, and coil and paddle using a handmade kick wheel. Once the forms are constructed using stoneware or porcelain clay, they are either handsculpted to create texture, or carved to create negative space. The formal qualities of his work are influenced by natural structures and textures, along with fractalizations and organic patterns that occur in botany, mycology, and geology.

Jeni Licata is a studio potter living and working in Boynton Beach, FL. After obtaining her B.S. degree in Psychology at the University of Central Florida, she began pursuing her love of working with clay and teaching adults and youth. Her current body of work is focused on handbuilding with slabs and press molds, combined with monoprinting processes onto the clay. She draws her designs on newsprint, using underglazes and custom developed slips for bright colors and contrasting designs. The print is then laid on top of the clay and peeled away slowly, leaving the hand-drawn image on the clay. Her bright colors and motifs are all inspired by growing up on the beaches and waters of the Sunshine State with summer boat trips to the Bahamas.

If you'd like to see more of what we do, please follow us on Instagram @TheClawandTheSea and be sure Like us on Facebook! We regularly host freebies or giveaways to thank our supporters, spread the love, and to raise awareness about our products and boost business/customer relations.