Takuro Shibata is a Japanese native ceramic artist based in Seagrove, North Carolina, USA, and has studied Engineering in Applied Chemistry at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. Later, his interest in ceramics led him to become an apprentice at a local pottery studio in Shigaraki, Japan. After visiting the USA with his wife in 2001, many opportunities came up to join ceramic art programs and in 2005, they both moved to the Seagrove area after he had accepted the position of director at STARworks Ceramics.

Takuro has developed a national reputation as a ceramic artist and wild clay specialist. His own ceramic work, knowledge of ceramic materials and background story have all been prominently featured in the media and shared in many exhibitions, workshops, publications and ceramic conferences both nationally and internationally. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC).

Hitomi Shibata is a Japanese native ceramic artist based in Seagrove, North Carolina, USA and has studied Fine Art & Craft at Okayama University in Japan. She lived and worked as a potter in Shigaraki, an old pottery village in Japan, until a Rotary International scholarship brought her to the USA to study ceramics at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. With her husband, she later moved to North Carolina to set up a permanent pottery studio and now build wood kilns together.

Hitomi has been artist-in-residence at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Cub Creek Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, and North Carolina Pottery Center; organised workshops and lectured at Peters Valley School of Craft, Penland School of Crafts, and NCECA; won international ceramics competitions at Yingge Museum of Ceramics, Taiwan, and Yixing Teapot Competition, China; and is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC).