About our Mission and Family of Artists:

Ginger Blue Clay Art Studio was established in 1981 by Walter Ivan Heath, in Ginger Blue, Missouri. In October 1984, Walter met Bahereh Khodadoost at a Raku Firing workshop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They were married in Feb. 1985. At that point in time Bahereh had a limited previous experience with clay, but she knew that she loved the feeling of working with clay. She became involved with clay working shortly after they were married and working with this very primitive material became quite natural to her very soon.

The studio was relocated from Ginger Blue, Missouri to Pennsylvania in 1992. Then the location of the studio was at 318 W. Applegate Ave. Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (610)863-3362. The studio had a showroom which was open to the public six days a week. The Ginger Blue studio closed its doors in October of 2000. Bahereh and Walter  both continue to produce individual works of art, and occasionally do some collaborative work.

        Walter Heath
Walter is an Artist/ Technical Consultant/ Educator. Walter's relationship with clay is, to say the least, multifaceted. It is in his nature to explore many ways to do many things. At times, his approach is very wide and almost disjointed. This allows him to find new ideas and solve technical problems associated with the search. After a period of exploring diverse numbers of ideas, he usually becomes quite focused in one direction. This is where he is at this point in time.

He is presently concentrating his energies on slip-cast raku objects which are inspired by several visual references: Southwestern Native American, Persian/Islamic, Art Deco, and Nigerian imageries. He enjoys juxtaposing organic forms with hard geometric forms. He is very involved with making apparently unrelated parts and finding various ways of putting them together to form harmonious forms.

        Bahereh Khodadoost
Bahereh is an Artist/ Free lance Writer/ Multi-Cultural Educator. Bahereh was born in Iran(Persia). She has lived in America since 1979. Although she does not consider herself solely a Persian artist, rather a multi-cultural artist influenced by her Persian background. She has known herself as an artist as long as she can remember, but professionally she has been an artist since 1985. She has studied art at different times of her life with various teachers, mainly in Missouri, Kansas, and New York. Her work is greatly inspired by her life long exposures to diversity, from which she has applied her unified approach. It is simply a marriage between East & West. She is a "Libra" and the sense of harmony and balance seems to be embedded in her. Along with her never ending longing for beauty in general, she has searched to bring these attributes together in various aspects of her life, Art, of course, is a large part of this basic principle. She has always appreciated the blending of grace and strength, and of simplicity and complexity. She also enjoys the blending of functionality in a decorative object. She gets the utmost satisfaction from her art work when it fulfills both of these aspects fully.

She has always been attracted to SYMBOLISM, whether in poetry, art, cultures, and nature. She has also been attracted to imagery, whether abstract, representational, or symbolic. Calligraphy plays a strong role in her art work as well. These interests are the reason for the presence of symbolic images in her work. She carves images, used as stamps on her clay pieces; or, at times, uses as models for her slip cast pieces. These carved images, for the most part, when used in multiples, produce wonderful complex patterns, and become simply design motifs.

The quality of the lines is quite important to her. It is the combination of softness and strength in lines used with integrity that are most important in her work.

She believes that life has many dimensions, and all aspects of life are a chain reaction, all blending and coming together at different times in life. When pursued with integrity, this basic principle is applied at all times, good results prevail, and the outcome will be fine, no matter what medium is chosen for producing the work.

Her clay work reflects her background and varied interests. From calligraphy to hairstyling, to designing, to cooking, to knitting, to sewing, to painting, etc.... It simply shows her different dimensions, as diverse as it may come across, it is focused in terms of basic principles and philosophy in life.

Bahereh has a 24 year old step-daughter, and an 8 year old daughter named Sienna Mae. Bahereh and Sienna Mae’s collaborative line of clay work is called “PeasheCAT”, and is doing quite well in the market. The name “PeasheCAT” is a marriage of two words: Peashe meaning Kitty in the Persian language, and the English word Cat. The collaborative clay works, which are based on Sienna Mae’s drawings of her cat named Daisy, merge two cultures and two generations.
 

 
 
        Sienna Mae Heath

 I, Sienna Mae Heath am an artist, writer, and musician. I was born in Gravette, Arkansas on October 10, 1989. My first experience with clay was when I was 20 months old. My family lived in Ginger Blue, Missouri. When I was nearly three years old, we all moved to Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, which is where I live now.  We moved here in the Summer of 1992. I had my own studio, my mini-gallery, and my own selling section inside my parents’ studio.  I called it Ginger RED Studio.  The name of their studio was Ginger Blue Studio, and mine was different because I liked the color red better than the color blue at that time....

 Now I am approaching the 8th grade. I love music.... I have been playing Cello since third grade, and also Piano since I was seven. For three years I’ve played French Horn. I‘ve had some experience with the guitar, too. I’ve composed tunes of my own. I have been in a lot of performances regarding music and acting too. I have taken singing lessons in and out of school. In “The Keystone Girls Choir” I was a 1st Soprano, but in my school chorus I was an both an Alto and Soprano. In the Spring of 1998, my “Keystone Girls Choir” director, Dr. Shade, took the boys and the girls in his choirs to Canada. That was the only trip I went on with this choir that was far away from home. We performed several times there. When I was in that Choir, I also performed with them many places in Pennsylvania. I used to dance some too. I took dancing lessons for a few years in two places. I choreographed some of my dances as well.
 
I like some sports. I am a soccer player. Normally I play half-back, or defense.

My favorite subject last year was Writing. I like to write stories and some poetry as well.

Recently, I started getting into Astrology. A friend of my parents introduced me to it. He let me have and borrow some books and things about Astrology, and I really got into it. I am very interested in it.... I’ve been doing several people’s charts.
 
We closed the studio around November 2000. Since then, my parents and myself continue doing our artwork from our home in Pen Argyl.

My hobbies include playing music, writing stories and poems of all lengths, shopping, and just being an average teen. I do love to talk on the phone and use email additionally! My favorite color at the moment is purple. : - ) I plan to get involved in journalism and literature as I grow up. I’ve always loved writing since I was in Pre-School. I have also had some acting experience as well. I've acted in small productions at our studio in the past, and also have auditoned or acted in small productions elsewhere.

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