Amanda Small, was raised in Chapel Hill, N.C. where she cultivated a first love of ceramics, gazing at the rows of pottery set up along the hillsides of the Appalachians. She moved to California in 1999 to attend California State University-Chico for her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics, and then continued her studies at the University of Florida post-bacc program, under mentorship by Linda Arbuckle and Nan Smith.

Her various travels have taken her to Central America, Venezuela, East Africa, India, and the South Pacific. This tendency to wander has made the journey a circuitous and exploratory one. Her love of nature inspires her to seek out diverse eco systems, and to look closely at the details of the world unfolding around her.

Most recently, she worked as an intern at the Skopelos Foundation of the Arts, in Skopelos, Greece.

Small resides in Manhattan, KS and is currently an MFA candidate at Kansas State University.