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April 04, 2022

Richmond, CA – Local Ceramic Artist Talks Pottery and How It Connects Us

Posted in: Client Examples

Ceramics and Connection by Sweet Tarnation

Black, pink, and red porcelain greenware pots upside down and butts-up on a wooden board

Handmade objects are an invitation from the maker to you to live in their world for a moment.

How do objects help us connect? Through mutual interest is the obvious answer; I like ceramics, you like ceramics, we both like ceramics! Yay, we’re connected! I can talk about this all day long if you want to, so please come visit one of my events if you love ceramics. We can chat about clay, and glaze, and how vessels do an incredible job holding things we love.

Luckily, it also goes deeper than that. By putting objects born from my creative brain out into the universe, I’m releasing an invitation into my inner world. Beckoning to those who wish to see more and welcoming their input, their comments. This is a vulnerable state, but the potential to meet folks who also feel the draw of beautiful, handmade objects is too strong to resist. By bringing a vessel home or giving it as a gift, they’re accepting that invitation and allowing something created by another to become part of their life. It’s an exchange of understanding, of seeing one another, and it feeds everything I do. Whenever I make an object, I imagine how someone will use it, how they’ll feel when they use it, and how it can fit into another’s space. It’s exhilarating to imagine that love and energy going into the item will enhance someone else’s day. It gives my efforts purpose and joy, infusing them with intention before they’re even formed. My love for this practice stems largely from knowing I can literally create joy for others to experience, all with a little creativity, some clay and glaze, and my bare hands.

Check out available vessels here!

The finished object can bring us together, but we can’t forget that the creative process connects us too. A lot of my customers who are the most interested in what I do have some experience with clay. They used to throw a long time ago, or tried it once and it didn’t stick because it was difficult and they didn’t pursue it further yet, or they have been wanting to take a class for the longest time and every time they see ceramics it reminds them how appealing it is. Seeing how something is made, and seeing how others approach it, lets your creative mind wander and wonder about what else can be done. It gives you license to explore a medium you might not have considered before, or build on what’s been done to create something new. It’s a sharing of ideas, making space for new ways to achieve the same result, or using old ways to birth something unexpected. 

Whenever an artist sells their work, it’s a piece of them venturing beyond their sphere, joining someone else’s. It’s pretty intimate, when you think about it. Something that a maker spent weeks creating now belongs to someone else who will use it and see it, likely every day. There’s a shared stewardship, a passing on of efforts and love. Supporting that effort with your hard-earned bucks not only validates what the artist is doing, but it feeds the next wave of creation. Ceramic artists need ceramic lovers to keep doing what we do, and your support and encouragement, in whichever form that takes, is a strong connection indeed.


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