Inspired by the beauty and legacy of Heath, we gathered a handful of other Bay Area-based ceramists whose small-batch bowls, vases, and wall art deserve equal attention. Here are a handful of Bay Area ceramists who should be on your radar, especially during the holidays.
Many of them have brick-and-mortar shops with ceramics at the ready. A post shared by Colleen Hennessey Clayworks colleen. Her works are one-of-a-kind and have been featured in several books and magazine, as well as on the tables of local notable restaurants. One of the most exciting ceramic voices around right now. After pursuing a baking and pastry degree in New York, Mel Rice moved to San Francisco and took her passions in another direction.
Spending eight years both as a student and studio manager at the pottery studio at San Francisco City College, she started her own line of ceramics inspired by the sight, smell, and sounds of the Pacific Ocean. Her works are simple and clean. Some are even downright bawdy. Another gastronome makes it way on the list. Featuring patterns and geometric design, ceramist Cuong Ta uses his tenure as a math teacher to inspire his work.
After sharpening her craft in the off hours of jobs in animation and museums, Sara made the jump to full time studio potter in and began selling her distinctive line of stoneware vessels to galleries and design shops around the country. She moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area in , where she currently resides with her husband and their two small children. Are there any hints of the Western lifestyle in your aesthetic? I just returned from my first trip to Italy and I am waiting to see how all the amazing things we saw will affect my work.
So far, the experience has made me want to work less and enjoy life more. I also think an awareness of light and space in my work is something I share with a lot of artists living on the West Coast, past and present.
Where does the magic happen? Describe your work space. The kilns are in the living room behind a set of bookshelves; my studios are in rooms off the main space; one for throwing and trimming, and the other for glazing and displaying the finished work.
I first learned how to wheel throw and sculpt ceramics in college at Cal State Long Beach, where I was half heartedly majored in Art Education. Ceramics classes were part of the major requirement and I knew instantly that it was what I wanted to do.
This was in the 90s, way before the Etsy marketplace and of modern craft, and to say you wanted to be a potter seemed akin to taking an oath of poverty. My parents were less than thrilled at first. After graduation I was able to get my own wheel and kiln, and I always lived in places where I had a space to make a studio in the garage. I had a handful of various jobs; in museums, waitressing, animation, apartment managing, and I did my pottery work in my free time.
I was just so happy to get in. No one I knew was selling their work. We all just did it because it was what we loved to do. I kind of marvel at that person I was. Any advice for how aspiring artisans can get started? It took a very long time to develop my own style in clay, and because there was no Internet as we know it today, I was not burdened with knowing too much about what everyone else was making and, more importantly, what everyone else was selling.
I would advise young artisans. Describe your favorite or best piece. Did you sell it or keep it or gift it? My favorite piece I ever, I made about 15 years ago. It was a ceramic pedestal with a winged cup form sitting on top. The pedestal had writing stamped into it with old directions on how to make something. I did a couple technical drawings of a winged form on the pedestal. I was in my 20s, and at that time every idea I had for a piece was written, sculpted, and then painted on the piece—to make sure you got the point!
This one particular piece got into some juried art show and came back broken and unsold, of course. I taped it back together from the inside and gave it to my friend Sean for a wedding gift real classy. I keep meaning to tell him to redo the tape. This page: Pieces from her Restoration Hardware collection Opposite page: A set of 3 skyscraper bottle vases Inspired by architecture, cityscapes, and patterns in nature.
These pages: Elegant stoneware marries inspiration from the urban and natural worlds. This collection sold at Restoration Hardware. Handmade in Oakland: The Craft of the Maker. Read Now. I talked to my lawyer friends about the chances that our marriage would get taken away if Prop.
So I reported back to Sara and we decided to do the legal thing before it was too late. Sara was super-nervous beforehand. She was …. I really expected the big wedding to be the one that made us feel like we were married. I thought the legal ceremony would just be a bump in the road.
To me, the two events meant two different things. The civil ceremony was just between us. It felt to me like a real act of illumination between Sara and me. And then in our big wedding I felt like it was an illumination of our community.
I think everybody should do a civil ceremony beforehand, then the big wedding can be all about the family and friends. SARA: We got a little push back. The day the court said we could marry, before Prop. Paloma came in and she was so excited. SARA: They gave her this whole spiel on the patriarchy—they totally rained on her parade.
The reception is the big event. That confused my family. Why does everyone need to see your ceremony? Sara had her whole extended family. We paired them up and everybody walked in as a friend drummed down the aisle. They each peeled off to the sides, and we sat down behind the wedding table.
And she spoke about Sara too. We sat at the wedding table, and the women held a big shawl over our heads. Everybody could participate. The sugar fell onto the shawl, which was perforated, and the sugar rained down on us! SARA: Each family arranges the marriage table in their own taste—ours was a gold and red theme. You have to have two sugar cones. And you have to have sweets. You have to have eggs, and all these particular things.
Will you marry me? In Islam things are not valid until they are confirmed three times—divorce, marriage, everything.
In the Iranian version, the bride is shy and she mumbles. And the family says this funny stuff. We put a guide in our program so that our friends would know how to participate. And then everybody cheers! Excitement galore. Sara was cracking up.
SARA: What we really loved, in retrospect, was laughing a lot.
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