All Fired Up is our Store’s month-to-month handmade ceramics drop, curated by Food52, and all from small and native makers. This month, we’re that includes LA-based artist Allison Shawn of SOMBRA Studio Ceramics.
For Allison Shawn, it wasn’t a query of if she was going to run her personal enterprise—it was merely a query of when. And possibly what too. In case you’d advised her in school—and even 5 years after—that ceramics can be her future, she in all probability wouldn’t have believed you.
In truth, she won’t have believed she was doing ceramics in any respect.
After taking a wheel-throwing class in highschool, she set clay apart for practically a decade to pursue a full-time profession in structure. However when she appears to be like at a few of her favourite items now, she nonetheless sees the affect of these early days. “The magic of the kiln appeared actually thrilling,” she explains. “I simply cherished the fabric and the method and the way totally immersive it was.”
Fortunately for all of us, the Los Angeles-based artist and founding father of SOMBRA Studio Ceramics ultimately discovered her manner again to the studio. A interest first rekindled through the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, ceramics rapidly grew to become greater than only a pastime. “It was this place of refuge and freedom for me,” she says, reflecting on how the craft has at all times retained these qualities.
After we join, it is a sunny afternoon in her Northeast LA condo. A sleepy canine rests at her ft, and inexperienced crops are scattered across the room—an intentional backdrop that mirrors her strategy to each life and her enterprise.
Quick ahead to as we speak, and Allison is working a full-time studio from her dwelling. “It’s simply such a particular factor that has at all times pulled me again,” she says.
Most not too long ago, we collaborated together with her for our month-to-month All Fired Up ceramics drop, that includes an unique assortment from SOMBRA.
To study extra concerning the inspiration behind these items and Allison’s journey, we caught up together with her for a chat concerning the evolution of her craft.
How did you get into ceramics?
I began in highschool. It was one of many two artwork courses I might take, and I’d by no means had a possibility to work with clay earlier than. The magic of the kiln appeared actually thrilling, so I began doing it and it immediately grew to become one thing I cherished—the fabric, the method, how totally immersive it was. If you’re working with clay, you are not doing the rest. You are actually lined in mud, so that you don’t even need to contact a doorknob—definitely not a telephone, you recognize?
So that you didn’t research it in school in any respect?
Not likely. I used to be capable of take a category right here and there, nevertheless it was rather more restricted. And structure was so all-consuming—as a career and a artistic outlet—it type of took all the things I had. I didn’t actually have any artistic juice left over for it.
Ceramics and structure are each artwork varieties, however they’re fairly totally different. How do they examine?
There are loads of issues that overlap between the 2 practices. They’re each very spatial, and each are concerning the finish person. However they’re additionally fairly totally different. Structure is extraordinarily exacting and exact. There’s no spontaneity as a result of all the things needs to be deliberate to the nth diploma—ensuring everyone seems to be glad, from the shoppers to town, to constructing codes, hearth inspections, contractors.
After which ceramics is the exact opposite. It’s quick, in your palms. Every batch of clay is totally different, so you need to be conscious of the fabric within the second.
Do you keep in mind the second when ceramics began to shift from being a artistic outlet to a profession?
It was a gradual evolution. In some unspecified time in the future, it grew to become much less concerning the enterprise itself and extra concerning the way of life I envisioned for myself. I’d look into the longer term and simply didn’t see myself in an workplace, on a pc in any respect. I noticed myself leaning absolutely into the enterprise.
That way of life simply felt rather more pure. I used to be at all times in response and collaboration with what was occurring, fairly than residing in what can generally really feel like a pretend e mail world, the place we’re inventing deadlines and stressing out about them, although they’re not essentially actual.
I believe that may be actually daunting, although. Have been you nervous? Or was it similar to, “This enterprise is taking off, and I’m following that path”?
There was undoubtedly some nervousness. However, I had at all times had an concept that I wished to work for myself. That was by no means actually in query—it was only a matter of what the enterprise can be, and when it might occur.
I initially thought I’d attempt to do each structure and ceramics—discover house for each. However over the following couple of years, I spotted: this enterprise is the place the expansion is and I might see a path ahead that felt holistic and full.
Going again to your loved ones’s enterprise, are there any particular classes from these early days that you simply nonetheless incorporate into your individual enterprise as we speak?
Completely. One of many greatest classes I discovered from watching my mother and father, particularly my dad, develop the household enterprise was the concept high quality units the tone. It’s not simply concerning the high quality of the product itself, however the high quality of each interplay and relationship surrounding it. My dad actually taught me that whenever you set a excessive bar, all the things round you rises to satisfy it.
It’s this mindset that I’ve carried into SOMBRA: high quality and belief elevate all the things round you. It creates a tradition of integrity, and that turns into the expectation.
Your items are sometimes described as objects meant to be cherished for years. Do you’ve got a chunk in your house that holds deep that means for you?
There’s a serving bowl I made again in highschool and it’s adopted me into each condo I’ve lived in. At first, it was only a piece I cherished, however as I acquired again into ceramics, it grew to become a reminder of how far I’ve come as a craftsman. It’s like whenever you meet a five-year-old and you’ll already see their persona—this bowl, although tough, already had the weather that I’d develop into as a designer.
It’s a particular piece as a result of, after I have a look at it now, I see the start of one thing a lot bigger. It jogs my memory of my journey and the way the muse for what I do now was at all times there.
Lastly, are you able to share a bit extra about this specific assortment?
The gathering is a mixture of each Daniel [Zunino’s] enter and my very own changes. It was essential to me that every one the items might stay collectively in a house, whereas nonetheless exploring a spread of strategies and types I exploit with SOMBRA. The gathering strikes a steadiness between kind and performance, all whereas talking the identical design language. I wished the items to really feel important but in addition expressive—objects meant for use and lived with day-after-day.
Do you’ve got a selected piece you’re particularly happy with?
It’s exhausting to select, however one piece I’m actually happy with is a ribbed vase with a fluted texture on the skin. The approach for that piece took a very long time to good. I’ve to form it with only one hand as an alternative of two, which could be difficult as a result of when you make a transfer, it’s everlasting. I’m actually happy with attending to a spot the place I had sufficient management to create that texture exactly.
