CHARAN SACHAR
Name: Charan Sachar
Shop: Creative with Clay
Location: Seattle, WA Website: http://www.creativewithclay.com
Website: http://www.creativewithclay.com
How long have you been working with clay? 12 years
What got you started? I had always wanted to work in clay when I was India as a kid. Watching a potter throw on the wheel make a pot out of a lump of clay was very exciting to me. It wasn’t until I came to Seattle, that I got a chance to take my first class in wheel throwing and feel in love with the medium.
What phases have you gone through as your work has evolved? I had started like most potters with a fascination of throwing on the wheel. Majority of my work was wheel thrown, but I used to almost always alter my forms and do a lot of handbuiilding. A few years into it, I discovered the possibilities of an extruder which I could now use for making my basic forms and then alter them. This was truly a lot faster and my work took another direction.
As far as decoration goes, I always like texture ad pattern and carved a lot of my work before. Few years back I started experimenting with slip decoration which evolved from my teenage interest of decorating cakes. I liked the tight curves and intricate patterns I could achieve with slip decoration. This has now become the signature look of my work. 
Where do you get your inspiration? Having lived in India for a significant part of my life, color has always influenced me especially with my mother running a boutique designing clothes for brides and bridesmaids. The colors, fabrics, embroidery and designs I came across then have a strong impact on my work now.
My work also reflects my love for Bollywood movies and my fascination with life in India.
Where do you do your work? I have converted my family room in our tri-level home into my studio. It is not a big space (330 sq ft), but I am an organization freak. So it still doesn’t look packed. I do use my garage for inventory storage and packaging.
What techniques have you tried, do you work in, and want to try in the future? Like I mentioned, slip decoration is one of my signature techniques. I would like to try some silk screening and have been experimenting a little bit. Basically anything that is done on fabric I would like to try on clay.
Where does pottery fit in your life? In the beginning of 2011 I quit my full time job as a software engineer to so pottery full time. So it my passionate career now. Of course it gets overwhelming from time to time, but it makes waking up in the morning worth it. 
What does creating pottery do for you? For me making pottery is like meditation. Earlier with my stressful software job, I could come to my studio to unwind. They say in meditation, one should block off all your thoughts and focus on something like a candle burning. Well I could never do that and my mind would be buzzing all the time. Doing pottery requires focus. You have to concentrate on what you are doing, so it automatically becomes meditation. Now, doing pottery full time, there are stages of pottery I look at as meditation, like my slip decoration process. I strive to give life to clay, decorating it with Indian influences keeping functionality and uniqueness in mind.
Charan Sachar at work in his studio
LAURIE GOLDMAN
http://www.etsy.com/people/MudlarkPottery
My name is Laurie Goldman. I live and work in Brewster, MA on Cape Cod. My studio is called mudlark pottery. A mudlark is a type of bird, but it is also a traditional British term for a person who finds treasures while mucking about in the mud. I like that image. I am 52 years old, married and have two children, ages 14 and 11.
How long have you been working with clay?
I have been working with clay about 3 ½ years now. Long, long ago I went to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art in New York City. The school provided me with a great foundation in many art techniques, but my strength was always 2 dimensional work, i.e. pen and ink drawing, watercolors, and calligraphy. I tried pottery there, but it didn’t take at all. I don’t’ think I ever even centered a lump of clay on my own . This failed effort gave me an awed respect of folks who could simply sit down at a wheel and throw a beautiful pot. They could do what I could not. That is where things were left for many many years.
What got you started?
I took a class with Nat Doane at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA. He demystified the process of throwing for me, which helped me realize that my earlier failure was not destiny. “It’s just mud” he would say, which was just the sort of secret info I needed at the time.
What phases have you gone through as your work has evolved?
The fact that I am setting out on this path as an older person, and because quite simply, I don’t have a lot of time or money to waste . I’ve pushed myself hard to grow and take risks. I’m old enough that mistakes and failures don’t embarrass me so much, and that is a liberating thing.
At first there is great celebration at the sheer magic of pulling a good cylinder. I remember being quite shocked when another wonderful teacher, Linden Gray, suggested that I should try to express more of myself in my work. I had assumed that the goal was to make a bowl or cup that looked like everyone else’s—that’s plenty hard enough! It was inevitable, however, that at some point I would integrate my background in drawing and calligraphy with my pottery work. Making that connection is where I found my voice in pottery.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I have had lots of time to knock around and accrue a number of diverse careers. All these experiences have in some important way informed the work that I do today. For example, my experience as a writer made me sharply aware of the importance of finding one’s own voice. Working as a writer also helped me understand the clarity and respect I owe my “reader”. In pottery, my most important “reader” is the person who uses a mug or bowl I’ve made. The pieces I make are intended as functional art…I love that term. I am not interested in imposing a rigid idea of what functionality is onto other people. I am therefore inspired by people’s response to my work.
I am inspired by the profound challenge of making an excellent cup handle. One that is graceful and inviting to use.
I have been enjoying other people’s art for a very long time, and in my own efforts I am constantly drawing upon the work that I myself have delighted in. The ocean that I live near to is a huge inspiration for me. I spent years working on the water and studying its inhabitants. It is a theme I come back to again and again.
The love and humor inherent in family life continually nourishes me: the dynamic energy, the dancing ebb and flow of emotion found in the interconnectedness of any tribe is definitely an abiding inspiration.
You can’t necessarily see all this in my work, but they’re all there in my head and my heart.
Where do you do your work?
I have two workspaces. In the warm months I work in my barn, which is a great spot for playing in the mud. I share the space with my kids’ bikes and unicycles, the household tools and a ping pong table. There are birds’ nests in the rafters and chipmunks skittering along the walls. In the winter I have a studio in my basement where I tuck myself in beside the washer and dryer. Somewhat less picturesque than the barn, but a whole lot warmer.
What techniques have you tried, do you work in, and want to try in the future?
I spend a lot of time focused on surface decoration—drawing and painting in underglazes as well as sgraffito work. I still have a great deal to explore with these techniques. I see myself getting more obsessive in detail and risky design. I like confusion and profusion. It is a challenge in sgraffito to remind one’s self that the wire tool is not a pen or pencil, but rather its own unique implement of expression. The act of carving through clay is not the same as drawing a line on paper. The more I realize that and see where the tool takes me, the more fun my designs become. I am also getting bolder and more experimental with altering thrown pieces both before and after I carve into it. I am interested in further exploring how to integrate a pot’s form and function with the distinctive aesthetic of my sgraffito imagery—a more perfect match between the shape of a pot and the continuous dynamic flow of an image on its surface—I look forward to exploring this all much deeper in the future.
Where does pottery fit in your life?
Pottery is an overwhelming passion. I would like to be able to do it all the time, but it is indeed one wicked expensive hobby.
What does creating pottery do for you?
It gives me joy.
MELANIE FURTADO
How long have you been working with clay? I remember digging clay out of the garden and forming little creatures to dry in the sun- so that’s quite a while ago. I rediscovered clay as a vehicle of expression during a figure sculpting class at school- that was maybe 3 years ago. And for the past year I have been focusing more strongly on claywork in the context of sculpture.
What got you started? I’ve just always loved dirt, I think! I tried wheel throwing and even bought an old kickwheel… but it was once I tried sculpting the human figure that I realized what I wanted to do with clay.
Bloom II, 11x5x5, ceramic
What phases have you gone through as your work has evolved? In the beginning I was mainly concerned with learning technique- and I am still very much a student in this area- but my work has taken its own direction. Lately I have been obsessively making heads. I merge them with elements of nature- seed pods, blooms, tadpoles, organs, etc to explore our connection to life cycles. The faces are distinguished by context of their form as opposed to particular individuality… so these works are meant to be symbolic of humanity in general. On the other hand, I am also quite intrigued by portraiture and see myself moving in this direction sometime in the future.
Where do you get your inspiration? Oh inspiration is endless. I have never had a day without a new idea! I find great delight and meaning in the natural forms that exist around me: any form from the natural world has a kind of perfect beauty that is a large influence, and I try to
Pod I, 6x4x5, ceramic
merge that with the experience of being a human with all our myriad joys and delusions. I find great fascination in how an external form can express an inward state.
Where do you do your work? All of my clay work is done out of my apartment. I’ve converted the dining room into a small studio space. I also work out of The Sculpture Studio when I do editions and do some apprentice work for moldmaking there as well.
What techniques have you tried, do you work in, and want to try in the future?
There are too many to list! I tend to have a fairly traditional approach to sculpting as far as technique goes, working with oil-based clay for mold making and waterbed clay for one of a kind work. I would just love to try pit firing and experiment with glazes more.
Where does clay work fit in your life? Is it an overwhelming passion, hobby, 2nd career, ect. Working with clay sculpturally is definitely my passion. I am still an emerging artist and I am on the journey of discovering how I can spend the bulk of my time creating and have it be my full-time career!
What does creating works with clay do for you? It gives me an outlet to explore ideas and voice things I find interesting or meaningful in a way that makes sense to me. I really feel it plays a significant role in keeping me sane! Clay has both such a rich and yet primitive heritage, and I feel connected to a sense of history as well as to the earth that we live on. I’m essentially shaping a simple piece of mud into anything I can imagine- it’s amazing!
Pod II, 11x3x4, ceramic
The Winged One
Pod III, 11X6x6, ceramic
Melanie Furtado