When Sarah Soh started taking pottery classes at Cobalt & Clay earlier this year, she had a very simple goal: to make a cup that she could drink her morning coffee out of. “It was just a fun class to take with some friends and seemed like a great creative outlet outside of work,” says Soh, a Supervising Director at Atomic Cartoons. Little did she know that she had discovered the perfect tool for staying sane during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve become so antsy to do something that doesn’t involve a screen of any kind,” says Soh. “I can be at the wheel for hours and not realize it.” That’s why she now has a corner of her apartment dedicated to pottery with her own wheel on the balcony.
The process of modeling and firing the clay is refreshingly tactile, shaping the cups using the pottery wheel while hand forming the spoons. “I still feel like I need to practice getting more uniform shapes with my cup size,” says Soh. “But that just means I get a whole lot more cups in the process.”
Once the clay has taken its shape, Soh can smooth it out and prepare the surface for painting and glazing. While her personal illustrations are more detailed, these clay pieces follow a more natural design inspired by her father.
“In his high school or college years, my dad made an etching on a metal plate and made a print of it,” she says. “Growing up, I’ve always seen that print hanging up in our family home … two birds, their nest in a tree and a sun behind it. That print always had great significance to me, so I took inspiration from my dad’s design and painted my own version of his birds and sun, and trees on my cups. The simple graphics brought out the natural finish of the clay, letting every aspect of the pottery piece stand out.”
Find more of Soh’s work on Instagram @sohsilly.
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