CAROLINE WHITE / BLACK / CERAMIST/ BASED IN NJ
graysonwhiteceramics.com | @graysonwhiteceramics
| @caroline.ow
"I've just always been a very creative being, and I felt like I was not practicing that aspect of myself. So I wanted to just do something creative."
Grayson White Ceramics in action
Share with us what brought you to pottery.
I was living in Boston at the time, I was working and I wanted to just get creative. I was working a nine to five, just working my job every day. And I’ve just always been a very creative being, and I felt like I was not practicing that aspect of myself. So I wanted to just do something creative. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like I always want to try pottery, ceramics. I’ve done it before, but I didn’t fully immerse myself. And so I decided to sign up for a class at this local studio that was being taught by a woman who had been doing ceramics for like 35 years, and she was native to Boston to she had purchased this house in Somerville and essentially needed a studio. And so the classes had about 10 people per class. She held classes every day, she had hand building and wheel throwing and I definitely wanted to work with the wheel. So sign up last minute and there were a bunch of us all different levels, and I just became obsessed.
So you found this new obsession, where do you go from here?
I would be spending some time with like some nights at my parents house, which is where I grew up. And funny enough, they have the space in their house, that is the garage. It’s like an underground garage, and so we had never used it. It held like my dad’s tools and things like that and I was like this is a space that can be used. So I made this plan to start converting the garage into a studio. And because I live so close to home from Brooklyn, I would just commute on the weekends. And so you know, I decided okay, that’s what I’m gonna do clean up the studio and everything. I got my kiln, that was the first sort of thing to get, that first piece of investment. And then COVID hit. So, you know, we all started working from home. And I said, like, oh wow, this is like kind of a blessing in disguise. So I actually began to sublet my apartment in Brooklyn and I said, let me just move home, and like, work, but in the meantime, also work on Grayson White.
"I decided okay, that's what I'm gonna do clean up the studio and everything. I got my kiln, that was the first sort of thing to get, that first piece of investment."
How do you balance having a creative practice and a full-time 9-5?
I think it was definitely understanding that you didn’t have to pick one, one particular path and you could have many passions and many loves and it’s okay to like dabble in both. There’s no set of rules. So I think I just came to that realization and just really like flourished from there.
To find more information about Caroline White & Grayson White Ceramics. Please visit Grayson White Ceramics, and follow Caroline on Instagram to stay up to date on her latest release.
