Yahoo Lifestyle This L.A. ceramist's vessels offer joy in uncertain times. Thank her 'weird imagination'
Linda Hsiao was standing at a weathered work table inside her ceramics studio in Altadena. It was the day after Halloween, and her two children, Saben Taylor, 5, and Wawona Hsiao, 3, worked alongside her, hand-sculpting clay vessels as wild as a child's imagination. Like Saben's handprints in the concrete patio outside the studio, Hsiao's own wildly creative imprint is clear in the whimsical vessels that line the shelves of the former two-car garage: from long-beaked toucan pitchers and owl juicers to Japanese daruma wishing dolls and Venus of Willendorf lady tiki cups.
"I've always had a weird imagination," Hsiao said as she continued to work on an emerging large-scale vase. "I like the idea of creating mythical creatures that are a hybrid. They are ambiguous and not quite what you would assume. I wish they existed."
"Are we going to school today?" Saben asked.
"Yes," Hsiao replied, to his disappointment.
"Many of my vessels are inspired by my kids," Hsiao said after Saben and Wawona left for school with their father, architect Kagan Taylor. "I feel like I'm constantly being filled … and emptied."
Hsiao grew up in Laguna Hills, where her parents, Taiwanese immigrants, ran a farm specializing in Chinese fruits and vegetables such as bok choy and bamboo shoots. Her proximity to the ocean and their farm inspired her love of nature, which she describes as "a leading force" in her life. Looking back, she laughs as she recalls explaining to her elementary school teacher that "watermelons were not just red, but yellow too." This love for nature is evident in her ceramics, which often feature elements of the natural world.
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From a young age, Hsiao, now 42, was drawn to working with her hands and taking art and sculpting classes. Her parents wanted to support her and sent her to a summer program at Parsons School of Design in New York City as a teenager. "My parents thought, 'That'll get New York out of her system,'" she said with a chuckle. But it only fueled her passion further.
After high school, Hsiao attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she studied industrial design. Following her graduation in 2004, she dedicated nearly a decade to designing eyewear, often spending 12 hours a day in front of a computer. This intense focus left her feeling "dizzy" and craving a more hands-on creative outlet.
So she joined a few community studios in Brooklyn and started doing ceramics. However, living in New York was hard, and she missed gardening and the easy access to nature in California.
After nine years, she moved back to California, where she took ceramics classes at Saddleback College and Glendale Community College at night while freelancing — designing everything from eyewear to jewelry for big brands to snowboarding gear — during the day.
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A hand-building class with ceramics artist and teacher Biliana Popova at Glendale Community College changed her career path. "I didn't take to wheel throwing because I didn't want things to be perfectly symmetrical," Hsiao said. "I always wanted to manipulate my forms and change them. My hands always wanted to sculpt. After I took a hand-building class, I never looked back."
Later, after she met her husband — and before they had children — the couple collaborated on a series of handmade wooden baby rattles they sold as part of Knotwork LA, and she began to do ceramics out of their home in Highland Park. (They have temporarily stopped making the rattles but hope to re-stock them again as the kids get older.)
"Knotwork LA was created as an outlet to identify the work we do in our spare time," she said. "Precious pieces of wood saved from other projects or found while hiking, ideas that came to us in the middle of the night and a desire to create beautiful, useful things." After juggling freelance work and producing ceramics in the evenings and on weekends for 10 years, she decided to take a leap of faith and do ceramics full-time in 2016.
She started with an order of more than 800 plates and dishes for Curtis Stone's restaurant, Gwen, in Hollywood.
Since then, her studio has evolved as her work has become more sculptural, and her inventory has become more broad.
Hsiao's handmade ceramics and figurines, many of which she cuts out using a cardboard template after rolling the clay flat with a slab roller, exhibit a playful style that is thoroughly her own. "It's kind of like sewing," she said of using patterns. "I cut them out with a knife and mold and sculpt them afterward."
Her works are filled with whimsy and joy, including a collection of platters and plates featuring inlaid porcelain flowers, vaguely defined creatures that hold birthday candles, penguin pitchers and buddhas. Although she has made lamps, she prefers to focus on affordable goods that can go straight into someone's home for them to enjoy. "I like having a price point that is somewhat attainable for most people," she said. "Lamps are expensive."
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Her dream was always to have a studio at home, invest in a kiln and save money on studio expenses. After purchasing their first home in 2020, the couple spent eight months redoing the garage, which had a collapsed roof, last year. The studio is now an artist's dream, with two kilns, ample space to work, storage and a dedicated area where Hsiao can pack her orders.
"I was using our bedroom as our showroom before," she said. "It was rough."
But even though Hsiao is working from home most days, meeting people in person has always been a highlight of having a small business. In order to do even more of that, she, Heather Praun of Plant Material and designer Bianca D'Amico of Chaparral Studio launched a semi-annual craft show at Plant Material's Altadena location. They've held "about five" of them so far; the next takes place Dec. 14 and 15. "The whole community shows up," she said, smiling. "I've been lucky enough to participate in some of the most vibrant collections of makers throughout the years and made friends with many. It was a delight after moving to Altadena to find that so many of the makers have found themselves here raising families, going to the same schools and parks."
"How she prioritizes creativity in all aspects of her life has always inspired me," D'Amico said. "There is endless thought and time poured into her work, but she exercises that part of herself in every aspect of her life. Even dinner [at] home has a crafty element: food tossed colorfully into various homemade bowls, the kids always helping make the food and nothing needs to match; it's all about the time spent together. There is a sense that life is happening NOW, and she is engrossed in the moment."
Hsiao said that balancing a small business in the backyard can be challenging while raising two young children, but she appreciates that she can return to the studio after she has put the kids to bed. "I've learned to love the quiet of working in the evenings, [and I ] try to take breaks on the weekends and fully spend time with the kids," she said. "The balance is tough, but my kids see me trying to sneak in work since my studio is at home and always ask to help. They know I enjoy what I do, and I have no doubt they will spend more time with me in my studio as they get older."
Despite feeling like an empty vessel sometimes — "much of it feels like there are never enough hours in the day," she said — Hsiao knows time spent with her kids is fleeting. As she figures out what work/life balance means for her family, she often goes back to something artist and mother Megan Whitmarsh shared with her: "You will never regret all the work you didn't make while your children were little because you decided to be a present and loving parent."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
