Today we’d like to introduce you to Alisha Koppert.
Hi Alisha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello! My name is Alisha, and I am a potter. I first encountered clay as a child, on a walk with my brother by the river– we dug some clay from the riverbank and brought it home to experiment with. He had built a brick oven in the backyard, and he showed me how to make a little pinch pot. I didn’t have another pottery lesson until I took a class in high school, but I think that first experience is reflected in the beautiful simplicity and grounded feeling that I find in making ceramics. I have always loved to be creative and work with my hands, dabbling in every form of art I could find. When I moved to Canada after marrying my husband, I joined a small-town potter’s guild and found that my love of pottery was still strong. In that little studio, where retired ceramics professors and elderly production potters came to hang out, I found a generous creative community. The advice I received there built my skills as a potter. When we moved to Texas, I joined a community studio space where I fire my pieces and teach occasional classes. Pottery is not exactly a highly portable art form! Living in Waco has been our longest stay in one city, and I have been able to explore more aspects of ceramics– mixing my own glazes, processing and testing wild clay, and coming to love creating pottery on my old-school kick wheel. When I ran out of space in my cupboard, I started giving my ceramics to friends and family, and things slowly picked up from there. Now, my work is featured in a local gallery, I sell mugs at my favorite coffee shop, and I have an online shop that I occasionally update with one-of-a-kind pieces.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Finding my way through this art form has taken patience. Pottery is a slow process, and I have had to take the time and space to try out different forms and techniques, to see where they lead and find what I love. Since I’ve never been in a formal educational setting that provides structure, I’ve had to make choices and changes to pursue my passion for clay and to keep learning. There have also been practical hurdles. In many of the places we have lived, I had no access to studio space or resources to build my own. Now, I have a small open-air studio in my backyard, and I transport my work to the community studio kilns. Finding art organizations, potter friends, or community workshops where I could share space and ideas and creative energy with other makers has been a great gift to me over the years.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I like to experiment at the wheel, finding new forms that are graceful and useful. I tend to embrace imperfections, hoping to communicate some of the histories of each piece, having been brought from raw earth, through the unpredictable process of pottery, to its final form. Each piece is hand thrown, and because of the glazes I choose and the ways they are applied, each one has its own unique character, even in a set. That, to me, is one of the delights of handmade pottery. In finding my way through studio work, I have tried a bit of everything, including custom dinnerware sets, mug commissions from local coffee shops, one-of-a-kind commissions, and tea sets. As both a potter and a homeschooling mom of four, the lines between living, working, creating, and play don’t really exist for me. I love this life, and I’ve been learning to make decisions that suit our seasons as a family. I’m so grateful for all of the people who support me and enjoy my work! My hope is that each of my pieces lends its unique beauty to those everyday moments of eating, drinking, and sharing life with others.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I am from a large family full of creative people. There was always something interesting going on, and the door was ever open to our friends from all over the world. I lived for much of my childhood with my family in West Africa, and I have many cherished memories of growing up in beautiful northern Ghana.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.koppertceramics.com
- Instagram: @alishakoppertceramics
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/alishakoppertceramics
Image Credits
Alisha Koppert
Eric Guel
