I love making things. As long as I create with my hands, I’m happy. I’ve used all kinds of art mediums: charcoal, wood, film, yarn, ink, watercolors, and oil paints. It was only a matter of time before I fell in love with clay. The first time I centered a hunk of it on the wheel, it was magic and I was hooked.
The meditative quality of wheel throwing is also a boon. When I went through a miscarriage, I clocked a lot of hours at the ceramics studio. Making pots calmed me and helped me focus on the present moment. I'm so grateful to have such a creative outlet.
I work in organizational change management by day, which is creative in its own way. But let's be real, I'd rather be throwing clay.
“7570” is the street number of the house where my parents and I lived the longest, almost 20 years. It was in its basement that I seriously pursued design and art, integrating creativity into my daily life. I even built a makeshift darkroom in the laundry room! That basement served as my workshop so it was only fitting to name my business Atelier 7570.
As for the logo, most people only see a triangle with some numbers. To me, the triangle represents the “A” in Atelier 7570, as well as the roof of our house. I was born in Việt Nam, raised in Canada, lived in Japan and the United States. All these countries use the colour red in their flag so I chose it to be my accent colour.
Patience is key when it comes to making pottery. From start to finish, a bud vase can take up to two weeks to make. So you can imagine that making something more elaborate like a teapot will take longer.
A big portion of that time is dedicated to waiting. Waiting for the wheel-thrown pot to dry and firm up so it can be trimmed and further adorned or altered. Waiting for a greenware pot to slowly dry before it can be bisque fired because any residual moisture will break it in the kiln. Waiting for the kiln to fire up to 1830 °F and cool down before bisqueware can be hand-painted and glazed. And so on and so forth; there are at least ten steps involved.
All this waiting culminates in the kiln opening after a glaze firing cools down from 2232 °F. It is both exciting and a little nerve-racking. Glaze chemistry is finicky so there is no guarantee that what was envisioned for a pot will become reality. It is such a thrill when it does!