Meet Our Pottery Kit Maker, Gabi

• How did your love for pottery begin?
  
  I have always been curious about Arts & Crafts!
  
  My career development led me to the world of Digital Design (focused on the User Experience behind digital products, like websites and apps) and I always missed working with something more artistic or handmade. I explored a lot of mediums before finding Pottery - and I found out that I just was really bad at drawing, my watercolour wasn't special and my lettering skills were not impressive either! 
  
  & while I could just experiment with watercolour, drawing & lettering without even thinking about it - pottery felt like a more difficult start because it really requires you to make an extra effort to learn the basics. It is a really steep learning curve and you need to make sure you are doing the right thing or you could end up causing a dramatic kiln accident!
  
  I really fell in love with it when I realised all that effort and upfront work makes sense when you see your work coming to life. I've been on the Pottery Journey for just a couple of years now, and each and every work still makes me feel like the whole process is absolutely magical. You get a raw slab of clay out of nature and you can make anything you want out of it - and they will become a shiny and colourful functional piece for your home! How special is that? It does make me think that Pottery allows us all to feel a bit like God/Goddesses every now and then! 
  
  
  
• What made you start putting Pottery Kits together? 
  
  After getting obsessed with Pottery, my friends started to show a lot of interest in the process. They would often ask me if they could stop by and give it a go while I was working, and I found myself always sending them an essay of information explaining that they didn't need to wait for me to get started - they could just try it themselves, as long as they had the right information to safely give it a go!
  
  When I started - I just wanted to learn if Pottery was for me. I didn't want to invest in a really expensive course before I was pretty sure about my choice (and getting pottery training & tools can become a really expensive exercise!). I remember spending hoooours doing research, trying to understand firing temperatures, different types of clay, Do's and Dont's - and I wish someone had held my hand and just walked me through the process. So helping friends to get started made me realise that I actually could be that person for others. I could make pottery a bit more accessible, and that's how I got inspired to create the step by step guide! 
  
  
  
• What creation are you most proud of? 
  
  I am actually really proud of my Coffee Filters!
  
  I am a massive coffee addict (Hello Melbournians out there!) and alwaaaays dreamed about the time I would be able to make something as complex as a coffee filter - so drinking my morning coffee from my own filter makes me feel like my silly dream has come true! Fun fact: my very first attempt on a coffee filter ended up being so small that it became a tiny tiny succulent pot (nothing gets lost in Pottery)! 
  
  
• When you aren't playing with clay what do you do? 
  
  My partner and I own a Brazilian Café in Carlton (Melbourne) so I also tend to spend a lot of time trying to hone my barista skills - but I still have a long way to go so mostly making coffee for myself all day as a way to practice!
  
  Playing with Macrame, Gardening & drinking some good craft beers are also on my list of fun things I love doing!
  
  
  
• Fun question - what is your favourite dessert? 
  
  I get really vulnerable around Carrot Cakes . Brazilian Carrot Cakes are slightly different from the traditional ones we find here in Australia! They look super orange (as they are made with white sugar and carrots!) and they are covered with a chocolaty topping that we call "Brigadeiro" - and it's honestly the cosiest dessert on earth. We have been serving it in our Café for over 2 years and I just can't get enough of it! 

And yes, all our PotteryKits come with Gabi's especially created Pottery Guide to get you started. It has everythign you need to know about how to make your every own 'thing".