Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily & Diane Leifer.
Emily & Diane, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We first started with ceramics in January of 2020. After taking a six-week course at Costa Mesa Ceramics, we were hooked. Ceramics has a pretty tough learning curve in the beginning and we wanted to improve our basic skill set so we took another four-week course at Muddy’s in Santa Ana. Diane’s husband/Emily’s father, Mike, also joined in for this course to try and spend time with his wife and his daughter who had turned to ceramics in all of their free time. Partway through our second class, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. We were suddenly unable to use any studio space in the County. Open studios were highly restricted and/or were not available to the public at all. We were extremely disappointed and also afraid that we would lose the basic skill set we had worked so hard for. Around May/June 2020, we decided to get on a waitlist to buy our own wheel. We bought it through Aardvark in Santa Ana, an amazing local clay and ceramic products supplier.
By the first days of August, we had our very own Brent Model-C wheel. At first, we used our sideyard as a tiny outdoor studio space. Ceramics can be extremely messy and also dangerous without using proper methods to clean up. After the summer months, with the prospect of rain and colder weather, we decided to move our wheel inside of our two-car garage. For the first few months, we threw all of our pieces at home and took them to either Costa Mesa Ceramics or a local art teacher to fire our products in a kiln. In general, pottery must be fired twice. After a lot of driving with very fragile vessels and lots of money spent on renting kiln space, we decided by October 2020 to invest in our own kiln. By mid-December 2020, we received our kiln and finally had a fully-operational studio in our garage. This enabled us to do every step of the process in our home and also schedule our production ourselves instead of relying on outside kiln-firing schedules. From December 2020 to now, we have spent all of our freetime throwing, trimming, glazing, firing, sanding, and shipping pottery. Diane took a course from Saddleback Community College from home to sharpen her skills and Emily spent her days in Zoom Law School at UCI. Though it can be difficult to run a small business as a full-time student or while watching our five pets, it has been so worth it. Diane has been recognized in an arts competition at Saddleback for her work and Emily has graduated from law school since we began MBP.
We have done many pop-ups and have met with tons of other makers, potters, and creatives throughout our local community and throughout the country through Instagram. MBP has been a way for us to remain grounded through this difficult year. We both love how we can turn some mud into functional works of art. Every time we send pottery into a new state, we grow a network of people who are intentional, appreciate slowing down, and love ceramics. We featured a set of cups in Style Society, a local Costa Mesa store and recently teamed up with THE GREAT on Melrose to create custom mugs and vases for their storefront. We are looking forward to growing more in the future and experimenting in our home studio. The possibilities are endless and we are so excited to see what is to come.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We think we can speak for every potter that ceramics is an art form with a seemingly infinite number of obstacles. Clay can be very finicky and so can glaze. Each type of clay has its own characteristics and its own shrinkage, which can create many problems during the process. The weather is a huge indicator of the success and speed of our work, as the drying process is a very important step in the lifetime of a piece. If a piece dries too fast, it is very likely to crack. If it dries too slow and it is put in the kiln too early, it will explode and take out all neighboring pieces inside the kiln. Every time we work with new clay or new glaze, the entire process is an experiment and we truly have no idea what the end result will look like. Ceramics is also a very slow process. Each piece must be thrown, then dried to “leather hard,” then trimmed, then dried to “bone dry,” then put in the kiln for a bisque firing, then glazed, then put into the kiln again for a glaze firing, then sanded to a smooth texture. This does not include the time we spend photographing pieces, planning for future forms, researching, getting materials, or interacting with folks on Instagram.
Overall, it is a very time-consuming process but it is so worth it when you see a finished piece. The process of ceramics has taught us both to be extremely patient and to not count our chickens before they hatch. Sometimes, a piece looks good until the very last step and the handle cracks or the glaze has imperfections. We have learned to not let ourselves fall in love with a piece until it is officially finished. And even then, we have accidentally dropped perfectly good pieces. At first, this was frustrating, but it is all part of the process and it is important for improving and creating new work. We have also learned a lot about how to use all of our tools. Most importantly, we learned how to use a kiln, which we did not know how to even turn on before we purchased it. The largest obstacle for us has been time. With Emily finishing law school and now studying for the bar, and with Diane taking care of many cats and two dogs including a new puppy, on top of all other familial responsibilities, it is hard to find the time to speed up our production. For now, we are enjoying the slower process of our work and focus on not comparing ourselves to potters who work full-time or are production potters. Throughout all of our obstacles, we have found solutions and moved forward despite lots of frustration. Each of our obstacles has been a huge learning experience for us and we look back on them later and are grateful that we had the opportunity to learn something new in the world of clay.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Our biggest goal for our pieces is that they make people smile. We focus on functional ceramics that bring fun and artistry into daily life. Most of our products are cups, mugs, tumblers, plates, bowls, and vases. Each piece that we make is handmade, unique, and imperfect. Diane (mother) and Emily (daughter) do each step of the process and each of us has a hand in every single piece. Our different styles compliment each other and we believe that there is something for everyone in our body of work. As a mother-daughter business, I think our passion and our willingness to work around the clock sets us apart and enables us to make meaningful connections with our pieces and our customers. Our work is made in small batches and is constantly changing with us as we grow in our artistry.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The best way to support us is to give us a follow on Instagram and reach out to us! We love connecting with people and making pottery that people want to see in their homes. The other best way is to order a piece in our stock or a custom order.
We welcome collaboration with stores and artists and are always open to new ideas.
Pricing:
- Most of our pieces range from 28-125
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.madebypepito.com
- Instagram: @madebypepito
Image Credits:
Credit – Emily and Diane Leifer
