Today we’d like to introduce you to Thea Cheah.
Hi Thea, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Though I am actually trained for HR, working in that capacity didn’t translate very well into something that was enjoyable. Doing the corporate gig has its own stresses and needs but I couldn’t really get into it. Though I obviously had some sense of achievement, ultimately, its purpose felt hollow.
So, instead, I went to try my dad’s own pottery business, not really knowing what I was in for. For the last two years, you could say it is much more fulfilling despite its own drawbacks.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I really think the biggest struggle would be the management of the studio. It is an old studio so one must try and understand that it is inundated with hundreds of pieces of work, and more are being made every month. Add to the diminishing space, and also trying to conduct classes and workshops whilst trying to maintain a systematic site is extremely difficult.
You could say sometimes I feel it is insurmountable to clean up the place, but I try to solve the issue one at a time.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about A Touch of Clay?
The studio is famous for its aesthetics and artisan works of pottery and ceramics. My dad started the practice of pottery more than 40 years ago and believe it or not, he too started as a business major before venturing into art studies. Consequently, he then went on to start his own little studio and it just went from strength to strength.
Funnily through his own determination and direction in pottery, he has garnered quite a reputation as a potter both at national and international levels.
I really think there is much more to offer and one year ago we started to build a web presence at https://www.mytouchofclay.com/ and I am quite amazed at how many people respond to pottery. It can be very overwhelming as the studio is just the two of us to contend with hundreds of requests.
Judging by how much reputation we have achieved, I think the next best step would be into making a more streamlined, modern workshop so that we can cater to the new generation of people interested in learning pottery and certainly the interest has not waned, it has instead exploded.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I think the city has lots and lots of shops and malls like most Asian cities and this creates a massive pool of consumers. You can’t turn in any direction and not see hundreds of people, maybe even thousands, around each corner of the city even past midnight every day. Unlike in Western cities, crowds die down when the light fades away but in Kuala Lumpur, it is busy round the clock.
Having said that, there are way too many malls and seriously we don’t need any more. We need more parks, more arts and culture, and more focus on interesting ideas that we have never looked at. I think some malls are trying to do just that but the buy-in is just not very strong as people’s perception of the arts is still in the infancy age, which is kind of ironic as we used to have that sense of aesthetics decades ago.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mytouchofclay.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atouchofclaykl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atouchofclaykl/
