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Lyndsey Roberts | Episode 1062
When Lyndsey Roberts was seven, her mother gifted her a toy potter’s wheel. That one gift sparked a bone deep, lifelong love for ceramics. Lyndsey went on to get her BFA in ceramics from UNCA, and has been doing her best to make her little seven year old self as proud as possible.
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What is your favorite tool in the studio?
Well, the Air Pen is definitely at the top of that list and I am not saying that because they pay me to say it. I also think the wet boxes are one of my favorite tools just because it gives me the flexibility to make work and take the break that my body needs in between the process of throwing and trimming. I no longer lose work in the meantime, every potter knows how devastating it is to spend hours making something and to miss your window because of the temperature outside.
What is a tool you don’t use very often but you would not get rid of?
Probably my metal ribs. I don’t like metal ribs very often because I tend to cut myself on them, but they are really great for specific things. If I am making a pot that I want a little extra detail I can take my Dremel and create a shape on a metal rib that will give me a template that I can press clay into and I can get a pattern from it. So, for that reason I keep my metal ribs around but I don’t use them for any other reason.
Who is one maker who inspires you to be better?
Danny Meisinger. I hope I am saying his last name correctly. I follow him on Instagram and I am lucky enough to have some of his mugs from NCECA. He throws big and throws these really big round jars, not jars, they are vases or bottles with tiny openings. I watch him to kind of learn and be inspiration for what I can do and hopefully one day I will be able to make large, round forms.
You devote so much of your time to making, how does art improve the world?
I think it makes it a happier place. It sparks our imagination. Which I think adults need more of, we take ourselves way too seriously. And art kind of demands your attention. It’s a wonderful opportunity to take yourself out of your own life and to immerse yourself in something somebody else has made that isn’t something that you would see normally and just allow your imagination to play with it.
When people describe you what kind of words pop up?
Lately I have been described as intense. (laughter) Creatively intense. I have very specific ideas of what I want to make. Usually people say that I am very funny. I definitely make people laugh a lot. Probably they would say that I’m a little weird or eccentric.
Book
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch
Contact
Instagram: @lilacmoonceramics