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Sarah Gromek | Episode 1112
Sarah Gromek is a high school jewelry & metalworking teacher. Sarah started ceramics eight years ago and now has her own small business. Sarah’s studio is in her dining room and she sells her work online and through galleries.
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Do you hold any secrets back from what you post on Instagram or teaching classes?
I don’t. I have a lot of friends who think I should but I have said this multiple times, I am a teacher first before that and so art has been a savior to me and as I have tried to pick up information and learn more things I only learned through community studios and I never felt like there was enough information for me. So I feel like I could have grown faster if more people were willing to give the information.
So you don’t feel threatened that your work could be imitated?
I am sure there will be. I have had people be afraid for me. But I am not the first to do it either. There are people before me who have done much, much crazier leather looking work than I have.
Why are you open to sharing your secrets? Why as a teacher does that feel like something you should be doing?
That’s a really good question. I don’t have a direct answer other than that’s just the core of me as a person. Ever since I was young I always wanted to help and to support and so I think that had a lot to do with the fact that growing up I was dyslexic so my art teachers were my savior because I wasn’t good in other classes. So I want to provide that for others.
It is tempting when you start out to copy. How should people, from your perspective, use your instructions or your revelations?
Put your spin on it. Everyone is different , right and we all have different experiences. I actually did have a kid who reached out to me on Instagram and said, Hey I want to do stuff like this are you oaky with me using these tools and doing this? And I said, Go for it! Try and see what you end up with. And he is using the same roller and applicator pen as I am and he’s doing stitching and he through in a whole different aspect to it with same stamping and some more of a western vibe and he made it his own, even through in essence it was something I was doing.
Have you gone back and encouraged him by commenting on his work?
Yes. I gave him some feedback. I commented on a couple of his pieces. He’s a college student and I do it for a lot of people and for those people that take my hand building class.
You are a busy person, how are you finding time to actually make your work?
I don’t. (laughter) I should do it much more than I am. But I just do it on weekends, after school, and I am really fortunate in the fact that my studio is at my dining table at my house. So any free movement I get I can just sit down at my table and get something done.
Book
The Shepherd King Series by Rachel Gillig
Contact
Instagram: @sarahcatherineclay