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Embla Sigurgeirsdottir | Episode 597
Ceramics found Embla Sigurgeirsdottir in 2011 when she stood at crossroads in life and took her on a journey she didn´t expect, an adventure had begun and a new passion for life. Embla works mainly with surface texture by carving into and through her porcelain designs, creating strong patterns and dramatic effects of light and shadows. Embla’s designs often come from the ability of the material itself. Working with porcelain and drawn to its white and translucent nature, Embla plays with the boundaries it gives her, always trying to push it a little further each time.
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What are your top inspirations from your culture that you are living in?
Apart from the play with the light and the shadows, the darks and the lights, the inspirations I get usually are from the material itself. I find it fascinating to have it leading me on into directions because I work mainly in porcelain an it is a stubborn material. It wants to have its own way, you know, they want to go that way, you want to go the other way, but it doesn’t work that way. You have to listen to it otherwise it is just going to…ya, it’s like a spoiled brat. But it is fascinating, it is white, it’s very delicate and it has a kind of finesse about it and a translucency that I am intrigued by. So I haven’t been able to put porcelain aside. It is always my main material to work with.
You said your community is small. How to do you get your material to work with?
We do have a wholesale here that supplies materials and we do get together, a bunch of us and make bigger deliveries from abroad as well.
What is your favorite piece to make?
I have to say the lanterns. The carving. The white carved lanterns. Because it’s very soothing. When you have done all the prep work, you’ve casted the pieces, you’ve fixed them up, the only thing you have to do is sit down with your cup of tea, nice music, and just carve all day. It is always going to be repetitive and the same movements, always the same pattern. Ya, it’s nice.
Is carving your favorite part of the process?
It is. Yes. By far. Which is weird because I have done so much of it these last years. People would think that I am completely sick of it but I am not. I really do love it.
Does the community that you have with the 8 artists, that you are in the gallery with, do you think you could be “successful” without their support?
Well, we are 8 ceramicists running the gallery but we are 8 individuals. And we are individual artists selling our pieces as well elsewhere. So I make and design under my name both in the gallery and elsewhere.
Do you every use social media as a source of influence or inspiration to develop new ideas?
I do flick through picture. Through Instagram, if you are talking about that.
Yes.
I wouldn’t say that would be very much of a big part of my development, no.
What is your favorite thing to do when you are not in the studio?
When I am not in the studio my favorite thing to do is to travel. I would have to say because of my work I get very isolated. I have my studio, I have my gallery, but I don’t work with a lot of people. I don’t work with anyone except myself. My job is very isolating. It is kind of lonely at times. So my favorite thing to do is basically mingle. Be with friends, meet my family, be with people. Socialize.
Book
Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Contact
Instagram: @emblasig