Seattle-based ceramicist and yoga teacher Alex Roby approaches her creative process through movement, material, and with a close connection to the natural world. Her handbuilt vessels take shape slowly, guided by touch and with an openness to the irregular and atypical. Such unique and organic forms emerge through a process of letting go.
After more than a decade working in graphic design, Alex returned to clay as a way of reconnecting with her body and her personal design language. We spoke with her about the relationship between movement and making, the landscapes that continue to shape her work, and the beauty found in allowing a material to lead.
We are thrilled to partner with Alex on our upcoming Ceramic Hand Building Workshop at Glasswing. For two days, July 18 & 19 we'll transform our warehouse space into a ceramics studio. Also coming up later this summer is Embodied Elements, bringing together yoga, ceramics, sound healing, and time immersed in nature. This is a week-long exploration of creativity and taking time to slow down to connect with oneself. Alex is co-hosting this experience in Greece in late August. Read more info about both events with the links above.
My first interaction with clay was in school as an undergraduate. I was in the graphic design program, and we were required to take a range of art courses in different mediums. I took a semester of wheel throwing and a semester of handbuilding. The main thing I remember about it was how humbling it was, but I always felt drawn to return to it.
Working with a material from the earth has a way of taking you out of the mind and allowing you to fully express yourself through your hands. There was something about the rawness of the material, the feeling of shaping something that came directly from the earth, that felt deeply grounding and connected to something ancient.
When I look back at the trajectory of how I returned to working with clay, I trace it back to when I reconnected with my body through dance. I grew up as a dancer from ages 3 to 18 and didn’t fully recognize the profound impact it had on my life until later. After leaving my design job in the tech industry, I started taking dance classes again at a nearby studio. Dance is a somatic practice that allows us to move out of the mind and back into the body.
After months of bringing dance back into my life, I felt reinvigorated and began reaching for new ways to create. That ultimately led me back to clay. I now tend to fill my life with somatic practices that help me reconnect with my body, creativity, and the present moment.
“Allowing myself to free-flow in dance goes hand in hand with the organic shapes that emerge in my handbuilt vessels.”
I recently returned from three art residencies, each on a different continent, and nature continues to be the source of inspiration for all of my work. Rooting myself in new landscapes allows me to connect with the materials in a different way and understand the relationship between place, process, and creation.
The landscapes inspired me to begin working more with regional materials and incorporating them into my sculptural work. My goal is to create mixed-media pieces using various techniques such as weaving, sculpting, and atmospheric firing to connect more deeply with the materials of each region while honoring ancestral techniques through my contemporary lens.
Each place I visited allowed the forms of vessels created by hands long before mine to settle into my subconscious. I connected deeply with the values and cultural practices surrounding craft. I would describe my work as rooted in wabi-sabi, embracing the beauty of imperfection and highlighting the unique qualities that emerge through the process. I love allowing forms to reveal themselves from the material, collaborating with the clay rather than trying to manipulate it.
Beginning this journey with my art has truly allowed me to see the beauty in everything around me. I find myself focusing on the smallest details and giving myself permission to move at a slower pace. I find beauty in anything that allows me to connect with my senses. The way light catches on water, observing a spider meticulously weaving its web, or witnessing a sunrise without feeling the need to capture it on my phone, I’m reminded that the smallest details we often overlook can hold the most profound beauty.
Lately I’ve been finding so much beauty in the people I encounter each day. We are all mirrors for one another, and when we move through the world with intention and presence, there is so much we can learn simply by witnessing another person in a moment. I’ve also been enjoying the book Earth Medicine by Jamie Sams, which I choose a page from at random each morning. It has become a meaningful ritual and a reminder to embrace the unknown, something that both art and life continually teach me. “Risk choosing the uncertain instead of the predictable and you will never tire of being alive.” — Jamie Sams
