.png?width=499&height=212&name=SebellShavit%20Studio%20logo%20Rectangle%20(2).png)
About Rach SebellShavit
THE STUDIO & THE POTTER
Rach SebellShavit is a queer artist who designs unique custom pottery using stoneware clay that challenges conformity and embraces texture and color. Rach is fascinated by the beauty and possibility of handcrafted pottery. This craft has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years, and still, potters are constantly reinventing new ways to engage with the medium. When she creates new work, Rach thinks about the people who will ultimately use her pottery: how will they hold it in their hands, look at it with their eyes, or touch it to their lips?
Education
Rach’s love of pottery began at 7 years old at summer camp. She was so captivated by clay that she used the money from her bat mitzvah and babysitting when she was 13 to buy her first potter's wheel. Her love of pottery continued through high-school into college and in 2004 she graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Ceramics. It was at RISD where her love of pottery transformed beyond the potter’s wheel into a love of many ceramic techniques including slab, slip cast, and potter’s wheel.
Inspiration
Her inspiration comes from her childhood, dishes her mother and grandmother used in their kitchens. She thinks about the hundreds of moments spent with those dishes – enjoying a cup of coffee and laughter on a weekend, eating a last bite of cake after a birthday celebration. The patterns of these dishes and the feeling of their smooth glaze in her hands are fused into these wonderful memories. She likes to think about the lives her own pottery will enter. Where will these vessels live? How will they celebrate joys and comfort loss in their new homes?
Rach makes pottery out of stoneware clay. It has a strong body with a hint of gritty texture that comes out as subtle iron flecks when it is fired. She loves to play with a balance of simple and vibrant colors in her work using oxide washes and mid-range fired glazes. Clay has captured her love for almost 3 decades because it offers constant possibility – slabs, potters wheels, slip cast. With clay the options to create are innumerable.
Rach’s hope for her pottery is that it is woven into the day to day lives of the people who possess it – dinners with family, quiet afternoon cups of tea, a late-night bowl of ice cream. A big part of why she uses stoneware is because it is durable, unlike fine china, and able to handle to the daily routine of dishwashers, microwaves, and other modern conveniences. Her proudest moments as a potter are when she receives a letter or hears from someone who is enjoying her pottery in their everyday life, knowing not only that her work has entered their life, but their life has added new meaning to her work.
In 2016, Rach moved to Arlington, where she opened SebellShavit Studio, a small ceramic dinnerware company that she operates out of her home. She currently works by day in the software space, at night teaching community art ed, on weekends is a potter, and always is a parent to her amazing daughter.
Artist Statement
Clay has captured my fascination for over 3 decades because it offers an unending possibility to create and experiment with form and function. My work explores the concept of balance and interplay. Between simple and vibrant colors using oxide washes and mid-range fired glazes, pairing simple and complex forms in a place setting, and smooth and textured surfaces. My greatest inspiration comes from a Japanese aesthetics concept called “wabi-sabi (侘寂)”. Wabi means “understated elegance” and “Sabi” means “taking pleasure in the imperfect.” I embrace this philosophy using stoneware clay and a variety of construction techniques: slab construction, potter’s wheels, and slip cast to push the boundaries of form and function in handcrafted dinnerware.
I make pottery out of stoneware clay. It has a strong body with a hint of a gritty texture that comes out as subtle iron flecks when it is fired. For me, the unpredictable nature of the iron combined with oxide washes, and mid-range glaze is the purest way that I can embrace the essence of wabi-sabi.
My hope for my pottery is that it is woven into the day to day lives of the people who possess it – starting your day with a cup of coffee, dinners with family, quiet afternoon cups of tea, a late-night bowl of ice cream. I believe that dishes should be durable, unlike fine china, and able to handle the daily routine of dishwashers, microwaves, and other modern conveniences. My proudest moments as a potter are when I receive a letter or hear from someone who is enjoying my pottery in their everyday life, knowing not only that my work has entered their life, but that their life has added new meaning to my work.
If you would like to connect to discuss a custom order, please reach out to me via email at rachsebellshavit@gmail.com.