Inspirator of the month: Sandra Lee Vasiljev

Sandra describes herself as a budding home potter – but with a passion that has been waiting for over 20 years.

After a weekend course in the autumn of 2024, she was hooked. Throwing on the wheel proved to be exactly as fun, creative, and meditative as she had always suspected. Soon, she had invested in her own pottery wheel and kiln, ordered clay and glazes, and built a small ceramics studio at home on the farm. There, she now divides her time between gardening, freelance photography, and creating functional stoneware items. In the workshop, she enjoys experimenting with techniques and expressions. One example is her folk-style dishes, where she brushes on slips of different clays, dries the surface slightly, and scrapes out patterns with tools – a craft she lets speak for itself without a transparent glaze. On the kitchen table stand her own creations – handleless mugs and dishes in the Amber glaze from Lervis.

She is exploring various shapes and surfaces to eventually find her own design language. For Sandra, every step of the creation process is a joy: wedging, throwing, trimming, glazing, and finally firing. And she describes the feeling of drinking tea from a mug of her own making as something truly special.

“If, like me, you feel a longing to work with clay, take a course and let yourself fall in love!” A reminder that it is never too late to start creating – and that the path to a craft sometimes only requires a first step.