Member Highlight: Jocelyn Sandberg
Each month we’ll be highlighting one of the makers at Hand / Thrown! Our membership program is the backbone of our studio and without our members there is no Hand / Thrown. This month we’re highlighting Jocelyn Sandberg, a new member who is known for her love of wood firing.
HAND / THROWN: A brief bio about you!
Jocelyn Sandberg: I grew up in the Philadelphia area and graduated from VCU in 2006 with a BFA in crafts (with a concentration in ceramics) and a BFA in art education. I spent a year teaching elementary art in Cumberland, VA and then spent the next 10 years in Charlottesville. I joined a wood-firing ceramic community in Nelson County and worked as a bench jeweler for Gabriel Ofiesh near downtown Charlottesville. In 2017, I moved to the Seattle area and worked for a well-established fiber artist on Camano Island weaving yardage for her custom clothing, but moved back to Richmond earlier in 2019 to be closer to family and start making work of my own.
H / T: Tell us a little bit about the style of work you enjoy making most!
JS: While I was in Charlottesville, I had a chance to focus on functional, wood-fired pottery as an apprentice with Kevin Crowe at Tye River Pottery. I didn’t love the rough, dark surfaces at first, but after adjusting to a more porcelain-like, whiter clay body, I really liked the color of the flashing and melted ash. For the last nine years, I’ve focused on carved wood-fired bowls, cups, and bottles.
Tye Riber Pottery
A recent wood firing of Jocelyn’s work.
What originally drew you to working with clay?
JS: I started with hand-building class as a kid because–unlike my brother–I refused to play sports. I was very persistent about learning the wheel but I wasn’t quite big enough, so I sat on a stack of telephone books with bricks stacked under both feet and made very tiny pots. I love working with many materials, but clay is the medium I always come back to.
H/T: Where did you study ceramics?
JS: I started working with clay at Chester Springs Studio in Pennsylvania when I was 10. I studied ceramics at VCU and then continued studying with Tom Clarkson at PVCC in Charlottesville. Tom introduced me to Kevin Crowe of Tye River Pottery where I worked as a part-time apprentice for a year around 2010. I am still active with Kevin’s wood firing community as well as a second kiln in Nelson County started by another of Kevin’s apprentices, Noah Hughey-Commers of Muddy Creek Pottery.
H/T: What type of clay do you work with and why?
JS: My favorite clay is B-Mix wood from Laguna. I prefer white clay bodies for wood firing. The colors of the orange-red flashing, the green-brown melted ash, and the blue-gray colors from reduction show very well on its porcelain-like surface.
H/T: What is your favorite tool, why?
JS: My favorite tool is Jack Troy’s Throwing Stick. It’s the perfect size and shape for creating nice shoulders when throwing bottles.
H/T: Who are some artists you admire, why?
JS: I’m drawn to surfaces with textural slip and carving on soft, organic forms. Some of my favorite work includes Sandra Byers’ tiny, botanically-inspired, organic carved forms; Elaine Coleman’s carved plates and bottles; Tara Wilson’s organic, gestural, wood-fired forms; and, Akira Satake’s wood-fire functional work with textural slips.
Sandra Byers
Elaine Coleman
Tara Wilson
Akira Satake
H/T: Where do you find inspiration for your work?
JS: I look for patterns in nature: tessellations, types of symmetry, spirals, and fractal patterns. I like Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations in Art Forms in Nature, the photography of Karl Blossfeldt highlighting art forms in the plant world, and Edward Weston’s images of food.
Art Forms In Nature
Karl Blossfeldt
H/T: What’s your sign?
JS: Libra
H/T: New York or Los Angeles?
JS: Both, but New York is much easier to get to.
H/T: Cats or Dogs?
JS: Dogs
