Racks upon wooden racks of about 1,000 tiny ceramic pots sit in a brick kiln at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro waiting to be fired at 2,380 degrees.
Ceramic artist Sara Pilchman and her team work out of her Signal Hill and San Pedro workspaces (the latter, a set of old army barracks turned into studios) to fulfill the weekly process.
At the Signal Hill studio, it takes minutes for Pilchman to mold softened clay into a vessel using her potter’s wheel, but the finishing process—polishing, glazing and firing—takes the rest of the week.
The tiny pots—usually in nine different styles—can be found at over 125 shops around the nation. Eight of those shops are in Long Beach including Plantiitas, Blue Windows and Made by Millworks.
The work that lines the shelves of the shops is something Pilchman has been doing almost her entire life—first sitting behind a potter’s wheel at 6 years old during summer camp. Serving as a glimpse into her future life, Pilchman would sell tiny sculptures as a kid to a Long Beach pottery shop.
At age 16, after transferring to Idyllwild Arts Academy from Poly High School, Pilchman rediscovered her love for ceramics, launching Sara Pilchman Ceramics years later in 2016.
“It actually grew out of my competitive nature,” Pilchman said of her start. “As I got a little bit older, there were people that were better than me and I didn’t want them to be.”
Although she got her start doing dishware in 2016, for a few years now Pilchman has focused only on the tiny pots—something that was born out of public demand at local markets where she displayed miniature versions of full-sized bottles.
Further fueling demand were small bike planters that Pilchman made for a friend, which gained popularity in the Long Beach and Signal Hill areas, where biking is widespread.
“After a certain time I was like ‘Why am I trying to make these other products that people might like but are labor intensive and don’t quite have the same impact?’” Pilchman said.
The tiny pots vary in size from 2 to 3 inches tall. Each pot is unique and usually catered to a shop’s aesthetic. Currently, Pilchman only offers her work wholesale.
One of the tiny pots offered at Made by Millworks features a cerulean blue glaze at the neck that drips into the body. Some of the other pots, vase-like in nature, have a teal glaze while others retain their earthy colors.
The pots can be used for just about anything, Pilchman explains in an Instagram video. They can serve as planters, shot glasses or simply as decorative pieces.
“It’s never been about the product as much as it has been about the process for me,” Pilchman said. “I just wanted to be on the wheel all the time and that’s definitely what I’ve been doing with these tiny pots. I get the satisfaction of creating a product.”
Pilchman noted that creating a high volume of tiny pots removes so much of the “stress and heartbreak” that comes with spending countless hours on one product that could break in the process.
Although Pilchman has been surrounded by many aspects of art, having earned a degree in museum studies and visual storytelling from Juniata College, the physicality of creating pottery is what has captivated the artist through the years.
From immersing her hands in the high fire clay as it spins in the wheel to having the ability to smash a pot against a rock—fueling the idea of creation and destruction—Pilchman has used pottery making as a physical outlet.
“It is my body going into this item and [being] able to do whatever I want with that,” Pilchman said of the satisfaction of pottery making. “It’s a sense of physical control that I think a lot of other arts couldn’t offer me.”
To keep up with Sara Pilchman’s work and find a list of retailers follow her on Instagram at @sarapilchmanceramics.
