Linda Hsiao stood in front of a worn work table inside her ceramics studio in Altadena. It was the day after Halloween, and her two children, Saben Taylor, 5, and Wawona Hsiao, 3, worked alongside her, hand-sculpting clay pots as wild as a child's imagination. Like Saben's handprints on the concrete patio outside the studio, Hsiao's wildly creative imprint is clear in the whimsical vessels that line the shelves of the former two-car garage: from pitchers to beaked toucans long and owl squeezers to Japanese daruma and Venus wish dolls. of Willendorf lady tiki mugs.
“I've always had a strange imagination,” Hsiao said as he continued working on a large-scale pop-up vase. “I like the idea of creating mythical creatures that are hybrids. They are ambiguous and not exactly what you might assume. I wish they existed.”
“Are we going to school today?” —Saben asked.
“Yes,” Hsiao replied, much to his disappointment.
Ceramicist Linda Hsiao and her children Wawona Hsiao, 3, and Saben Taylor, 5, get to work in the studio behind their Altadena home.
“They know I enjoy what I do,” Hsiao said of her children and working from home.
“A lot of my pots are inspired by my children,” Hsiao said after Saben and Wawona left for school with their father, architect Kagan Taylor. “I feel like they fill me… and empty me constantly.”
Hsiao grew up in Laguna Hills, where his parents, Taiwanese immigrants, ran a farm specializing in Chinese fruits and vegetables such as bok choy and bamboo shoots. Her proximity to the ocean and her farm inspired her love of nature, which she describes as “a leading force” in her life. Looking back, he laughs as he remembers explaining to his elementary school teacher that “watermelons were not only red, but also yellow.” This love of nature is evident in his ceramics, which often feature elements from the natural world.
From a young age, Hsiao, now 42, was drawn to working with her hands and taking art and sculpture classes. Her parents wanted to support her and sent her to a summer program at Parsons School of Design in New York City when she was a teenager. “My parents thought, 'That'll get New York out of their system,'” he said with a smile. But that only fueled his passion even more.
Hsiao takes out Christmas decorations from the oven in his studio.
Whimsical ceramic creatures are designed to hold birthday candles.
After high school, Hsiao attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he studied industrial design. After graduating in 2004, he spent nearly a decade designing eyewear, often spending 12 hours a day in front of a computer. This intense concentration left her feeling “dizzy” and wanting a more practical creative outlet.
So he joined some community studios in Brooklyn and started making pottery. However, living in New York was difficult and she missed gardening and easy access to nature in California.
After nine years, she returned to California, where she took ceramics classes at Saddleback College and Glendale Community College in the evenings while freelancing (designing everything from eyewear to jewelry for big brands and snowboard teams) during the day.
A hand-building class with ceramist and professor Biliana Popova at Glendale Community College changed her career path. “I didn't start throwing wheels because I didn't want things to be perfectly symmetrical,” Hsiao said. “I always wanted to manipulate my shapes and change them. My hands always wanted to sculpt. After taking a hand building class, I never looked back.”
“I always wanted to manipulate my shapes and change them,” Hsiao said. “My hands always wanted to sculpt.”
Hsiao's ceramics are sweet and whimsical: tiki mugs, Japanese daruma wish dolls, tiny creatures, and bird jugs and creamers.
Later, after meeting her husband, and before they had children, the couple collaborated on a series of handmade wooden rattles that they sold as part of Knotwork LA, and she began making pottery in her home. Highland Park. (They have temporarily stopped making rattles, but hope to restock them again as the children get older.)
“Knotwork LA was created as a means to identify the work we do in our free time,” he said. “Beautiful pieces of wood saved from other projects or found during a walk, ideas that came to us in the middle of the night and the desire to create beautiful and useful things.” After juggling freelancing and producing ceramics in the evenings and weekends for 10 years, she decided to take a leap of faith and pursue ceramics full time in 2016.
It began with an order for more than 800 dishes and plates for Curtis Stone's Gwen restaurant in Hollywood.
Since then, his studio has evolved as his work has become more sculptural and his inventory has become broader.
Ceramic bird pots are inspired by nature.
A ceramic bird jug finished in blue.
Hsiao's handmade ceramics and figurines, many of which he cuts out using a cardboard template after flattening the clay with a rolling pin, exhibit a playful style that is entirely his own. “It's like sewing,” she said of using patterns. “I cut them with a knife, shape them and then sculpt them.”
His works are full of whimsy and playfulness, including a collection of platters and plates inlaid with porcelain flowers, vaguely defined creatures holding birthday candles, penguin jugs, and Buddhas. Although he has made lamps, he prefers to focus on affordable products that can go directly into someone's home to enjoy. “I like to have a price that is somewhat affordable for most people,” he said. “Lamps are expensive.”
His dream was always to have a studio at home, invest in a furnace and save money on studio expenses. After purchasing their first home in 2020, the couple spent eight months redoing the garage, whose roof collapsed, last year. The studio is now an artist's dream, with two ovens, ample work space, storage and a dedicated area where Hsiao can pack her orders.
“I used to use our bedroom as a showroom,” he said. “It was hard.”
Sketches of empty vessels hang on the wall of Hsiao's studio.
“The first thing my mom bought me for my studio was a rolling pin,” Hsiao said. “She said, 'I don't want you to get hurt. This is my gift to your studio.'”
But while Hsiao works from home most days, meeting people in person has always been a highlight of owning a small business. To further do that, she, Heather Praun of Plant Material, and designer Bianca D'Amico of Chaparral Studio launched a semi-annual craft show at Plant Material's Altadena location. So far they have detained “about five” of them; The next one will take place on December 14 and 15. “The whole community shows up,” he said, smiling. “I've been lucky enough to participate in some of the most vibrant creator collections over the years and have become friends with many. “It was a pleasure after moving to Altadena to discover that many of the creators have found themselves here raising families, going to the same schools and parks.”
“I have always been inspired by the way she prioritizes creativity in all aspects of her life,” D'Amico said. “There are endless thoughts and time invested in her work, but she exercises that part of herself in every aspect of her life. even dinner [at] the home has a craft element: food thrown colorfully into various homemade bowls, the children always help prepare the food and nothing needs matching; It's about the time we spend together. She has the feeling that life is happening NOW and she is absorbed in the moment.”
“People can see that my work is handmade,” Hsiao said.
Hsiao said balancing a small backyard business can be a challenge while raising two young children, but she appreciates being able to return to the studio after putting the kids to bed. “I have learned to love the tranquility of working in the afternoons, [and I ] Try to take breaks on the weekends and spend full time with the kids,” he said. “Balance is difficult, but my children see me trying to sneak into work since my studio is at home and they always ask me for help. “They know I enjoy what I do and I have no doubt they will spend more time with me in my studio as they get older.”
Even though she sometimes feels like an empty vessel (“a lot of it feels like there are never enough hours in the day,” she said), Hsiao knows that the time she spends with her children is fleeting. As she discovers what work-life balance means for her family, she often remembers something artist and mother Megan Whitmarsh shared with her: “You'll never regret all the work you didn't do when your kids were little because you decided to be a present and loving father.”
In this series, we highlight independent makers and artists, from glass blowers to fiber artists, who create and produce original products in Los Angeles.
