Eastside Culture Crawl - A Visual Arts, Design, & Crafts Festival

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Espiritu Design Studio

Clay

Diane is a multidiscipline industrial designer, during your visit you will find small batch hand finished ceramics available for purchase. As a child, I loved solving puzzles, cautiously exploring and observing my surroundings. I found myself thinking of ways in which I would make things better and like my father, I am resourceful and that gives us fodder for creative expression. This fascination of working with my hands only amplified as I grew older and developed into a career path when I pursued Industrial Design at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia and the West Coast became my home and inspiration. Now that I am a mother, I have a new appreciation of the wonders we encounter daily and the moments we create with the objects we choose to surround ourselves with. As a designer, I find joy and purpose in collaboration with others. Through my experience, the design process has been as valuable as the creation of small & sincere batches of ceramics. It is the method that as has allowed me to focus and meditate on my craft. The creative process is an opportunity to reflect on previous challenges, imagining new ways to explore and interpret problems. As I approach a solution, I delight in the refinement process. My design methodology is applied across multidisciplinary practices. I find satisfaction in working in the spaces of soft product design as well as ceramic design. In the making of ceramic ware, the process includes sculpting a master form as well as the use of found objects and materials that compliment the final slip cast form. I appreciate the subtle ways light is absorbed by matte unglazed surfaces and I play with contrast with the application of glaze and lustre. The addition of mason stains to the porcelain slip produces the coloured bodies and I glaze the interior of vessels for food safety. I often highlight glaze drips with gold lustre to embody the idea that your cup is overflowing with abundance. Vessels with gold lustre must be hand washed with a non abrasive sponge. Each piece that emerges from Espiritu Design Studio is hand finished with thought and care, as a result there are unique qualities that define each form.