Not so ordinary
After Covid-19 hit, Casey decided to take the plunge and make her quirky ceramic pieces full-time. She tells us a bit about herself and her handmade mugs.
Hello, who are you?
Hey! My name is Casey Taylor, I’m a ceramic artist and an occasional illustrator!
Tell us about your creative journey. How did you find your love of clay making?
It all started in a very 2D way. I always liked to draw, and to keep my hands busy ever since I first learned how to hold a crayon. My dad was a mechanical engineer/science fiction nerd and my mum was a ‘stylish creative’ and an epic doodler. This was probably the perfect storm of instilling some level of material intelligence, an “if you want it done right, do it yourself” attitude (thanks, dad) and an understanding of the impact our space and the objects in it have on how we feel (thanks, mum).
I had a lot of trouble focusing in and outside of school – what would later turn out to be undiagnosed ADHD and really ended up being a positive element in my creative development. I would draw in class so I could pay attention, I especially enjoyed drawing while someone was reading aloud. Even if I wasn’t drawing something related to the story I was listening to, what I was looking at on paper completed the circuit in my brain- and the narrative would come alive.
In high school, I played around with clay a little bit in art class. But when I was in my third year in college, I took a ceramics elective and realised I needed to totally change my major so I could be in that studio all the time.
Your designs are so fun and quirky. What inspires your style?
Thank you! Oh gosh where to begin, I’m inspired by so many things! I get a lot of inspiration from nostalgia for my early years, which were the ’90s. I’m particularly inspired ’90s cartoons like Rocko’s Modern Life and the early seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants.
I like the lack of self-consciousness that cartoons tend to have, how the characters never take themselves too seriously. Or if one character does, it’s balanced by other characters who couldn’t care less – it makes the audience see how silly that first character is. That’s what I’m trying to do with my work, in a way. If someone is sitting at a regular table, eating a normal breakfast, and drinking a coffee out of a mug covered in pickles with a giant pickle handle, I hope that mug makes them laugh at themselves a little and crack a smile.
How long does a ceramic piece usually take to make?
That definitely depends on the piece, although I’m realising more and more that I love making things that take forever! I think on average, from start to finish, between three and six hours. That’s not counting drying time, and firing time. Both of those added in it would be more like two or three weeks.
Do you plan out your designs before you start making them?
I’ve been trying to sketch a lot more these days, I guess you could say I plan it out in my head more often than not! There’s something really satisfying about jumping right in and problem solving as you go. But I mostly do that within styles of mugs I’ve already made, like making a mug with an eggplant handle instead of a pickle handle. Anything that goes outside of the forms I usually make I try and get it out on paper first to avoid too much trial and error.
What does the average day look like for you?
My day usually starts pretty early, around 7-7:30am. My tiny assistant, Louise the cat, wakes me up. After I feed her, I usually shower and have some breakfast before I get to work. My studio is in my mudroom right off the kitchen, so it’s an easy commute.
From there, I zone out into my favorite podcasts and get to work. I try to take a break in the middle of the day with my lunch, and then get back to work in the studio until dinner. After that, I finish up whatever I was working on and change gears to do computer work and illustration. I usually work on those projects from my bed while watching TV, and when I get tired I shut everything down and call it a night.
What puts you in the mood to create?
I get really excited when I have new projects to work on, or new ideas to try out. But that’s not always the case. When I don’t have anything new going on, I give my studio a good cleaning to start from a blank slate. A clean space always makes me excited to get it messy again!
Tell us about your creative space. Where does all the magic happen?
Most of the magic happens in an 8x12 mud room right off our kitchen! I love having a space in the house, especially these days. I also have a little sewing table set up in our living room. I’m hoping to do more sewing when the holiday rush settles down!
Kingston, New York
