We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maisy Capps a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Maisy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
A big question in my studio is about what my craft actually is. A practice that is not defined by medium or tool or industry requires my persistent curiosity.
I spend a lot of time in the realm of ceramics. Every aspect of what constitutes ceramic work is exemplary of this conundrum. Where does the ceramic process even begin? A single ingredient like Copper Carbonate encounters so much before it even arrives in my possession – geologic processes, the mining industry, land management, domestic and international trade, legal stipulations relating to chemicals, sifting and milling into powders and pastes… I find peace in working with wood. A living growth from one location, dried and shaped and oiled.
Perhaps the answer is that materials are my materials, and my approach to them is my craft. The only way to learn this craft is to become a part of it.
Maisy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a sculptor and designer working out of my backyard studio in Los Angeles, California. Right now I mainly make functional objects out of wood, ceramic, and metal. I also offer site-specific and custom design services. Most recently I was asked to make a custom wedding band, and was inspired by translating wood carving tools to the jewelry making process.
In my evolving design language, Touch is one of the most important senses I rely on in the studio. My eyes are a little bad, which naturally pushed me towards working with dimensional material and sculpting in the first place. I have always had a strong sense for shape and an instinct to customize my surroundings to make them feel better or different. A good example is The Bookend Ring. I got interested in silverworking, but at the time didn’t wear jewelry because I am anxious, I fidget. The Bookend Ring is for the index finger or pinky finger, because it has a flat trapezoidal plane that makes a round object feel at rest in a specific orientation between your fingers. The resulting object explores a problem and embellishes it at the same time, which I think is interesting.
Being based in LA, I’ve been going to Angel City Lumber to select wood, because I know they source ethically here in Southern California. The origin and natural physical attributes of the different wood species lead me to create minimal designs that highlight the beauty of the material. Serving boards have been a great way to use A.C.’s Red Gum and Blue Gum Eucalyptus. It has a tight grain and naturally high oil content, making it ideal for functional housewares, not to mention the stunning depth of color and engaging figuration.
The origin of my sculpting materials is something I struggle to reconcile in both ceramics and silver – it can get kind of murky to pinpoint where everything is coming from and how. Because of this, local woods and domestic stone are two materials I feel very drawn to and almost soothed by in their transparency of extraction and wholeness.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
It’s a funny thing to operate as an artist and as a business. The dialogue I have with materials is constantly evolving, and I sell directly from studio to client. Those who follow my work may not see everything that I produce; transactions are often intimate, under the radar, in-person affairs. These qualities make my work difficult to advertise and package neatly.
As an artist, my work is highly experiential in both the process of making and in the lived relationship between the objects and their keeper’s. My end of things in the studio is very private, and often times the interactions of my home wares and jewelry are private as well. What I see as a successful functional design is something that gets absorbed into the fold of the home or adapts to the form of the body as if it has always been there.
I am also a service for design and design consultation, especially for the home. This includes custom furniture, fixtures, etc. When working with a private client on what often does not enter the public sphere, it may seem as though I go MIA for a bit. Disappearing into my work is the absolute joy of it, and the antithesis of self advertisement.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
While I have known the security of a full time job, I choose to live humbly as I explore sculpture. The reward for undertaking this endeavor is the freedom and flexibility to be loud and to be quiet, to meditate when I need to, to get lost in a process, be dirty, to go for a walk. By accepting uncertainty, I open myself up to time by my own design.
In addition to the peacefulness and self-transformation my studio practice offers me, I cherish when something that I have made is used and enjoyed by others. One of my favorite things is to forget about something I have made, and to learn that it has been integral to someone else’s days. My ceramic cups are a part of many people’s little rituals. It feels like I am nurturing them from afar.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maisycapps.com
- Instagram: @maisycapps
Image Credits
All images taken by Maisy Capps