We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sybylla Lindert a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sybylla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I’ve always been creative, I used to have art shows for my paintings or fashion shows with the weirdo fairy dresses I used to make, but I kind of got trapped in that “job” thing for many years. I worked as a pastry chef/wedding cake decorator and did some farming (two things which I still really love), but always kind of longed for something that I felt more of a soul connection with.
I have a genetic disease called Otosclerosis, which over the course of about 10 years, slowly degraded my hearing. The last few years of this was very difficult and I experienced this kind of inward journey with myself and my intuition. I started to really connect with my imagination and developed a really beautiful picture of what I wanted my life to look like.
In 2022 I had 2 surgeries to restore my hearing (Stapedectomy), and coming out of that experience with my new baby bird ears, I was eager to take some classes, learn some new skills and interact with a new community.
The first class I took was a pottery class, and I immediately felt a very strong affinity for it. I just KNEW what to do, like I had some kind of ancestor or guardian angel guiding my hands. It was deeply grounding and therapeutic after some of the struggles I’d recently been through ( losing your hearing is HARD!)
My background as a cake decorator is a skill that feels really connected to how I work with clay, also my Dad is an amazing potter and I realized that I had maybe inherited some clay wisdom from him.
So anyway… on that first day of my first pottery class I asked myself “what if i never stop, and see how far I can take this?
And here I am.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I create magical hand painted blue & white ceramic art. I use mostly porcelain, or a porcelaneous stoneware. I paint images of my imaginary world, I take a lot of inspiration from different moments ceramic history, mythology, magical symbolism. I spend a lot of time researching historic techniques and design motifs, I think you can really see that reflected in my work.

I’m not really one of those “functional pottery for everyday use” potters, the things I make have a little piece of my soul in them, and they’re meant to bring some special magic into the days of the people who collect my work. A very special mug to drink an uplifting or healing tea from, a vase to honor the seasons most beautiful flowers, an incense or candle holder to bring light and good feelings into your home.

Something I’m proud of is that I put a lot of love into everything I make, I like to think that people’s hearts are glowing a little brighter when they’re spending time with my pieces.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Pottery is a very good teacher of resilience. There are so many things that can go awry at so many different points in the process so its very important to be intentional, have a clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve, and transmute any “fails” (I hate that word, fail) into knowledge.

For instance, just because you can throw a nice form, doesn’t mean its necessarily going to survive in the kiln. and don’t even get me started on glaze formulation, haha. Glaze making is a very wizardly practice that takes a ton of patience and testing, testing, testing.

If you let everything that comes out of the kiln weird get you down, it will just be impossible, In the world of ceramics you kind of have to be an explorer, stay curious, and learn from your mistakes.

The very way I found ceramics is a story of resilience as well, I’ve always felt that I have a special skill to transform life’s struggles into strength and wisdom.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

As someone who is basically a medieval peasant, this is kind of a funny question, but honestly I like NFT’s and I wish they’d make a comeback.

I really like the juxtaposition of handmade things in a world with NFT’s? I COLLECTIONS, and I see NFT’s as kind of a cool “Back To The Future” moment, and I like things that push the limits of what is possible.

(plus my husband is a “computer guy” so I might secretly have more of a perspective on such matters than it seems like I would)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sybyllaceramic.com
• Instagram: @sybyllaceramic
• Other: I do have a tiktok but I don’t post there much, some recent uncertainty if it was still gonna be a thing in our country has made me neglect it

Image Credits

The two groupings are shot by Jesse Champlin (www.jessechamplin.com)