Sam Briegel’s pottery caught my eye at the Mo’town Studio Tour. Unapologetically feminine in aesthetic — pretty individually, collectively her pieces convey a deeper meaning.
I’d never seen pottery with such specific texture of clothing or in such shades of pastels. I wanted to learn more.
Sam uses textures and prints in her work, with direct use of textiles and references to clothing and bodies. She told me that women’s relationships with their bodies inspires her work.
The pottery’s uniqueness drew my attention first, then the femininity and then — once I considered the whole body of work (pun intended) — I could see its meaning and inspiration. I like that it took me a minute to absorb and recognize the full picture.
“Ever since I was a child, I was very creative. I got a sewing machine when I was younger, and I made Barbie clothes, and later made myself clothing,” she said. Making clothing that fit, gave her one motivation for sewing, because she is shorter than the bodies most mass-produced garments are made for.
Sam struggled with pressure to look and dress a certain way and to diet, which resulted in negative feelings about herself when clothing didn’t fit.
Working on her master’s degree, Sam began creating functional clay pieces that expressed, shared and changed her relationship with clothing.
To incorporate garment patterns and textiles, Sam turned to her own closet. She started with the section many of us have, of “goal” clothes — clothing that doesn’t fit, but we hope someday we will fit into.
“It’s almost catharsis in a way, because I’m cutting apart clothing that makes me feel negative about my body,” she said.
Sam makes plaster casts of highly textured fabric, like lace and sequins, and then fills it in with clay to create a positive relief of the texture on a slab of clay, which she then uses to build mugs, planters, tea pots and other work.
To capture color patterns, she takes a photo of the fabric, edits it and then screen prints it onto clay. She does this before using the clay, as opposed to painting it onto the finished piece.
“I enjoy when the print is already on it, so I can stretch it out,” she said. This creates a reference to clothing on a body. “I would say I make figurative ceramics without making the figure.”
Sam also makes a “blush” collection — pastel pink pieces depicting a full belly with curves and rolls.
I saw her mugs in this series at the Mo’town Studio Tour, and they helped bring together the meaning of her work for me. They are pretty, not at all vulgar, and it felt refreshing to see an aspect of a larger body shown in such a positive way.
“I’m interested in our bodies having soft curves and hard curves,” she said. “I want the pieces to look very confident.”
To give these works a blush, Sam airbrushed glaze onto them, deepening the blush on the parts of the piece one touches when using the pottery.
Sam said she sees wide-spread negativity about our bodies, although there seems to be momentum for change. “I think it’s something that as a society we are still working through. I hope that my art can have something to do with that.”
Her work spoke to me, as I too have struggled with wanting to make my body fit clothing, rather than clothing fit my body.
You can see Sam’s work at www.etsy.com/shop/BriegelCeramics and on her website www.samanthabriegel.com.
