By Hand

Sitting at her potter’s wheel, ceramic artist Rachel Akin rhythmically moves her hands in just the right way to give form to porcelain clay. The repetitive movements allow her to focus on the specific details she wants to create: the width of the sides, the depth of a curve. Rachel has been involved with artful pursuits since she was a child. Pottery became her lifelong passion after Rachel took a ceramics class in high school.

Porcelain has always been her material of choice. Its smooth, silky texture is pleasant to work with, unlike others that can be grainy and rough on her hands. Even more important, porcelain provides a sleek white base that perfectly accents a pastel color palette, which is her preferred color family. “I have a soothing color palette because it’s important to have objects that are calming and pleasant to enjoy,” Rachel says.

Ninety-five percent of her work happens at the potter’s wheel, where she fashions sweet, gorgeously simple ceramics such as vases, bowl and mugs. Rachel lets her intuition and spontaneity guide her hands as she molds each distinctive piece. Antique depression and milk glass, as well as vintage Christmas ornaments, inspire her coloring and texture.

After crafting a piece on the wheel, Rachel will slip the edges or alter the rims to add decorative details. “I add split dots with a syringe or fine needle tip that creates a raised top,” she says. The dots look like white pearls lacing the porcelain, adding a touch of effortless elegance.

Rachel’s designs are kept basic to accentuate form, but details and texture make her pieces pop. Her early work was labor intensive, with a great amount of detail put into each piece, but that was easily fixed by simplifying her designs and emphasizing the silhouette of each piece.

She describes the simplicity of repetitive motion used to create her art as meditative in nature. “I get lost in the process, especially with the surface decorations,” she says. She allows her mind to wander as her hands knowingly add a pattern, such as thin stripes or dots, to the design.

Rachel’s ability to perfectly mold porcelain comes from 17 years of experience. She received her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1999 and then pursued higher education at Ohio University, where she received her master’s degree in Fine Arts in 2006. She currently works as an art teacher at Forest Park Community College, where she teaches all levels of ceramics and craft alliance. “I teach basic hand-building techniques and then introduce the potter’s wheel, which requires a lot of practice,” she says.

Rachel has shown her work at art shows throughout the state, including such venues as the Schlafly Art Outside, Plaza Art Fair in Kansas City and the Laumeier Art Fair where she was awarded an outstanding local artist award. This year, she will show her work at Craft Alliance’s HOT TEA: 13th Biennial Teapot Exhibition, March 9 through April 26, 2012.

Her porcelain artwork can be purchased through her website, www.rachelakinceramics.com or on Etsy.com. At the end of the day, Rachel hopes her soothing pieces of art allow others to simply enjoy a beautiful pause in their day. “It’s nice to have something to calm you when life is so busy.”

RESOURCES:
Rachel Akin, www.rachelakinceramics.com