HandWerks

Our Story

It can't be distilled to just one art or medium; it's a deep need to create, and still be able to support those other habits, like eating, and sleeping indoors. The Bohemian, the hipster artist, the starving artist - the archetype marginalizes creatives as somehow superfluous, or not quite contributing to society. It's romantic, but it's a conceit of the "sensible". History and sociology would disagree.

What's a cramped cube-worker and ungratified artist to do? Change careers. Not to be taken lightly, there is planning and skills development; carefully guarding the safety of that corporateland paycheck; there's a lot of reading and learning, and looking at little Victorians off the Santa Fe Arts district and wondering if there's room in the garden for irises and a salt kiln. There are decisions to be made - what medium will be both accessible and affordable and allow me to create? Because focus one must.

And so I settled on my second-love, ceramics. Pottery. One of the fire arts. The possibility for bringing the handmade aesthetic to people is very exciting, but also the prospect of providing historical reenactors and recreationists high-fidelity pottery. And having the joy of researching it is deeply appealing to me, too.

But it's not all functional wares and research and chemistry (oh, my!). Ceramics permits me the creative outlet of sculptural forms, a place to explore the elements of art and design. There is plenty of room in the HandWerks concept to pursue the other fire arts - jewelry being my first love - and also to continue creative clothing arts in the Neo-Victorian-Steampunk venue, and historical clothing arts as well.

It's risky. And it's inevitable.

Melanie Unruh - Artist in Residence at HandWerks.