Editor’s Note: “The value of creativity” is a new series that explores how goods and services in the creative economy are valued by consumers and makers alike. See the previous installment here.
The plates, platters, bowls, and mugs that Amrita Lash throws embrace an elemental quality—imperfect edges and runny colors reflect an earnest and intimate purposefulness—yet, at the same time, transcend it.
Her blue, red, purple, and green glazes, all made from scratch, become complex abstract paintings on the surfaces of each unique clay body, revealing a bit about the artist herself.
Lash is transfixed by the idea of leaving a piece of herself behind. She used to throw her pots into the river, daydreaming about the archaeologist who would, one day, unearth her functional treasures. “We’re living these coexisting lives,” she said about the passing of objects from artist to consumer. “Then we die and [the pottery] lives on. This item is going to live in the world for 10,000 years.”
Hopefully, she’s no longer leaving her valuable studio pottery unused. She has already left a lasting impression in the world, in more ways than one.
Lash, who grew up in the Berkshires, studied ceramics and mediation conflict resolution at Bennington College and began teaching at Buxton School, a college preparatory boarding and day school in Williamstown, a year before graduating in 2004. She honed her skills as an artist and an educator at Buxton, where she continues to teach today.
“Youth, community, and the arts are the most important things to me,” said Lash, and she credits this intuitive self-awareness for much of her success.
Her foray into business, as she tells it, was both fluid and planned. She transitioned from sculpture to studio pottery as a way to carve out productive studio time after having children, and began selling her wares in 2010 at local holiday markets for the extra cash.
“In the beginning, I sold a mug for $8 and a serving bowl for $20,” she said. “I wish people told me to raise my prices.” Lash paused. “Well, they did! But it took a while to gain that confidence.”
Lash’s first consignment relationship was with Williams College Museum of Art after a staff member discovered her at a market. “At first, it was a $100 check once a month,” she said, but the checks got bigger, as well as her confidence, and she began consigning at other Berkshire retail locations. She opened her Etsy store in 2013 and, just a few years later, the part-time side hustle became a full-fledged business, with steady online sales and participation in nearly a dozen markets a year.
“My business is stronger than ever,” she said. “Every year, it doubles, and that has been my goal since 2013.”
These days, however, Lash intends to keep her current course.
Not that she is busier than usual, necessarily. Instead, she seems to constantly shift the work-art-life balance ratio, making room for new goals and interests. In addition to teaching part-time at Buxton, she is currently enrolled in a graduate program through Boston University where she is earning her master’s degree in social work.
“It’s always been a part of my life, in addition to my ceramics practice,” said Lash, referring to her holistic teaching approach. She hopes to eventually open an after-school mental health program for youth while maintaining her business.
Amrita Lash Pottery is small enough for her to manage on her own—with a little packing and shipping help from her husband Adrian—but big enough to be a substantial source of income for the family. She receives between 60 and 100 orders a month, most coming through Etsy, with prices ranging from $12 for a spoon to $70 for a serving bowl. Lash also sells dishware sets, from complete tableware to tumbler pairs.
She developed an efficient manufacturing system that was made even easier once she relocated her studio from the Buxton campus to her Williamstown home in 2017. Studio pottery, by nature, is a step-by-step process, and she is able to work on various elements, whether throwing, trimming, glazing, firing, or inventorying, at her convenience.
“The only thing holding me back from growing my business at this point is I don’t have extra help,” she said. “If I had to take on more, I would hire someone to do marketing and bookkeeping.”
But she’s not there yet.
For now, she plans to continue selling online and in person through “porch pickups” and select events, like her annual Mother’s Day Ceramics Sale which she’s held for the past few years.
“I’m just so grateful to be making work that people want to buy,” she said. “[My pottery] makes people happy and that is so satisfying to me. The value of pottery in one’s life is really magical.”
