Spotlight on Maker: Candice Lau

Spotlight

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What craft do you work with?

I am a sculptor that uses leatherwork and ceramics techniques to create my work. I have worked primarily in leatherwork for the past 10 years, yet have made a directional change to sculpture in the past year. I started combining these two craft forms only in the past year and the impetus for this came from the desire to take leatherwork to a new level, and shift away from the making of commercial leather products which was what I have been doing in the past 10 years. My favourite technique is to adapt leather working techniques to ceramics. Since then, I have learnt more and more about the possibilities of ceramics and the challenge is to create seamless sculptures that combines leather and clay.

What are the main inspirations for your work? 

I love forms and I am always inspired and fascinated by artists who use traditional methods to create common objects such as bowls, bags, cups, vases, yet add unexpected changes to them to challenge the way we view the object, and our expectations of it.

I love working with both leather and clay because they seem very incompatible. But I am curious to explore ways to integrate them and surprise audiences and challenge their expectations. I think it is important to innovate with these age old materials to keep our creative minds alive, and forge new relationships between different crafts such as leather and clay.

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

I work in two separate creative spaces. One is my leathercraft studio, and the other the group ceramic workshop that I use once a week. I love both spaces equally yet they are both so different. One must be kept incredibly clean, whilst the other invites chaos. I love these two opposing aspect. An interesting challenge for me would be to coalesce these two spaces and make one creative studio for my future. My favourite thing in the studio is the wall of leather tools that I hang up above my bench.

How would you like to develop your work in the future?

I want to explore the potential of clay in combination with leather in sculptural form. I am especially interested in challenging the two very different working methods of leather and clay, and finding a way to integrate them.

 

You can see more of Candice’s work here:

Website: studiocandicelau.com

Instagram: studiocandicelau