DAMP WINGS WITH CERAMICIST RACHEL SAUNDERS

The queen of clay pulls back the curtain on her artistic secret weapons ☁️

THE 16 CREATIVE ARCHETYPES, DECODED

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Rachel Saunders is a Planet Earth-based ceramicist.

RACHEL’S DIVERGENT CREATIVE STRATEGIES: ACTION/INACTION

• Action and inaction are two sides of the same coin. Rachel mentions the tenderness of her post-metamorphosis “damp wings.” There’s an uncomfortable itchiness in the lull between creative growth spurts, but the passive time is a necessary bridge to the next level.

• The motivation to get into action doesn’t have to always be this precious, “important” thing. It ain’t that deep! You can get started because you’re just excited to try something and it seems… fun. Rachel started selling her wares simply so she could buy more clay and keep practicing.

• Annoyingly, meditation works. Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What’s your metaphorical Adderall — something that slingshots you into an inspired creative tornado of action?

Second best to the effectiveness of stimulants (and an option my nervous system tends to greatly prefer) for me is the thrill and excitement of novelty.

The dopamine rush I get from the newness of a place, pen, or even phone wallpaper is the encouragement and drug of choice I’m not afraid to admit I lean on daily. I’ve been living in different places all over the world for the past two years (this is me evading using the term ~*diGiTal nOmAd~*) and it’s been amazing to see the creative boost I get from soaking up the different energies of new spaces.

Of course, sometimes I feel this is cheating. And I’m aware that some of my best and authentic work has come in the form of innovation due to mundanity, but hell — new things feel good and are inspiring. In a roundabout way novelty also helps my follow through and personal consistency.

For instance, I design my own journals to stay attracted to my morning pages practice, I constantly keep an updated moodboard on my phone to reflect back my ever-evolving visions, and changing locations every month or so encourages a ton of new thoughts and ideas I’d struggle to find in repetitive surroundings. I don’t think this is the most sustainable tactic, but neither are inspired creative tornados of action (which is why they’re so fun).  

In a roundabout way novelty also helps my follow through and personal consistency.

What idea or concept are you chewing on? Has it shown up in your work yet?

I’ve been tossing around the thought of how I want to show up in the world as I come out of my latest metamorphosis. It feels like my wings are still a bit damp and there’s some trepidation of repeating things that didn’t work in my last life cycle.

Then I get caught in a fly trap of perfectionism and over-refinement, which leads to not showing up at all — keeping my thoughts and creations to myself (which feels like hoarding and stops the flow of further creativity for me).

I feel less inspired to show up in social media spaces than I have in the past when I was hawking a physical product and burning myself out with over-production, and I’m looking for a new motivator.

Something that will support me in showing up and sharing authentically and consistently. I’m still looking, so let me know if you have any tips please. 

How particular are you about your notebooks? Pens? What do you write in and with?

That’s funny, I didn’t even read these questions before answering and I’ve already touched on this. To recap — very. I am an extreme diva when it comes to the right tools. And I know, I know, a good craftsperson never blames their tools, but I do all the time. My 4-week stint of daily writing recently came to a screeching halt because my favourite pen that just let the words dance so effortlessly onto the page dried up, and nothing could come close.

The pen was this one from Craft Design Technology which I think I bought at Shorthand in Highland Park and the books I design that help me keep reaching for them are these ones.

I recently had to replace my custom journal with a lined notebook from the corner store that has a weird sci-fi looking rose on the cover, and suffice to say my entire life is falling apart. 

And I know, I know, a good craftsperson never blames their tools, but I do all the time.

What was going through your mind when you first decided to share your work?

Wanting to sell it. Nothing precious or overly thoughtful. Luckily that came later. But I started selling my ceramics so I could keep buying more clay and studio time while living on a very modest server’s wage. 

What’s your media diet, at present?

Mostly binge/restrict. Which most of us know not to be the healthiest kind. I oscillate between wanting to stay informed and participate in society and logout of everything forever. I am working on navigating the middle ground, which seems to be a more and more difficult path to find on such an extreme and polarizing planet. But practice, not perfection.

To be creative and to make things in 2024 is objectively difficult. You have to square off with distractions, global anarchy, and perpetual haunting of the existential question: “why bother?” What keeps you coming back to the ring?

For me, it’s the only way I understand and can process the world around me. The heaviness, the levity, the mundane and profound. When I work with my hands I can relax out of my mind a little bit and find my way back into my heart. Play, next to meditation, is also the only way I know how to open myself up to the answers of things.

My creation process has definitely shifted a lot in the last year — I used to create and make physical products because it was my job, but I have intentionally shifted into offerings that feel more gratifying to me on a soul level — like teaching, creating community, and sharing more vulnerably with my Sanctuary community. And that, magically, is filling my cup back up to give me new inspiration on my next iteration of physical offerings. Which reminds me of this interview with Joni Mitchell talking about ‘rotating her creative crops’.

Play, next to meditation, is also the only way I know how to open myself up to the answers of things.

John Cage was inspired to develop his practice of composing via random chance and chaos after reading a book about the Chinese divining practice, The I-Ching. What influences or inspiration from outside of your field or profession have made the biggest impact on your work or process?

Studying Human Design and knowing how to work with my Projector energy and Emotional Authority. Healing my nervous system (never-ending journey in this world) and allowing myself to feel safe enough to create. Investing in time to actually BE an artist and scheduling time each year to participate in an artist residency (so far I’ve done them in Mexico, Spain, and Greece) and getting to create in community. Becoming good friends with my inner child through somatic therapy and tuning into my most authentic expressions and desires.

And doing The Artist’s Way through an accountability group (so I actually complete it) which I’m currently in my second round— has been life-changing. Basically, anything that encourages me to keep engaging in life and creating my own momentum is helpful. 

What do you do “wrong” that makes your work successful?

As a 1/3 in Human Design it’s my very noble path in life to progress through trial and (much) error. I’m a high school dropout because I prioritized learning in the world versus a classroom, and although I’ll never be very good at math I wouldn’t change that course of education for anything. I also taught myself ceramics at the complete horror of most of the professionals around me, doing things my own way and failing along the way. But I can only learn by being hands on.

I’ve never had a business plan, never ran an ad, I don’t pre-plan content and most things I do on the fly and in the moment. It’s chaotic at best but when I’ve tried to do things the ‘right’ way I just feel my spirit weaken and my creativity wane. I’ve also done all my launches from bed which I think helped them sell out. 

It’s chaotic at best but when I’ve tried to do things the ‘right’ way I just feel my spirit weaken and my creativity wane.

You’ve been working on something and it just isn’t coming through the way you’d like — do you kill your darlings and scrap the whole thing? Do you compost the idea? Do you file it away in your cabinet of misfit concepts to review later?

I’m a pretty big fan of the ‘path of least resistance’ — not in an entitled or unambitious way, but in a ‘is this flowing naturally, efficiently aligned, and feeling good?’ way. When things aren’t easefully progressing, I like to do a check-in with my ego to see if it’s trying to micromanage and run the show. Usually that’s the case if I’m taking on a project that is going nowhere or feels like pushing a boulder up hill. Either my ego or people pleasing tendencies are at play.

In that case, I try to press pause and work on the underlying issues, or completely surrender and take my hands off the wheel, making space for solutions. Sometimes things can come back around, resolved and ready to bloom, sometimes it’s best to just cut my losses and focus on what is working. 

What’s a weird superstition you subscribe to?

The only one I can think of is touching the outside of the plane before I board, but even that I’m pretty lax on and somehow still here.

What should we have asked you in this interview, but didn’t? 

You definitely should have asked me about my favourite conspiracy theories, craziest healing modality I’ve done, or whether or not I’m a fan of Beyonce. Things would have really heated up. Next time!

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