BOC Spotlight Artist for May-Sabine Brunner

Sabine Brunner's business name is Littlecup Ceramics. Currently her studio is located in her Lafayette, California home. She converted the garage into a studio a couple years ago. She painted the walls in bright yellow to have a sunny and bright studio. She would call herself a ceramic artist and  works alone in her studio. Well, not alone…there are always two dogs who are keeping me company.

Sabine discovered clay when she studied Graphic Design at the University of Aachen in Germany. When she and her husband moved to California in 1996, she started taking ceramic classes and became hooked instantly. She took lots of workshops and classes and it took some time before she developed her own style.

 
Now she creates whimsical ceramic artwork. After making her functional pieces for many years,she thought it would be nice to create pieces which she could wear every day-
that is why she started making ceramic beads, pendants and jewelry.

Sabine's work is entirely built by hand which makes every piece very unique. She uses white low fire clay which comes from a local store. Since her background is in Graphic Design  she loves to paint and draw little stories onto the pieces. She only uses commercial glazes and loves using the bright colors of Duncan Concepts. She owns two electric kilns and fires  to cone 04/06.  
 
Having been raised in a place where rich colors are used to brighten up rainy days, Sabine's work always has a happy feel to it. Her work is strongly influenced by Japanese Pop culture and can be described as Kawaii; a Japanese term which translates to cute or adorable. 

Cuteness has become a nearly universally esteemed aspect of Japanese culture. Sabine also gets inspired by nature and the love for all kind of animals. She owns a tiny Chihuahua named Niki, a German hunting dog named Aiko and Kevin,her cat from Germany. 
 
Sabine's favorite ceramic artists are Maggi Giles http://www.ma ggigiles.com, Linda Bloomfield http://www.lindabloomfield.co.uk/index.html and Julia Kirilova http://www.teaware.com/.

She sells her work at local shows and through her website and etsy. She has tried lots of different venues over the years- wholesale shows, arts and crafts fairs and came to the conclusion that the best way for her is to concentrate on selling online and showing  work in the local community. Sabine joined a coop studio in Berkeley (Berkeley Potters Guild), CA and  does two shows a year. She also shows her work at a gallery in Berkeley called ACCI Gallery.
http://www.littlecup.com,  
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Littlecup,  
http://www.berkeleypotters.com/home01.html, http://www.accigallery.com/

Sabine's advice for newbies would be to take lots of classes and workshops and to develop your own style. Her favorite tool would be the slab roller. Since Sabine's work is mostly made out of slabs, she says it is such a nice treat to be able to quickly roll out some slabs with my slab roller.