We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Kersten and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I wanted to work for myself, I was obsessed with making ceramics, and I was having success selling what I was making, which felt really positive. I was interested in growing it into a business to see where that took things. I was young and wanted a project and a challenge.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Well, sometimes I think the most unique aspect of my company is that we exist at all. This is a small ceramics manufacturing company; we make ceramics, start to finish, in house. We have our own clay recipe that we get batch mixed, we make all of our own glaze formulas, we make our own molds, and we do our own shipping. We are making solid objects every day out of bags of dust; this is craftsmanship and also manufacturing. We get to create functional everyday ceramics and see them sent out into the world to be used in homes and restaurants.

Has it been easy? Absolutely not. It would be difficult to list all of the challenges we have faced. I have learned to keep going and to keep trying to solve new problems as they come up.

I mostly just want people to know that this is a small woman run company and that I’m very proud of the quality of the ceramics that we are making. I am also very proud of my team.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
To be honest, we are homebodies! We live in Albany, which is right next to Berkeley in the East Bay. Maybe I would suggest going to a farmers market, booking a sauna at the Albany Sauna and Hot Tubs, going for a hike in Tilden Park. After that I would say, come over for dinner at our house! We love to cook and we have an extra plate for you.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe so much to the people who I have been fortunate to work with while building my business. I am grateful for my reliable and knowledgable studio staff making our work. Everyone has come in with different experience levels with ceramics, and everyone has contributed to developing our process and perfecting our product. This is a team effort.

Website: www.sarahkersten.com

Instagram: @sarahkerstenstudio

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahkerstenstudio/

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