EVERY handmade piece is unique and every potter or ceramic artist has a distinctive style in expressing their creativity, which brings us to a local potter, an artistic and inventive Cindy Koh, whose fascination for coffee and clay led to creating her unique coffee brewers.
Koh also creates modern, custom-designed ceramic plates, cups, bowls, vases, among others, using different forms or techniques – glazed or painted with natural or bold colours. It is literally art on a plate and stands out or blends in with the contemporary interior design of any kitchen or dinner table.
Mass-produced ceramic has long been replaced with one-of-a-kind pieces, which adds class and are aesthetically beautiful. Designer ceramic is almost a form of pride to the owner but for Koh, pottery making is an art and is also good for the mind.
“Clay has a magical calming effect,” said Koh, the 47-year-old owner of Clay Expression (@clay expression_my).
According to Koh, working with clay and making pottery tends to make a person focus and be ‘in the moment’. The process of making pottery or ceramic trains a person to have patience.
“Clay is a grounding material. Our energies can get grounded when we are working with clay. In our daily lives, we are so busy taking care of things but we forget to become ‘quiet’ (silent). We keep moving forward and forget to even stop and breathe. Today, being in a crisis, a lot of frantic energies is within us, due to uncertainties,” she said.
“When working with clay, it teaches us to be calm and to focus. When we are calm, we can see things clearly. Normally, students who come to us want to create something, but to make it happen, they have no choice but to work with the clay the way it needs to be worked. In the end, the students think of nothing but being present and to just concentrate to work on their project,” added Koh.
When clay met coffee
“I prefer to find ways to incorporate what I love. I am a coffee enthusiast. I love the process of hand brewing coffee but for a cup of brewed coffee, I needed a hand-made brewer and a cup,” she said.
In order to learn the mechanics of brewing coffee, Koh took the initiative to sign up for coffee brewing classes with a coffee judge and barista champion, Cheryl Lee.
“After I studied the method of coffee brewing, I experimented by creating different designs of brewers, and brewed coffee with each design. I went back and forth with the same method with each design to create my coffee brewers.
“As the cup is an important element, I explored different shapes, sizes, thickness, and colours,” she said.
“I have a few series of coffee brewers. One of them is titled Gasing because it reminded me of a spinning top. It has carved lines inside to help with the flow of the coffee. The wall thickness is about 1cm, as the heat from the brewing water will retain in the walls, to keep my brew temperature consistent. It is slightly heavy to help with the stability,” Koh added.
Koh, whose products are made of white stoneware clay, has even participated in a national brewing competition.
For the love of clay
She stumbled across ceramics while she was pursuing a degree in business administration, majoring in marketing in America. Her best friend took the ceramic making course as an elective subject.
“I liked it, instantly. The next semester, I went to the professor to ask for permission to join his class and from then on, I continued taking his class every semester. That was the beginning of my journey into pottery. When I was in my third year, I decided to change my major to ceramics,” said Koh.
“In my early years as a potter, I was curious about everything. I would create works, in series, depending on the form or technique to exhaust the possibilities of the particular form or technique.
“The forms and techniques still interest me but now I prefer to find ways to include what I love.”
