A Week in the Life of Alina, Ceramic Studio 'Pansy' Owner on the Lomo'Instant Automat

Meet Alina, a multi-talented creative – the owner of a ceramic studio Pansy, an illustrator, and a workshop host extraordinaire. We were curious about how a week in her life looks, so we asked her to capture some every-day moments using the Lomo’Instant Automat, and spoiler alert: it's a whirlwind of creative cuteness!

Here’s a peek into Alina’s week, in her own words:

Hello! Welcome to a sunny week in my life.

My name is Alina, I own a ceramic studio/shop in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I grew up in Western Australia and moved to Europe about 6 years ago for a new adventure. It’s always been a dream of mine to have a space where I could share work from other artists, and all the things I find beautiful and important in the world. Pansy is a physical expression of my dreams and I love sharing it with you!

One of my favourite ways to start the day is making a frothy oaty milky coffee in a lumpy mug, taking it down to my studio and writing a big to-do list for the day.

I love working with physical lists in a notebook; writing down jobs for myself and our team of helpers. We do a lot of repetitive daily jobs like unloading, loading the kiln, packing orders, emailing, but every day is different in the shop with new friendly faces, customers, and sharing our world with them.

This is the front of my shop!

I’ve always dreamed of having a studio space with big windows for lots of natural light to come through. Every month or so we decorate the window with different stickers that match the exhibition or seasonal theme. At the moment we have our Sticker Nostalgia exhibition, so we have hearts, stars, gems, smiley faces, and stickers turning our windows into a giant diary/scrapbook.

This is my desk and big computer with my clickity clackity keyboard.

For a small business I do an overwhelmingly bamboozling amount of administration, emailing, and organizing. I try to fill the space with inspiring colours, things my friends have made for me, or sweet letters that people have written for me. There’s a sticky note taped on my computer that says “GET TO WORK YOU BIG BABY!” from Jerry Saltz.

I have a giant 1L waterbottle and I try to get through two of them a day. Next to my desk are all of my favourite brushes, pens, glazes, oil pastels, watercolours, tapes, so that I can quickly move from computer work to more hands-on, creative work.

Loading and unloading the kiln is a daily job since we have quite a small kiln (50L) and so many objects going in and out, from our workshop creations, pansy packs (DIY-ceramic kits), and my own works too.

Here I’m unloading some of the ceramic frames I made for this Lomography collaboration!

This is one of the shelves in my apartment! I love moving furniture around every now and then. I love collecting works from different artists that I admire from around the world. There’s a big painting of Ginger (my dog) that one of my customers (Hanni) made for me - I love it so much!

I keep all of my favourite mugs and ceramics on these shelves too.

I have a small obsession with colorful sponges - especially ones made from iridescent sparkly material! So I hung some of them up on the wall too.

This is my fat old dog Ginger! She’s a 9 year old rescue dog from Phuket.

We fostered her when she arrived in the Netherlands and fell in love, so we’ve had her for the past 3 years. She’s a very gentle, sweet shop dog. She greets visitors and just sleeps most of the day, people watching through the big windows. She always looks sad in photos but I think she’s just got a grumpy face.

She loves snacks, munching on grass, watching ducks, eating eggs, and belly rubs.

On studio days (when the shop is closed) I love wearing comfy clothes and feeling homey in the space. I have this pair of leggings that are a stretchy cotton children’s size 12 but there are holes in the crotch so I have to be careful about accidentally flashing people. I also love wearing crocs, they’re super super comfy!

One of the things I love best about Amsterdam is getting around on bikes, and even better when all my friends are on bikes too and we ride around like a giggly bike gang.

Last Sunday I invited my mates out for dim sum (Jasec, Sam, Sam, Adi in this picture) and afterwards we rode to a sunny terrace and shared a bottle of orange wine together in the sun - yum!

When the sun shines in Amsterdam everything feels sparkly and magical. Everyone is happy to be outside, and so am I! I asked Sam to take this photo on the right with my bike on the canal. Sometimes it feels fun to be a tourist in your own city.

One of my favourite parts of my job is glazing - which is like painting colours and patterns onto the objects I create from clay. It’s a satisfying process of layering thick goopy glaze. I work in my studio almost every day. It makes me feel safe, happy and brings so much comfort and peace in my buzzy brain.

One of the cozy nooks in my shop!

I love working with independent artists, designers, and makers from all around the world. We focus predominantly on working with women-owned studios and small businesses. I love filling up every area with ceramics, notebooks, soaps, sculptures, vases, textiles, stationery, printed goods, and other treasures

After a long week my friend Josiah invites me over and makes a homecooked chinese dinner (hainan chicken, rice, steamed egg)

Since living in the Netherlands for over 6 years I’ve started feeling homesick for my family, friends and food. It’s nice to have a buddy who shares a similar upbringing and experiences together. We catch up on juicy ceramic gossip, awkward dates, and plans for an exciting collaborative exhibition next year!

This is my friend Anthony, he makes me laugh so much.

The shelves where all our items wait for firing. The kiln fires over 1000 degrees Celsius to make all the objects food-safe, shiny, glossy and ready to be used!

I love seeing what people create either through our workshops or pansy packs (DIY take-home kits). I love when people make funny paintings of animals or portraits of their family - it just makes my heart warm!

We run workshops every weekend in our studio! You can make your own lumpy ceramic mug, decorate a variety of objects (vases, plates, cups, etc) with glazes.

Our teacher Rhiannon (the one in the gingham dress on the right corner) loves sharing her experience with clay with everyone, she always makes people feel loved and at home during the workshops.

More recently we’ve been inviting fellow artists to collaborate and share their creative worlds with us, so far this year we’ve hosted workshops in: kimchi-making, cake-decorating, poetry-writing, still-life drawing, zine-making, and more!

Thank you so much for sharing your week on the Lomo’Instant Automat Alina!

If you're ever around Amsterdam, make sure to pop by her studio/store Pansy! If you can't wait, check out her website, and follow her updates on Instagram.

written by lomocato on 2024-08-08 #gear #people #places #art #collaboration #amsterdam #ceramic #lomo-instant-automat #a-day-with