When Laurie Goldstein's family moved to Israel from New York, she was very concerned that she'd have to speak Hebrew
with her kids. Luckily, she was eight years old and still had enough time to learn the language before her kids would be born.

Her childhood experiences include being "the new kid in class" many times, watching her parents adjust to a new country, playing and fighting with her sister, a lot of dance classes, books, an artistic and cultural education from her parents and finally, her own love of making things, always.

After completing her bachelor's degree in set and costume design at Tel Aviv University, she set off to NYC to do a lot of drawing and ended up in the MFA program for theatre design at New York University. But then something happened that changed the course of events; she took a throwing class and fell in love with clay - completely.

Starry-eyed, she moved to a small town seven hours away from the city, in the snow belt of America, and spent the next two years passionately studying ceramics at Alfred University.

She came back to Israel, set up her own studio, joined "Altogether 8," a cooperative gallery in Jerusalem and has since participated in many exhibitions. She continues to make functional work and is committed to the ongoing quest of combining function, aesthetics and beauty.

Statement

Think of a mug, the most intimate pot one can make; we look at it, we touch it, hold it and bring it to our lips to drink from. Something had attracted us to the one we chose: its look, its feel, maybe we were drawn to it by some memory or association it provoked.

Making functional pots grants me the rare privilege of being part of peoples' lives, through their daily rituals of eating and drinking, alone or in social settings. It allows me the pleasurable and sensual work with clay while applying my artistic, aesthetic and engineering skills. Ultimately, it lets me be a part, humbly, of the tradition of ceramics making.

Process

The plain facts: I use stoneware and mid-range porcelain, build most of my work from slabs and occasionally coils. I use slips and glazes and then fire to 1240c in an electric kiln.

As I work, I consider form, size, weight and color to suit the function I'm aiming for, all in relation to the human body and the domestic space. I also welcome chance and spontaneity and the freshness they bring with them.

My building technique with slabs reflects my attraction to architecture and architectural elements and sensibilities; in maintaining the softness and sensuality of clay, I rely on using patterning and sewing techniques from my past experience in costume design.