You worked for a time for Ben Mendansky -
what would you say were the most important
things you took away from your time with
him?
The more I learned the more questions I had and
I started to realize that for some of these
questions there was nowhere to go for answers.
So figuring things out somehow with no manual
was a challenge, like for most people. Also
keeping myself motivated and not get frustrated. I
was having to sustain my life without really
knowing how. It was just chaos.
I discovered I could do and learn anything if I
wanted to and be fairly good at it, haha. I found a
sense of validation for myself. I had just moved
from Korea and after that excitement I was really
defeated. I felt like I was suddenly discovering
everything about growing up by getting beat up by
this thing called life (haha). I was beginning to
doubt if I could be the person I had wanted to be. I
was really getting good at what I was doing because
I enjoyed it and wanted to be good at it. I did so
much more than what I had, I poured myself out
when I had nothing. And for the first time I did it
alone, I learned almost everything by myself and I
did everything on my bicycle. So I started to think if
I can do this much work without compensation, I
can do so much more for myself, making deposits
toward self satisfaction.
Where do you find your inspirations and how
long does the process from idea to actually
having a sample in hand take?
I think my inspirations are really random. But it
is mostly what I encounter in my daily life. Its not
so special, but somedays it touches me differently
depending how I feel or what I saw yesterday or
what I heard yesterday or some experience suddenly
gives me a different perspective. Or I sometimes
feel like I see something and it just fills in that
missing blank I had for a long time. And things just
get spiraled from there.
The process period varies per size and quantity of
work. But once I have the idea , as an example for
one cup, it takes a day to make, trim, and attach
handle. A couple of more days to slowly dry, 24
hours to be fired and cooled down. Then it will be
glazed and re-fired for another 24 hours to be fired
and cooled down again. So probably the fastest
would be a week? But depending on the weather
and humidity it might vary by a couple of days.
What was the moment you realized - I can do
this, I can be my own boss? And what was the
biggest challenge in doing that?
I think I always wanted to work for myself. I
was working really hard thinking if I learn
enough from everything then one day I will be
ready and I can start my own thing. But one
afternoon, I suddenly realized , wow I
accomplished so much work but none of it was
mine. I thought if I could do this much for
somebody else, I can surely do it for myself. But
of course it was fine for a while because I did not
even know what I didn’t know, haha. So I was a
complete blank, just really pumped up ready to
do anything coming my way. I knew a lot of stuff
theoretically, but had little actual experience.
Also I moved from Korea and even though I
believed I knew about American culture, it turned
out I knew nothing about American culture. So
everyday was fine until I discovered an obstacle,
which was everyday.
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THE CONE - ISSUE #15 - 2018