Summer Romasco, founder of New Earth Ceramics, is a passionate artist and ceramicist. Though Summer is no stranger to such creative endeavors, largely thanks to her mother who is also an artist, she discovered her love for ceramics in 2021. Her work features classic shapes and an earthy color palette, reflecting the laid-back vibe of Los Angeles — a city she has grown to love and call home over the last five years.
Today, we’re chatting with Summer about her art and her business. So without further ado…
a conversation with Summer…
1
Let’s start from the beginning! Tell us about the journey that led you to where you are now.
I grew up in rural Ohio, right along Lake Erie. My mom is a painter, so I always had access to art supplies and education even outside of school. I’ve always loved art, culture, and design, and I felt I needed to get out of rural Ohio to experience those things on a larger scale. So I went to The University of Rochester for school and focused on studio art and literature, then moved to NYC, and then eventually to Oakland. I’ve been in Los Angeles for 5 years now, and I’m thrilled to be here. It has all of the music, food culture, and art you could want in a large city, but the vibe is what really keeps me here. Los Angeles is both casual and glamorous, which aligns really well with my aesthetic preferences — plus it feels romantic to be living at the Western edge of the world. While I’ve always made art, mostly paintings, I was late to discovering ceramics. But as soon as I sat down at a potter’s wheel for the first time, I was in love. The functional aspect of pottery — being able to fabricate a bowl or a vase out of a lump of clay — is a joy. I instantly knew I had to pursue ceramics, and that’s how New Earth Ceramics came into being.
2
You have a history as a painter, traversing various artistic mediums such as acrylic paint, spray paint, and screen print. Plus, you’ve also created murals and digital works throughout your career. What inspired the incorporation of ceramics into your artistic offerings?
I have a drive for technical development in my art practice. I love learning and developing new skills and am always searching for what’s next, it’s the single thing that keeps me engaged in my work. With two dimensional artwork, I went from drawing to naturalistic oil painting because of a desire to attain more and more advanced skills. So screen printing became the next step in my search for development; I had to learn vector illustration software and get up to speed on industrial processes. Each step along my journey as an artist has been about becoming more technically proficient and developing new processes. Ceramics lets me take my drive for technical development even further. There’s the basics around learning the properties of the clays so that you can make structurally sound and comfortably functional work on the wheel, but then there’s glaze chemistry, and surface decoration, and then there’s mold making, and slip casting, and vinyl cutting, and 3D printing, and CNC machines, and, and, and . . . there are endless things to learn in pottery.
3
Your ceramic pieces feature classic shapes, rustic textures, and an earthy color palette. Can you elaborate on your design ethos?
Your ceramic pieces feature classic shapes, rustic textures, and an earthy color palette. Can you elaborate on your design ethos?
I aim for casual elegance. I don’t want things that come across as fussy. Keeping to minimal or classic designs, like pedestal bowls, helps me do that. I also love all of the material options — I find the raw materials so beautiful and fascinating. So I incorporate a lot of areas of raw stoneware in my designs, and I gravitate toward glazes that show evidence of the process or the chemistry involved in the making process. For example, I use a firing process where the amount of oxygen in the kiln is reduced for part of the firing cycle, which means the fire needs to pull oxygen out of the clay and glazes, causing unique glaze effects that help tell the story of how the piece was fired.
4
What does your day-to-day entail?
I get up at 5am, grab my oatmeal and coffee, and head out to my backyard studio. I have a day job in marketing, so I get all of my studio work done by 9am. During that time, I’ll pour slip into molds and then get to work throwing pots on the wheel or trimming the pieces I’ve thrown the previous day. Sometimes I’ll roll out slabs of clay and shape some bowls by hand or start sketching new potential vase or pedestal designs. I like to use the entire week to build up a collection of new pieces, and then I reserve glazing and firing the pieces in the kiln for the weekends. If I have admin work (marketing, photo editing, correspondence, or packing orders) I’ll save that for the evenings.
5
How do you seek to incorporate balance in your life?
How do you seek to incorporate balance in your life?
I’m not sure I know what balance looks like, but there are a few things I consider mandatory for my well-being. I spend a few minutes in the garden each day, watering plants or picking herbs I think I might use later for cooking or cocktails. I cook a lot — I consider it another form of creative expression. So I take breaks everyday for lunch & dinner. I make sure I don’t work through meals. I try to stay off devices as much as I can throughout the day. I also make sure to move. I jump rope most days and do yoga a few times a week. Pottery can require a good bit of strength so I’ve also started to incorporate more strength training.
6
What can you share about your creative process? In what circumstances does your creativity thrive and how do you nurture your creativity through the busier seasons of life?
What can you share about your creative process? In what circumstances does your creativity thrive and how do you nurture your creativity through the busier seasons of life?
To really feel creative and inspired, I have to get outside of my daily routine and see something new — this can be a simple as observing a unique art deco bridge while driving around LA, or it can be going for a walk in Griffith Park and noticing a new type of flower, or it can be doing a gallery crawl down Western Ave, which is conveniently near my home. When things get busy or overwhelming, I have to be ruthless with my to-do list. There are an endless number of things to take up our time and distract us from our plans and our creativity. So I prune my to do list everyday, down to the most essential items. I also set aside large blocks of time for different types of tasks so I have enough time to achieve a state of focus or flow.
7
What advice would you offer to other female artists looking to grow their business?
What advice would you offer to other female artists looking to grow their business?
I think you have to be careful when you turn your art into a job. One thing that has helped me is remembering not to grow for the sake of growth. I think that’s a common trap for artists; while you’re looking for signal or validation or revenue you can easily take on too much and create a lot of stress for yourself. The problem with stress, in my experience, is that it’ll always find a way to kill your creativity. For me, it’s helpful to keep imagining the lifestyle I want to lead and work back from there. If I don’t have time for the things I love because I’m so busy hustling, what’s the point of working for myself?
8
What’s next for New Earth Ceramics? How do you hope to see the impact of your work take form?
What’s next for New Earth Ceramics? How do you hope to see the impact of your work take form?
So far, I’ve had trouble making enough pieces to keep up with demand; there is a lot of process that goes into making a single piece of pottery and it can’t really be rushed that much. So, I’ve been aggressively moving into moldmaking and slipcasting, with the hope of making New Earth Ceramics available to more people. It’s been quite an educational process to get up to speed because slipcasting has an entirely different set of chemical and mechanical considerations, but I love a challenge. I make ceramics with the goal of designing objects that inspire creativity and spark little moments of joy or ritual in people’s homes — I just need to get more of them into more homes.
rapid fire with Summer…
1
Favorite place to visit to spark inspiration?
I love vacationing in Italy. The culture is very casually chic, which I admire. And being from a relatively young country, it’s wonderful to visit cities, architecture, and art that have been around for thousands of years—it inspires such a sense of awe.
2
Color or neutrals?
Both! I’ve never met a color I didn’t like.
3
Favorite glaze technique?
Dipping! It gives you a consistent coat of glaze (say compared to brushing) and you can create some interesting lines when you selectively choose how to dip.
4
Favorite space in your home?
Dining room — it’s where we come together for food and company.
5
Best New Earth Ceramics product to give as a gift?
These ceramic coasters are a perfect gift! I used a reactive glaze in a reduction kiln, so each coaster is unique with interesting glaze effects and iron speckles. They’re food-safe, so you can use them like little amuse-bouche plates. And they’re really beautiful when you pour olive oil into them for dipping bread—the golden olive oil goes beautifully with the warm-toned stoneware.