After years of working in the interior design industry, two things turned out Diana Adams. The first is that, just like interior designers, decorators and furniture makers were also artists. The second is that a lot of material often goes to waste when implementing a project. “They don’t teach you in school that you can make business through art,” she says. work from home.
Courtesy of SampleHaus
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Adams has always considered herself an artist. “I’ve been drawing since elementary school,” she says. “However, once I entered university, I felt I had to choose a degree that would guarantee me a living.”
For Adams, that meant majoring in biology at California State University, Dominguez Hills before she chose to pursue her heart. “I remember walking into my car after class and passing the art class. I wanted to be there so bad,” she says. I said “fuck it” and signed up for painting and ceramics courses. The first time I touched clay I just clicked – I bought a wheel and started pottery in the home. “
But her vocation has not yet sunk in. After graduation, Adams took a day job at Apple which left her feeling unfulfilled creatively, so she decided to pursue a master’s degree in Interior Architecture offered collaboratively between UCLA Extension and California State Polytechnic, Pomona. Education led to a full-time party with the stylist Michael Smith. “I got immersed in the materials – fabrics, stones, woods – and began to see the artistic value of the decor,” she says. “Then it finally shocked me: This is how you make a living making art.”
Justin Gallagher
In 2019, SampleHaus opened, a studio in Hawthorne, California, where it upgraded discarded specimens and samples from galleries into heirloom-worthy complexes. “I’ve started contacting local vendors about salvaging vandals,” she explains. “Then I will turn them into works of art that I sell in the many pop-up stores in the area.”
Once she got her feet wet selling collages, Adams decided to turn her attention back to pottery. She signed up for a ceramics class at a local studio to hone her skills, and fell on the heels of her centuries-old tribal designs. “I love how the different pottery marks symbolize different cultures,” she says. “There is a universal language of pottery transmitted through distinctive inscriptions.”
More specifically, she was smitten with African Zulu pottery, featuring bold geometric line and vibrant enamel finishes, and began incorporating motifs into her own ceramic creations. “I made jars with a lid with markings that mimic those on traditional tribal shields,” she explains. “And when appropriate, you can also incorporate salvaged texture into the designs.”
When the pandemic hit, Adams said the demand for her colorful ceramic desserts skyrocketed. “Suddenly, people started ordering planters, mugs and other practical household items,” she says. “So I shifted my focus to making pottery, and developing my Zulu collection.”
Courtesy of SampleHaus
Adams describes its operation as intuitive, with no specific graphics to guide it while driving – just its memory. “I throw things at the wheel by heart,” she says. “I take the measurements so they are consistent in size, then I cut, carve and glaze them before putting them in the oven for the first firing.”
Its distinctive color palette for the Zulu series consists of yellow, black and white finishes, with each coating corresponding to a specific pattern. “My family often helps me draw, so it feels like a collaborative process,” she says.
Looking to the future, Adams plans to expand its popular Zulu line with new colors, as well as lighting and dinnerware designs. It also hopes to release a new crop of labels made up, of course, from materials that were destined for the trash. “I want to keep making art that speaks to people, but that also makes me feel good about myself,” she says.
To learn more about Diana Adams and SampleHaus, visit her website or follow her on Instagram.
Homepage photo: Diana Adams at the wheel | Justin Gallagher