Sarah Vekasi, M.Div.

Most people in Black Mountain now know me by the name my Mom called me as a kid: Sarah Sunshine, but I tell you - I also have a given name, which is Sarah Vekasi.
      I grew up inside Glacier National Park, Montana, and as a teenager moved to an island off the coast of Maine to Acadia National Park.  The nickname Sarah Sunshine generally holds up, probably as a result of growing up in such spectacular places. I am pretty sunshiny - particularly when I am in my happy place: my pottery studio, or working in my shop on Saturdays.       
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Sarah Vekasi in her pottery studio, Black Mountain, NC, 2017.
PictureSarah Vekasi at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts in 2011.
          I am one of those artists that came to her trade as an adult.  I was already a trained Chaplain, with a Master of Divinity, when I discovered my first clay class in the Fall of 2010. I moved to Swannanoa, NC (and later Black Mountain), from the coalfields of central Appalachia, where I was working as an Eco-Chaplain with communities experiencing mountaintop removal coal mining. Chaplaincy work is spiritually satisfying, and also difficult by every measure, so when I first discovered a community clay studio in town I joined immediately. My relationship to clay can only be described as true love. I have been throwing clay on the wheel nearly every day since!
PictureBisque-ware waiting to be glazed in Sarah Sunshine Pottery, circa 2014.
  My signature styles come from my deep love of working with clay. My background is as a contemplative Christian in my youth, and as a Buddhist practitioner. The act of turning clay into a vessel on a wheel is a spiritual act. It harnesses the power of meditation and prayer in action. I love taking raw clay and turning it through these hands into a vessel with the ability to hold water or food - to sustain life. I wanted to bring this deep love of working with raw clay into the final expression on each finished piece. To accomplish this I learned the art of formulating my own unique glazes, as well as making the pots. Glazes make the color - so most people only really see this instead of the shape. Many of my styles include some raw clay as a way to honor the origins, the basis of all life held within each piece. As you can imagine - I have a story about how each glaze came to be.
PictureSarah making mugs in her studio at Sunshine Pottery Studio, Black Mountain, NC, 2018.
 In 2012 I was able to buy my pottery studio, and kiln, from a retiring potter. This was a game changer! No more community kiln - instead I had a large kiln to fill all by myself, and all sorts of time to dive into it. I believe that anyone can become good at an art if you put in enough time. My first  10,000 hours went by in a flash. My studio is  only seven blocks from downtown Black Mountain, yet it is also nestled into the woods. I get to watch black bears roam, the sun rise over the Eastern Continental Divide, and the leaves change throughout the seasons, while working in my gorgeous studio. I am also lucky enough to share this space with my dog Griffin, and many friends and family who come and visit.    
PictureSarah in front of her store on opening day, November 13, 2021.
  I have made my living as a fulltime potter since 2012. I have traveled throughout the Southeast to show my work at juried art shows, sold vanloads of work wholesale to galleries, fullfilled countless online orders, mercilessly advertised my work to my friends and family, and for ten years opened my pottery studio to the public once a month.
           In the Fall of 2021 I had the incredible opportunity to purchase a brick and mortar store in the heart of downtown Black Mountain, and now I sell exclusively out of my own boutique, with the help of my incredible shopkeeper Elisabeth. I have help in the studio from both Elisabeth, my apprentice Carson, and my God-Daughter Eva (when she is in town).
   Making pottery is still a joy, and something I am so grateful I get to do and bring into this world on a daily basis.