Meet the maker
Co Founder of Chai Collective, Lesley Hurley can often be found tinkering behind the scenes in her home based ceramic studio.
With a background in the tea industry spanning almost 20 years, her influence is drawn from many years spent travelling to Asia's tea regions where she and partner Matt searched for artisan tea & craftsmen alike. Coupled with her creative instincts, Lesley's wares are always created with tea in mind.
When asked about her creative endeavours, here is what she has to say...
"I believe we are all intuitive, creative beings and we each have the ability to use creativity as a form of expression.
Imagination allows us to harness the necessary formulas to express our thoughts and ideas. Everybody has a creative side to them and it's simply a matter of exploration to uncover the medium that supports their creative flare. Creativity doesn't need to be channeled through painting, composing music or making ceramics. It can also be expressed through something as seemingly unrelated such as gardening for example.
Creativity fulfils us. It gives us a chance to express our inner world and provides opportunity to communicate our relationship to the environment around us. Nowadays it seems only natural to have a creative practice in my daily life, as I've lived through times when there was no creative outlet and hindsight showed that those times were the most challenging in many ways.
I love the responsive nature of clay. When I approach it from a place of haste and logic, the pieces always end up wobbly, unbalanced or sometimes completely disintegrate on the wheel. These moments show that I need to slow down, steady my breath and really feel into what it is that I'm trying to express. It brings me right into the present moment where everything else just falls away and all outward thoughts seem to disappear, even if only for a while. It's just me and intuition.
My wish is for everybody to experience this at least once, to go to that space of no thought where time stands still. It's really fulfilling to see how creations evolve once the mind steps aside and the breath takes over. We become still, we open up as our inhibitions fall away and we're aligned with our natural loving state.
I encourage you all to give it a go. The most important thing to remember is to drop those expectations of nailing it the first time and just play. If ceramics isn't your thing then explore your passions & interests and find that "something" that lights your creative fire and keeps you going back for more.
The best advice I've ever received was - Just Play. "