Clay For Keeps

Walking up to the Eastside garage studio, I feel a mix of nostalgia and anticipation. It’s been awhile since I was around this much clay, and the fine gray dust that sits daintily on top of everything reminds me how much I love ceramics.

I’m also fangirling a bit over meeting Andrea Luna Reece, the artist behind Luna Reece Ceramics. I first saw her work at the Patchwork Show in Santa Ana, and I’ve been an avid follower of her Instagram feed ever since.

She welcomes me warmly, dusts off a stool and invites me in for a chat. I’m wide-eyed and soaking up the quirky vintage paintings, ceramic molds and works-in-progress that surround us, not to mention her adorable T-shirt that reads “Mas amor, por favor.” Could this chick be any cooler?

I actually introduced myself to Andrea at the Westside Market a few weeks ago, held every second Sunday at the Westside Museum. Along with a host of other local artisans, Andrea presents an awesome array of handmade pottery there every month as Luna Reece Ceramics.

Featuring a fun and funky vintage modern flavor, Luna Reece designs are petite, practical, and gorgeous. “I really only make what I would want to buy and put in my own home,” says Andrea, when I ask what inspires her designs.

It seems to me like there’s something for everyone. Her pieces are a little chic, a little cheeky, and simply beautiful. “I just think it’s so cool that someone would pick up a piece I made with my own hands and bring it back home with them,” she says.

Although she started her love affair with clay creating sculptures, Andrea also studied throwing, slip casting and hand building – readily creating new pieces using all three techniques.

Everything gets fired in her kiln, lovingly named ‘Frida.’ (I mean, what else would you call a fiery friend who transforms your artwork?)

Fun and Funky: Handmade Ceramics by Eastside Costa Mesa artist, Andrea Luna Reece.

As we trade stories over tea in her studio, I find out she worked for an indie punk rock label for 10 years, which explains the cool, edgy, kinda smart-aleck sensibility that makes her work unique.

Tiny dishes with ‘hola’ and a new peace-finger ringholder grace her work table. A few of her paintings are stacked against the wall, with bright splashes of color, dainty outlines of sparrows and collaged book pages melding together.

While her passion for art may have started with sketching and painting, Andrea has a special relationship with pottery.

“Everything always pulls me back to the clay!” she exclaims, and gestures towards the stacked shelves behind her filled with pottery in various stages of creation. It’s the somewhat magical, definitely unpredictable nature of working with clay that is the draw, she explains.

“Sixteen years in, I’m still excited to open my kiln and see what’s going to come out,” she says.

I know from experience exactly what she means. You can put hours of work into a piece, forming, shaping and painting it, and then it goes into the kiln and all you can do is cross your fingers.

Maybe it all started with the kid-sized pottery wheel Andrea was gifted at 7 years old. As a child, she loved drawing alongside her dad and began taking art classes at a young age. Then in high school, she took her first ceramic class and chose an art major in college. The rest is history.

Luna Reece Ceramics was born in 2010, right here in Costa Mesa. At the time, she was focused on painting, but was dabbling a bit in pottery too. She sought out local gift shop Fleur De Lys to see if they would consider carrying her paintings, but brought her ceramics in on a whim. They loved it all.

But even then, Andrea says, “It wasn’t like I thought, ‘I’m a business.’”

She was just thrilled they were selling her pieces.

Soon after, she did her first Patchwork Indie Arts & Craft Festival in Santa Ana and found another retailer to carry her pieces. She was amazed.

“What?!” she said. “Of course, my family likes my stuff, but other people want to buy this stuff and put it in their home? I just thought that was the coolest thing ever.”

Her business has continued to grow organically over the last few years, and Luna Reece can now be found in more than 20 retail stores, in Costa Mesa and beyond. But her favorite part of the business is getting to connect with her customers at local handmade craft shows, which she does two or three times a month. Even though it challenges her introverted personality, it’s invaluable meeting patrons in person.

“I love it when someone walks up and says ‘I bought this from you last time!’ or ‘I got this as a gift,'” Andrea shared. “It’s really awesome!”

So with all this demand, I wondered, how does she stay inspired? And what does she do if she feels stuck?

“I go back and look at my old sketchbooks,” she answered. “There’s something there I missed. I’m not making everything I’m drawing.”

We also chat about the magic of Pinterest as an artist’s endless inspiration source, and even just pouring through stacks of old magazines and books.

She also finds inspiration in nature, vintage pottery, and in other artists’ work, which she shows in her “Sunday Morning Art Inspiration” posts on her blog and Instagram feed. These short visual collections show off what’s currently inspiring Andrea, and it’s kind of like peeking behind the curtain to see inside her artistic brain.

She posts about other local makers she admires, because supporting handmade businesses is crucial, she says. “When you purchase something handmade, you’re helping to carry on a tradition.”

And as for how she feels about Costa Mesa, this artist knows where her heart lies. She loves the “surfer chic/artsy California vibe” of our city, and proudly says, “I just can’t picture myself anywhere else.”

When she’s not creating, you might find her hanging out with her family and her friends at one of her fave Costa Mesa hangouts: Outpost Kitchen, Seabirds Kitchen, or Daydream Surf Shop. Or at the beach or the Back Bay, getting inspired to create more cool vintage modern stuff.

So what’s next for this inspired artist? Someday soon: a bigger space here in Costa Mesa to create more art and show it, and potentially collaborate with other makers too.

In a city filled with unique artistic voices, Andrea’s is particularly inspiring. Whatever comes next for Andrea and Luna Reece, this fangirl will be anxiously awaiting. ♥

Find Andrea’s work at http://www.lunareece.com/ where you can sign up for her newsletter updates and shop her collections, or follow her on Instagram @lunareececeramics

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