Tantri Mustika
Melbourne-based ceramic artist Tantri Mustika works by hand, building forms through experimentation. Informed by her Balinese heritage, her practice now extends into a beautiful lighting collection.
Photos TANTRI MUSTIKA
‘I am currently entering a new phase of my practice where I’m pulling together the past two years of deep exploration into my Balinese heritage and how the rich cultural imagery of Balinese culture plays into my creativity,’ says Tantri Mustika.
Melbourne-based ceramic artist, Tantri Mustika.
‘Sometimes I spend all day carving one piece for twelve hours straight, some days I do one million tiny tasks. I guess this is the life of a creative sole trader who wears all the hats.’
The Ukiran Table Lamp features intricate carvings of Balinese style floral motifs, finished in a matte fine white stoneware clay and gold lustre details.
Each piece shows the hand-built process, with natural variations that make each piece one of a kind.
“Creative exploration is the place where you expand your craft and evolve. You know the saying, ‘you never make discoveries when things are easy’—I try to think about this whenever things are feeling too smooth or bordering on boring.”
‘I think when you’re making functional pieces, there has to be a set of rules to consider and follow and then once you address the specifics, you can get creative.’
‘[Journaling] is an important ritual for me because it works like a bit of a mind clearing exercise, plus I can catch ideas in real time that might otherwise get lost.’
Hello Tantri—can you introduce yourself?
Tantri: Hello! My name is Tantri Mustika, I am a Melbourne based ceramic artist. I have been in practice for coming up to eight and a half years (!!!), which has gone by so quickly and it’s hard to wrap my head around to be honest.
I mostly hand build with clay (so, no wheel) and a pivotal part of my practice has been exploring various ways to use hand stained and marbled clays to create interesting surfaces on a range of forms. I’m currently entering a new phase of my practice where I’m pulling together the past two years of deep exploration into my Balinese heritage and how the rich cultural imagery of Balinese culture plays into my creativity. I feel that taking this time has sent me on many creative tangents, but throughout the past couple of years I feel that I have leveled up my skills, grown my creativity muscles and gained a lot of perspective on how I want to move forward in my creative practice and business in a personally sustainable way.
What does a ‘typical’ day in your studio look and feel like?
Well, I always start my day with a bit of a tidy up. I usually finish the end of my working days quite abruptly when I realise the time has escaped me so the morning is often spent tidying up the ‘mic drop style mess’ from the previous day.
I get a coffee, put some good tunes on, light an incense stick and slowly activate my brain by putting things back in their places and setting up my work station for the day of making ahead. On Mondays I always spend most of the day doing admin, so I check through emails, pack and send any orders if need be, maybe chop together a few reels to feed the instagram beast over the week, and then if I get time I jump on the tools. On Wednesdays I work at my friend's glass blowing studio, HotHaus Glass.
To be honest, everyday in my studio is kind of different and I do all the things, ALL the time, but having Mondays and Wednesdays as locked in days with specific non-negotiable tasks gives me a bit of a vague structure for the rest of the week.
Sometimes I spend all day carving one piece for twelve hours straight, some days I do one million tiny tasks. I guess this is the life of a creative sole trader who wears all the hats. I would love to say I have a chilled weekend to break up the busy weeks, but currently I’ve been putting in a few hours on the weekends too, hopefully next year I will get back into the habit of taking at least one whole weekend day off… maybe that will be my new years resolution?!
Are there any rituals that anchor your practice?
Yes! The ritual of Monday morning admin, this is such a dry and lame ritual but I have only just started to be super vigilant with myself on staying on top of my admin. I historically always let it slide a little bit because I was always so busy with my hands in clay, and I started to notice simple admin tasks were making me feel quite stressed and felt like I always had so much to do. Turns out I was just thinking about all of the things I had to do, storing them in my head and then never actually properly setting time aside to do them so the tasks became larger than life. Now I’m spending a lot more time ‘working on the business’ rather than just ‘in the business’. I feel much more on top of things and my day to day feels calmer… who knew it could be so simple?
Other rituals that help me are journaling. I tried morning pages, but it was a bit too much for me doing so much writing every single morning, so I just journal here and there when I have thoughts to dump. It could be a long journal entry, a short one or even just drawings and some words. This is an important ritual for me because it works like a bit of a mind clearing exercise, plus I can catch ideas in real time that might otherwise get lost. I don’t really go back through my journals but there’s something about putting pen to paper physically that helps cement a thought or idea in my mind.
Another ritual when I’m feeling a bit creatively lost or not sure where to start is a ‘quick sketch page’ so I open a blank page of a sketch book and set a timer for maybe one minute and just draw whatever shapes come to mind, just off the cuff. If some shapes repeat that’s OK because it’s kind of like a brain dump of shapes. Sometimes it’s all nonsense, and sometimes there’s some good ideas. The task is designed to be really low stakes because as creatives are always creating and we can get a bit trapped in overthinking sometimes, so this is just a good way to loosen up.
What role does experimentation play in your studio?
These days it’s everything. I might have spent a bit too much time experimenting this year, but it felt necessary. I spent a lot of my early years in business making the same things again and again, I was so busy ‘doing’, that I never got the chance to stop and explore.
Creative exploration is the place where you expand your craft and evolve. You know the saying, 'you never make discoveries when things are easy'—I try to think about this whenever things are feeling too smooth or bordering on boring. I have to challenge myself to try something new to create novelty and excitement. Sometimes the exploration can bring a bit of strife, especially with clay because it can be such an unpredictable medium, but often the mistakes provide the most information and help you to think outside the box or look at something from a different angle.
Your new lamp collection marks a shift: what led you to explore lighting?
I’ve been wanting to explore lighting for YEARS, and this year was finally the time to roll my sleeves up and get into it. I’ve always been a ‘lots of lamps’ kinda gal. The ‘big light’ is always so jarring! I also have a bit of an infinity to function. I actually just get a kick out of making useful things out of mud, so what’s more functional whilst being sculptural than a lamp?
I also had lots of conversations with stylists and interior designers. I wanted to know what they felt was missing in the homewares space and more importantly what people like me could offer to people like them. Turns out a lot of the time the answer was something along the lines of ‘gorgeous, interesting, repeatable and reliable table lamps, please’ I think this was the go-ahead signal that I was after and with this insight I got to work.
‘I have been wanting to explore lighting for years, and this year was finally the time to roll my sleeves up and get into it.’
“I think my years in practice have taught me that going slow is the best way to go further. I still have to constantly remind myself, because it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to do things quickly and attempt to solve everything all at once”
The Charlie Table Lamp features a hand-painted black checkered pattern inspired by poleng, a traditional Balinese textile motif.
‘Ceramics is hardcore, it teaches you to be humble. If you rush, it won't work.’
Where do you draw inspiration from when working on new pieces, especially your lamp series?
I think as creatives we’re always drawing inspiration from everywhere, all the time. I have a bit of a fast-paced creative brain, I often feel like I have more ideas than I have time to make them, and I think my brain is wired to chase novelty so I can easily end up making five different things at once.
In some ways I feel kind of lucky that I never have a shortage of ideas, but it can also be a curse because I have a good tendency to go on a new tangent every other week. So the way I usually capture my inspiration and consolidate it’s to start by asking a question, ‘What do I want to feel when I see the finished product?’, with the lamps it was more about what are some timeless motifs that I can explore?
This formed the design for the first piece of the collection, the Stellar Table Lamp, which is a striped table lamp inspired by vintage wallpaper designs of yesteryear. It feels a bit whimsical, but also timeless and suits a whole range of different styles of spaces. The Merlin Table Lamp is an expression of something we all have access to: the night sky. I felt like a starry lamp would be a bit magical and connect with my inner child a little. This design also took into account the play of the light, the platinum lustred stars create a soft dappled effect when lit at night time.
The Charlie Table Lamp and the Ukiran Table Lamp draw inspiration from my aforementioned exploration into heritage and the visual imagery baked into my subconscious. The Charlie Table Lamp is an expression of the duality of good and evil forces, represented by the checkered pattern- a nod to Poleng, which is a commonly used textile design in Balinese tradition, and the Ukiran Table Lamp was I guess the ‘ball out’ piece of the collection. I wanted to have one very ornate piece to push the boundaries of my forever developing skillset.
How do you know when a piece feels finished?
Sometimes you just know, and sometimes you don’t! Sometimes you over cook the piece and wreck it trying to ‘finish’ it. Because of the nature of ceramics, most pieces are made in stages and I will be working on a few different pieces at once so it means I have time to visit and revisit pieces before they go through the kiln. Sometimes, if I’m not sure, I just come back to it a few days later and the penny usually drops on what might be missing or what could be further worked on. I can be a bit of a perfectionist so often I labour over the details. I would say that my 80% finished is probably most people’s finished but that’s OK, thats my special sauce I think. I’m all about the details!
Do you consider the environment or intended interior setting when designing a new piece?
Yes, but I also feel like that’s not really my job. I feel like my job is to create cool things and then if I can get the right people to see them, either direct collectors or interior designers and stylists, then my pieces will find their way to their most ideal spaces.
I always consider having a couple of variations on offer to suit a wide variety of environments, but I think that when it comes to inspiring and guiding everyday customers stylists and designers are ultimately the taste makers who show us examples of creative combinations or arrangements that work.
Of course we can’t all expect to be living in an interior design ‘magazine’ home, but we can totally take cues from these types of aspirational spaces and apply them to our own everyday homes.
What has the clay taught you about patience, resilience, or finding your own creative language?
SO MUCH! Ceramics is hardcore, it teaches you to be humble. If you rush, it won't work. If you aren’t in the mood, it often doesn't work. When things go wrong you have to just take it in your stride and move on or figure out how you can do it differently to troubleshoot the issues. You learn to take the hits with the wins and as somebody who is a little notorious for clumsiness, I’m also well adapted to heartbreak in the studio.
For an artist who is keen to build a career in ceramics, what has your own journey taught you that you’d pass on?
I think my years in practice have taught me that going slow is the best way to go further. I still have to constantly remind myself, because it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to do things quickly and attempt to solve everything all at once because we live in such a pressurized fast-paced world.
As a ceramicist, going fast just doesn’t really work. I’ve reached the realisation that I have to pace myself to be able to sustain myself, and that hand on making isn’t the only form of being ‘productive’ as creatives sometimes the most productive thing you can do is go for a big walk, take a day off, go to a gallery, even go to an opening.
There’s nothing more inspiring and affirming than having chats with fellow creatives, you also never know who you might strike up a friendship with. I think create a community of like-minded people around you, especially if you are making ceramics. I think ceramicists are a special kind of loopy because of all of the trials and tribulations, so find other potter friends to have laughs with, the occasional cry and to help you celebrate the wins with (trust me if you know you know, but most people don’t fully get the lived experience of a ceramicist!)
The other thing I would suggest is to just play. Make what you love and the right people will find you. Believe in yourself, be persistent and know that when things get hard in the studio (lots of breakages and fails), you’re usually about to level up so keep going. This was some very wise advice from my boss, Amanda at HotHaus and it’s so true, and has been a real comfort to me.
Outside the studio, what do you love to do in your spare time that helps you switch off or reconnect creatively?
I love a big walk and when I’m in the routine of it I actually really like going to the gym (I know, weird, and who is she?!), I LOVE a yoga class (helps reset those tight maker muscles), I’m a chronic home re-shuffler, I love a rearrange and just generally making the house feel nice. I love cooking (and eating). Life is fairly simple these days and unfortunately I don’t have much time outside of the studio, but maybe next time you ask me a similar question I will have a better answer!
To stay up to date with Tantri Mustika’s work, visit the website or follow @tantrimustikaceramics on Instagram.
