(Photo by Danny Fulgencio)

(Photo by Danny Fulgencio)

How one woman found her passion through ceramics

Andrea Brashier may not have her own art studio but what she does have is passion, a lot of it. What that passion is put toward is a beautiful form of art in the shape of ceramic bowls. Holey bowls,  if we’re being precise.

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What are these holey bowls? A simple answer is they are colorful bowls that make a nice addition to a coffee table. But there’s more to them than that — they’re intricate ceramic rings that have been forged together to create patterns that look something akin to a cluster of bubbles that have been dyed shades of turquoise, burnt orange and earthy greens.

Brashier’s creations are unique to say the least and her journey to make them is as unexpected as the bowls themselves.

An art minor in college, Brashier had worked mainly in the mediums of drawing and painting but when she took a ceramics class her last year in college, she was hooked.

“I fell in love with it,” Brasheir says. “I love this medium so much.”

Andrea Brashier demonstrates the unique process with which she makes her ceramics. (Photo by Danny Fulgencio)

Andrea Brashier demonstrates the unique process with which she makes her ceramics. (Photo by Danny Fulgencio)

That was 2008. Upon graduation Brashier began taking every kind of community clay class she could get her hands on. She eventually found herself at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas where she met another local artist, the aptly named Jo Clay, who taught Brashier how to throw clay on a pottery wheel. After a few years, Clay invited Brashier to her home studio to work on ceramics. For about the past two years the Lower Greenville resident has been working in in that studio making her own pieces of art to sell.

“I had kind of this sculptural functional idea in my head and started making them through a lot of trial and error and finally found a method that worked,” Brashier says. “I just made so many of them I didn’t know what to call them and it just naturally came out from what they look like.”

The holey bowls started out as gifts, many as wedding presents for friends, and soon Brashier realized she could profit from her artwork. Art fairs ensued and just last year she did her first showing at an art gallery in Fort Worth. She currently works in the health care industry and mainly sells her work through Instagram using the name @holeybowls but hopes to one day make ceramics a full-time job with a studio all her own.

As for the bowls themselves, they’ve become more than just a piece of art. For Brashier, they’re an adventure, a stress reliever and a representation of each day that passes. But most of all, they’re her passion.

“There’s always a risk but I feel like that’s a metaphor for life, you’ve just got to have the courage to go for something that you really want to do and it could turn out awesome and successful or it could turn out bad,” Brashier says. “You just pick yourself up and keep going.”