For most people, at the mention of the 1990’s movie, “Ghost,” a memorable scene comes to mind—the pottery scene. A young Demi Moore, who is dressed in white, sits behind a pottery wheel creating. A shirtless Patrick Swayze enters, sits behind her and four hands smooth clay around a spinning wheel.
For Creative Diana Adams, this iconic scene was her first encounter with ceramics and the first time she realized it was an avenue she wanted to pursue. She took the long way around, however. Always an artist at heart, the Los Angeles native was plagued by the stigma around those who choose to pursue a full-time career in the arts.
The same spoken—and unspoken—opinions about the “struggling artists” label that most creatives fight to overcome, rang true in Diana’s mind. While this mentality led her into retail for a number of years, her passion for creating remained.
“I knew I always had this creative bug in me but I didn’t know how to make a career out of it,” Diana told THE BLOCK. “I was always trying to get into creative types of careers.”
Ironically, it was a career in interior design that gave way to Diana starting her own business and eventually going at it alone. Witnessing an exuberant amount of fabric waste during her time at an interior design firm fueled her fire. Enter the idea of upcycling—using unwanted or discarded materials to create something new. For Diana, it was not only about reducing waste but also potential artistic value.
Inspired by a love for creating, the work of another creative business and upcycling, Diana set forth with starting SampleHAUS in 2019. At the start, Diana transformed excess materials into one-of-a-kind home decor. Now, her distinctive pottery—specifically planters—is center stage and in some cases, Diana finds creative ways to incorporate fabric into ceramic designs.
While the brand’s focus slightly shifted to meet the growing demand for all things plants after the pandemic, Diana’s original vision and mission is still alive. The goal is for SampleHAUS to be worldwide.
“Everyone will go to these interior design workshops and gather all of their waste and either collect it to donate to different foundations, make blankets for the homeless or resell it to other artists, so that they can do stuff with it,” she explained. “There’s a whole nother market that can be tapped into instead of just throwing it away in the trash.”
The SampleHAUS Experience
A SampleHAUS creation is about more than just the product, it’s about an experience that starts the moment Diana sits down to create. For her, it all begins in the mind with visualization and minimal planning to allow for flow and flexibility. Keeping the seasons and holidays in mind, Diana prefers to keep things fresh by creating various styles and incorporating a host of different colors.
“I want to do something that’s going to stand out and be different,” she said. “I just want my work to stand out. I don’t want to look like everyone else’s.”
Part of how the ceramicist ensures her creations are unique is by not dwelling on imperfections. This approach stems from a visit to an African museum in Greece where there were carvings and markings with fingerprints on them. The artists didn’t feel a need to clean them off.
“If it was perfect all the time then a machine just could have made it,” she said. “It doesn’t make it special to me. That’s just what sets it apart. There’s just something about a line that’s just slightly crooked. It just makes me feel like no one’s perfect and it’s so beautiful.”
For this reason, a SampleHaus creation may come with a flaw and in some instances, the brand hosts second sales where Diana enhances specific flaws, such as highlighting the crack on a pot with gold.
Imperfect or not, Diana wants people to feel a sense of happiness and joy each time they see her work.
“I want them to feel the texture of the pots, feel that a person’s hand made that carving, like a lot of my carvings are not perfect, but I want them to be a little off,” she told us. “I want it to feel like a person’s hand did it. When they put it on the shelf and in their home every time they wake up in the morning or walk into that room where it is, they look at it and smile. I just want to bring joy.”
Beyond pottery, Diana is hoping to start leading workshops for the community. It’s important for her to use her platform to show that representation matters in a predominantly white arena and show other Black women and people that pursuing ceramics is possible.
I feel like I’m really stepping into the person that I was made to be and inspiring other people to find their path, too. I always thought it was just my personal thing but now it’s this trickling effect that’s affecting other people and other artists. I think that’s really cool.
diana adams
To connect with Diana, follow her on Instagram and visit her website.
