Meet Etsy Potter & Artist: thebuddhabuilder

Seattle artist Anita Feng is 55, and has been "a working potter/ceramic artist for 35 of those years." She is also a published writer and teaches creative writing at Cornish College of the Arts. "I've recently completed a novel about a young woman's coming of age through her passion for clay (loosely based on my own story)," she explains. Her love of clay began in 1974 when she saw a friend's finished piece. "I admired it so much that I signed up for a six-week intro to pottery class, then promptly spent all of my savings to set up a studio." A year later she was doing the craft show circuit, selling her wares. She eventually moved to the Internet - and just found Etsy a few months ago, where she also has a second shop (http://anitasocarinas.etsy.com/). She has been a "practitioner of Zen" for thirty years, which is beautifully showcased in her work. As for the creative process, she describes it as "a kind of conversation that I'm having with clay. I listen carefully to what kind of mood the clay's in and I respond. I do have a plan in mind, but I'm always open to the fluid suggestions of the moment at hand! The word, Buddha, means 'to wake up' and therefore I try to find an alert and spontaneous presence in each of my sculptures." She hopes her pieces help "open our consciousness to a modern western sensibility to Buddhist art." Please check out her shop: http://thebuddhabuilder.etsy.com/

-Wendy Baylis

Dharma Designs

http://dharmadesigns.etsy.com/