[gentle music]
- Susan Garson: Art is craft and craft is art.
That's how I feel.
If you're doing any kind of craft, you're an artist.
Bottom line.
[bright music]
I like so many different materials,
working with different mediums, like drawing and painting.
But clay just happens to be one of my favorites.
[bright music]
Handbuilding is the oldest way of working with clay.
Just kind of like, have the material in your hand
and then start exploring with it.
[bright music]
Right now, I'm focusing on not letting anything get too thin
'cause then it can get a hole in it
while you're smoothing out the inside.
So, I'm just being really careful to be, like,
consistent about how I'm forming it.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
That's not what you want at all.
Don't worry about the cracks on the bottom
because they will be on the bottom.
This piece is going to be the base of a bird menorah.
A menorah is the candelabra
that Jewish people put candles in,
and light them at Hanukkah time.
[bright music]
I started making menorahs 25 years ago, if not longer.
And it was like, wow, I love this.
And people liked it too.
It just started catching on.
I just do different kinds of characters and animals.
And I think that's just about all it's about, fantasy.
As you can see, I'm forming the head,
just gently squeeze it a little bit.
The thing about clay,
you can always come back in and do more.
Less can be more.
Next, what I'm gonna do is scratch and score it,
and that will keep it secured on there,
so it doesn't break off.
I've got my slip, which is watered-down clay, basically.
It's the glue, and that helps give it a nice, secure area.
No surprises.
Well, we hope not.
[gentle music]
Doing candle holes with a dowel, press it in.
And then, I'm gonna add a little embellishment on it.
I'm gonna make a little swirl.
I pinch it out a little bit.
Roll it up, just really gently.
Just roll.
Looks like a snail shell.
Scratch and score.
It's good to be generous with the slip too.
And then, give it a little cleaning up.
I'm gonna put plastic over it now and make sure
that it's completely dry before it's fired.
I first saw Tom throwing on the wheel at UCLA.
It was my last year there and it was his first.
I was really fascinated with his work.
It was just so refined and beautifully done.
And I'm like, "I wanna paint on one of your pieces."
- Thomas Pakele: And at first, I was like,
"You wanna work on my work?
I like to embellish my own work."
- And I was like, "Oh, oops."
I thought, "Oh, I won't bother him anymore."
And one day, he had this beautiful teapot,
and he came up to me and he went,
"Here, you can paint on this."
And I was like,
"Yay!"
- Thomas: I made some pieces.
She drew on them, I carved them, and it went on from there.
- Susan: Like the wedding goblet,
the celadon and the carving just came out perfect.
Just like the marriage.
I'm working with underglazes for the colors.
They're very similar to watercolor.
You can put them on thinly,
or you can put them on opaque also.
If you make a mistake, you can always
take your sponge and just wipe it off
and start over.
I'm drawing in pencil.
The pencil will not show when it's fired.
It will burn off.
On the bird, I'm putting the underglaze on thicker.
I want it to be more of a solid color.
It's not gonna be watery and loose.
It's going to be layers of underglaze.
I start feeling like it's finished
when all the little images are outlined,
and I do clouds and stars in the sky.
And then it just seems like it's time.
So, it's glazed and fired in the kiln.
- Nice. - Mm.
Wow!
Whoa, that's totally different.
Whoa!
I tell people that these menorahs can be an heirloom.
It's funny how we view family heirlooms.
We think of something from your great-great-grandmother.
Ooh.
Thinking of a piece I made as an heirloom
is a little spooky and it's a little different.
A fish menorah.
But it's very heartwarming.
- Look at the bird, it came out good, huh?
- Yeah.
You feel like you want to leave a mark.
Yeah.
So, I'm leaving part of who I am.
Part of my soul, here on the Earth.
[people talking]
- Tony, do you remember Michelle?
- Could you all do me a favor?
- Susan: My memory of Hanukkah
is spinning the dreidel and laughing.
My parents being in that moment with my two brothers and me.
- Here they are, freshly-made latkes.
- Susan: My mom making latkes. - Woman: Homemade!
[child gasping]
- [singing in Hebrew]
- Susan: It was a real family time together
where everybody was just happy.
[singing in unison]
- Thomas: We kindle these lights and feel the gratitude
of being together as a community,
of being together as a people,
being able to light a menorah on a night like this.
[singing continues]