Costco Connection - October 2010

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Heather Goldminc poses with her Christmas creation for Costco.

In 1999, around the time Goldminc was toying with the idea of outsourcing the manufacturing of her work, a representative from Blue Sky, a giftware company specializing in ceramic pieces, approached her. “It was a huge amount of trust [for me] to say, ‘Can you take this and reproduce it to look identical?’ ” she says. “So I held my breath, and five months later I had my work in the Atlanta gift show.”

Blue Sky has its own facility in China where each piece is sculpted and painted to match Goldminc’s original sculpture. Goldminc’s collections include everyday lines and limited pieces. “The most beautiful thing is that they’ve never censored me. If I wanted to put stained glass in a piece or add 14-karat-gold trim I can,” she adds. “Blue Sky never cuts corners on the finishing of my product.”

Hands on

Future shaping up nicely

KIM STALLKNECHT PHOTOGRAPHY

When The Connection spoke with Goldminc in late April 2010, she was already working on the design for Costco’s Christmas 2011 piece. “I’m evolving as a designer,” she says about the inclusion of movement, lights and sounds. “I like that challenge.”

Clay artist Heather Goldminc sculpts holiday treasures

By Stephanie E. Ponder

She still sculpts by hand every piece she designs. Since having hand surgery earlier this year, she’s taken on an assistant who creates the skeleton of a design, while Goldminc takes care of the details.

The Blue Sky’s the limit

AT ROUGHLY 500 square feet, the studio of clay artist Heather Goldminc is filled with signs of her creative process. Her drafting table is covered in Christmas cards that serve as inspiration: “There might be the perfect snowflake in there,” Goldminc explains.

The first time Heather Goldminc handled clay, as a child, she was “instantly mesmerized.”

Goldminc says she’s most creative in the evenings, adding that her 17-year-old daughter often joins her in her studio, which is just a stone’s throw from their house.

On the walls she’s pinned up magazine pages with fun patterns and colors, as well as sketches and watercolors of her designs. The front room of the studio sports original ceramic pieces she makes. The back room is filled with a collection of finished pieces, and her two kilns are in the attached garage.

Despite the early appeal, her talent didn’t fully blossom until high school. By the time she was in grade 12, her teacher was creating classes just for her. Goldminc got her first taste of financial success through selling her work to teachers.

Even though Goldminc says she’s outgrowing her space, it’s safe to say her studio is where she’s continually rediscovering her love of clay and all of its possibilities. After all, as she says, “Every time I open the kiln, it’s Christmas morning.” C

The cozy workspace in Lantzville, British Columbia, belies Goldminc’s success as an artist who’s designed thousands of pieces, including a Disney-commissioned version of Cinderella’s castle and a tea-light snowman designed exclusively for Costco (see the Supplier Profile box).

All of her work has a distinct style, one that translates into pieces that have a certain roundness to them. She says she tries to make her pieces perfect, but it’s the gentle curves and fullness that mark something made under her brand, Clayworks.

“The word that comes up constantly is whimsical,” says Goldminc.

After a brief stint in art school, she worked decorating cakes until her parents bought her _her _first _kiln.supplier three tea-light candles, She started making candle houses (house-shaped candle holders) and selling profile ^cutout ^windows ^andseveral ornamental birds.

Comment on Costco: them door-to-door. Before “I have had such a won- long galleries and shops Company: Clayworks derful time creating this across Canada were selling snowman exclusively for _her _work.Founder: Costco members. The Her sales also benefited ^Heather ^Goldmincchallenge of bringing the from a move to Gabriola ^Website: best design, the finest Island, off the coast of ^{www.realblueskygifts.com}cutwork detail and a really Vancouver Island, in 1996. Items at Costco: 19-inch lovable character to life is Prone to power outages, the “Night Before Christmas” exactly the type of work island served as a natural snowman candle house. that gets me out of bed market for her candle The snowman features 22- in the morning.” houses. “I sold and sold and karat-gold details, room for —Heather Goldminc sold them,” she says.