Laura Baldino, a self-proclaimed “lucky bitch,” has always had a knack for the arts.
That same witty belief of good things coming her way led to pottery coming into her life not once, but twice.
Nearly 20 years ago, Baldino was looking for an outlet after having her fourth child. “I always wanted to get into pottery,” says Baldino. “I’m always doing something with my hands.”
She took pottery classes but shelved the hobby as she was too busy at the time.
Almost 15 years later in 2021, Baldino bought a wheel for her Manorville home and picked the craft back up. “I just went on YouTube and started teaching myself,” says Baldino. “It was learning, learning, learning, practice, practice, practice, a lot of fails, a lot of frustration — but I was doing it.”
Baldino started by making tiny bowls, then vases, then bowl sets and mugs, filling her own kitchen cabinets with random dishes.
“My son’s friends — if it was their mom’s birthday — they’d [ask] can we go shopping and I’d be like ‘go, take whatever you want,’” says Baldino.
Laura Baldino makes a variety of different handmade products, all functional. (Photo credit: Parker Schug)
Two years into her most recent stint, she decided to start selling at markets under the brand name Lucky Bitch Pottery because she felt confident in her work, but also because she needed to start moving product to make room for more.
Now she sells a variety of glazed and hand-painted products like mugs, bowls, platters, olive oil bottles and other functional items at markets in Westhampton, St. James, Yaphank, Babylon, Mattituck and Amagansett.
“I love the markets because you meet so many people and, even if they’re not buying, they want to talk about it and I can indulge,” says Baldino.
The artist is also a bookkeeper at her husband’s electrical contracting company, so her creative process begins in the evening.
Baldino gets home around 4:35 p.m., makes dinner and then heads downstairs to her studio where she has a wheel, a stool, a mirror to see all angles of her projects, multiple varieties of clay sourced from South Carolina, her daughter’s old vanity where she wedges the clay — a process used to remove air bubbles and improve its workability — and shelves for her projects to dry before going in the kiln.
Each time she makes a new item, she cuts clay, weighs it, wedges it, gets a bowl of water to scoop from before touching the clay and then gets to work with the product on her wheel.
“You need the clay slippery smooth [with water] or else it will start ripping,” says Baldino. “I throw with a lot of water and I think it’s because I absorb a lot of water.”
After she has shaped the creation, it dries — a process that can take up to three weeks. The piece then gets bisque fired in the kiln at about 1,900 degrees for 12.5 hours, glazed and then glaze fired at 2,200 degrees for 8.5 hours.
“The clay is like earth; you add water, you use air to dry it and then you add fire,” says Baldino. “It uses all the elements.”
The next opportunity to purchase a product from Baldino’s brand will be at the Westhampton Beach Farmers Market the first weekend of May.
See more details and stay tuned for pottery lesson offerings on Baldino’s Instagram account here.
