Ceramicist Liadain Warwick Smith.

Ceramicist Liadain Warwick Smith believes in taking her time. Her thoughtful red-clay pieces can take weeks. Often working on several pieces simultaneously, the mediative process begins with considering shapes, sketches and themes. “I try to make each piece completely unique and individual while repeating certain details,” the artist shares. “That is a vocabulary that I like to work with.” Starting with a slab of clay, she continues, “I slip, score, pinch and build up, creating the shape, feeling and texture that I want.” Then begins the long, slow process of drying, firing and glazing, resulting in heirloom pieces that are simultaneously rustic and sophisticated.

Raised in Greenwich Village by a photographer father and writer mother, Warwick Smith can’t recall a time she wasn’t immersed in art, eventually pursuing it at Bennington College in Vermont. Returning to New York City fine art degree in hand, “I needed to pay my rent,” she laughs. She turned to graphic design—a compromise between her artistic inclinations and desire for stability—but, as the industry changed and graphic design became computer-centric, Warwick Smith yearned for the tactility of creating physical art. She began attending classes at the legendary Greenwich House Pottery, where she fell in love with the process of hand-coiling. “I’ve explored different ceramics methods,” she says, “but they weren’t very satisfying. Using my fingers with the clay is just so therapeutic.”

Warwick Smith’s choice of material is also long held. “I’ve worked in a gray or white clay,” she says, “but red clay is messier.” Which isn’t, she makes clear, a bad thing. Rather, “it feels like I’m working with earth; that’s always appealed to me.”

Represented by stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Sag Harbor’s 1818 Collective, Warwick Smith is known for her white pieces, in which deep red-brown tones peek through perfectly imperfect glazes. More recently, she’s begun experimenting with black finishes. “I felt there were more ways to explore the shapes I work with,” she explains. “The black pieces are slightly different—very regal, very elegant.” But, she emphasizes, there is a through line with her other works. “There’s still the red clay and the maker’s hand,” she says. “There’s a still human quality.”

While her work is delicate, Warwick Smith sees it as utilitarian; vases to be filled with flowers from the garden and plates on which to enjoy meals surrounded by loved ones—simple experiences elevated by the beauty of each piece. “I want people to see my work as warm and clean and peaceful,” she says. “Because that’s how I feel as I’m making them.”

PHOTOS: TRIA GIOVAN