How do we begin? First, I listen and learn — about the project, the client, about history and memory. I want to know about the ideas or mood you want to conjure, about the story or vibe of the space, color palette and existing constraints that could become opportunities.
Something you say or present will pique my interest and I’ll make suggestions. Or maybe you have an idea that you’d like realized.
The outcome is always one of a kind, completely bespoke and designed to evoke memory and meaning.
Once there’s a commitment, I work through sketches and glaze tests with you. When both the composition and the colors are confirmed, production begins. Lead times vary based on current workloads. Studio visits are encouraged as they tend to expedite the process and are always so much fun.
Learn more about my process and inspiration below.
Sunshine Thacker is a self-taught artist and designer with a “go big or go home” ethos that drives her ever-evolving body of murals, ceramic furniture, architectural showstoppers and lighting, to name a few.
Count on her insatiable curiosity, can-do attitude and background in architecture to push her to explore the bounds of her chosen material, clay. Whatever the challenge, she’ll rise to meet it.
She resides in the Hudson Valley of New York with her husband and son.
“Gravitational” by Sunshine Thacker kindles dreamy visions of a life in the future. Inspired by the 1968 Hollywood flick, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Thacker launches a collection comprising a series of upholstered seating furniture, and ceramic lamps and sculptures.
If you’ve ever seen designer Sunshine Thacker’s work, you’ll notice a common theme. Oblong shapes come together in unpredictable forms to create both hard and soft furniture pieces. Thacker’s newest collection, Gravitational, continues the trend.
“The eclectic design showroom Love House has given up its swish Greenwich Village interiors over to Sunshine Thacker, a ceramic artist and designer, who debuts her first collection of upholstered work, alongside her signature ceramic pieces. For ‘Groovitational’, Thacker has enlarged and upholstered earlier ceramic forms in a nod to space age exploration, to give sofas, club chairs and a chaise a primitive, yet elevated appeal.”
“At Love House, the San Antonio-based artist Sunshine Thacker debuted her first upholstered furniture, in conversation with pieces from her established ceramics practice, also drawn partly from nostalgia for the Space Age.”
“We named Sunshine Thacker to our American Design Hot List last year, and turns out we were absolutely right to peg the San Antonio-based designer—who’s on the threshold of a move to NYC—as one to watch. Groovitational is a monumental show, in which she scaled up the tubular forms she’s known for in a kind of upholstered repetition, and married the softness of fabric with the tactility of ceramic, textured with coils and snakes.”
Expect the unexpected when you step inside the studio of ceramicist Sunshine Thacker. A maker of extraordinary clay objects, the San Antonio creative strives to never box herself into a single category or style of art. “Having a background in architecture has allowed me to evaluate the material differently and push technical boundaries I may have not done otherwise,” says the California native.
“After studying architecture and then spending a decade running a commercial real estate development firm, Sunshine Thacker opted out of her soul-sucking corporate life and pivoted to her true love: ceramics. Looking at her lamps, planters, and side tables, you can kind of tell — they’re chunky, colorful, and unabashedly happy.”
“There is so much to love about Sunshine Thacker—she’s a true artist, super talented, curious, and resourceful, with a keen eye for color and proportion and an abiding interest in how to push the boundaries of what is possible with clay. I have found, though, what sets her apart is her passion for collaboration, her utter devotion to every commission, and her determination to astonish you with the result.”
"In a historic corner of San Antonio, things are heating up—and it's not just the Texas sun. There, ceramicist and designer Sunshine Thacker's home studio is ablaze with the fire of not one but two kilns, the necessary arsenal for the gravity-defying furniture that she crafts by hand in clay."
Behun curated a range of custom, collectible and readily available items that she sourced from a unique range of designers and artists. Products are from Wendell Castle, Callidus Guild, Humble Matter, Gracie Studio, DLV Designs, Casey McCafferty, Herman Miller, Gucci Décor, Dobrinka Salzman, Sunshine Thacker, Paul S. Briggs and Hostler Burrows.
"I'm an avid collector of ceramics of all kinds and I have an admiration for the artists who create them. Sunshine Thacker is one of my latest obsessions. Her modern, playful take on lighting and furniture belies her warrior-like focus and determination to push the boundaries of what clay can do. A collaborator in the truest sense of the word, Sunshine has an adventurous design spirit and her work is fully customizable so each creation feels bespoke to its lucky owner."
"The Great Room in Kelly Behun's Living Gallery features pieces from her own collection mixed with art from Marianne Boesky Gallery, a custom Sunshine Thack-er lamp, Gasparo Asaro cocktail table, and sculptural table by Casey McCafferty."
"Sunshine Thacker doesn't stray from a challenge. After co-owning a commercial real estate development firm in San Anto-nio for eight years, she decided to plunge into the one thing that has always brought her joy: clay. That delight is evident in her first large-scale collection of seating, side tables, planters, and lamps."
sunshine@sunshinethacker.com
+1 210 912 7725
Studio visits by appointment only
Hudson Valley, NY, USA