Charad, who is 51 and was born in South Africa, has long had a perfectionist streak. Even as a kid in art class, “I thought everything had to be photorealistic,” she says. Teachers would tell her to loosen up, but that obsessiveness served her well in Hollywood.
Even so, over the years, she began to gravitate toward something a bit messier, which lent itself to her own creative work. “I took up ceramics to get off the computer—I spend all day digitally Photoshopping,” she says. She would often drive by a ceramics studio, and finally decided to give it a try one day. “I made terrible bowls, but I loved making them,” she says.
“I’ve never met a pattern or an over-the-top color scheme that I didn’t love.”
She taught herself at first, then took classes at Glendale Community College. When her husband was diagnosed with cancer, she gave up her practice for a few years to care for him. After he passed away nine years ago, ceramics became a way of working through her grief. She now makes plates, bowls, vases, wall hangings, ceramic cats, and more in her home studio in Pasadena, some of which are sold at Pierce & Ward, the Los Angeles design studio known for modern heirlooms. In September, she will have a pop-up exhibition at Clare V in Los Angeles, and in 2027, she will have an exhibition at Knysna Fine Art in Knysna, South Africa.
Charad’s Pasadena studio.
Photo: Katrina Dickson
