What $2,700 gets you in Williamsburg, Brooklyn | NYC Art Studio

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

hi hello how's it going it's ala and welcome back to my Channel today we're doing another episode of buzz in where I basically show you badass Apartments throughout New York City I'm clearly not in New York at the moment I'm actually in Paris but that's besides the point unless you have a prian apartment and you want to show me but I'm very excited cuz today I'm going to show you guys ta's apartment and's amazing small business owner and ceramist we started off as Internet friends and then became in real life friends and she's super cool I can't wait for you guys to meet her what's especially cool about her and her space is that her home is also her art studio and so it's really cool to see the blend between living in art and combining your work into like one big Studio she lives in Williamsburg and if you're unfamiliar with Williamsburg it's just across the the pond over in Brooklyn and a very popular neighborhood and as as usual love to share just a little bit of History so let's look back on Old Williamsburg so in 1661 this area was chartered by the Dutch West India Company and this area in Williamsburg was actually originally part of the town called Boss week and obviously that name then turned into Bushwick and actually Grand Street used to be a very popular place for Farmers together to Market their produce and then the title of willamsburg came around when it was named after the surveyor John Williams in 1802 so with time because it was on the water this area a lot of development as a growing shipping hub and it actually wasn't until 1898 that it officially became a part of Greater New York City this area saw a huge shift when the Williamsburg Bridge was put in in 1903 for one it gave greater access to this area and it also led to a lot of immigrants coming from the Lower East Side who had originally been living in tenements in hopes for a better life across the river fast forward a little bit more and a large hidic Enclave established themselves in this area especially around 1930s as the Jews were escaping from Nazism willburg is also known for a large Puerto Rican community that really grew especially in the 1960s as there was a big increase in factory jobs and opportunity and then with time as with many New York City neighborhoods it became an area for artists to move in for low rents and those iconic big lofs in the form of factories and it kind of just became this mecca for young creatives and today it's seen as a very nice neighborhood to live in it still feels a bit young it's definitely people who are working and have kind of established themselves as young families and it's kind of just a cool place to live live there's lots of good food in boutiques and restaurants Etc I'm quite the fan of Williamsburg I could definitely see myself living there after my stint in Manhattan so that's a little bit on tea and on Williamsburg and that's that's enough chitchat for me so let's let's head on over to Williamsburg and see her face hello I'm TAA this is my Williamsburg Studio apartment hi I'm TAA I am a ceramicist here in Williamsburg 23 and this is my studio that I pay 2,700 a month for Welcome to my space this is very eclectic straight off the bat the entire apartment is little pockets of ongoing projects that I have being an artist there's just constant movement in the space this is a fun little mix piece that I actually did in high school weighs about 400 lb but I made it in 2016 when I was doing hand building got a lot of my pieces from Facebook Marketplace honestly so this dresser this was stooped this was from Facebook Marketplace I used to live in New York when I was in third grade and my mom had this very similar lamp and when I saw it on Facebook Marketplace it was this like Rush of home to me so I immediately got it I call this the boiler room but I'm pretty sure this is where the water heater is this is another clothing closet and then I do have a wash and fryer here which such a gym especially being an artist uh an artist with a very messy medium when I first moved into this apartment I actually didn't want this apartment because I just really enjoy the creaky floors and the Crooked ceilings and the cracks and just New York's charm and so this was almost too sterile I was like no I don't know if I deserve this yet but it was a CO deal and and I leapt into it with lots of faith in order to really just take advantage of the space here this is the secret strip of wall where all my ceramic supplies are I have tools and just random glazes sponges all the Linens and things that I use I have these events that I host so it's important to keep everything really accessible my wheel most importantly is tucked away especially just to keep the space nice and tidy I think what I've learned a lot with uh being an artist in New York and keeping a residency space as my work space is to just know you don't need the fanciest equipment to do these things and take yourself seriously you can really start with anything this is the living room area which has changed so many times and seen so many different angles the coffee table is something that a lot of people ask me about I actually got this from dobin Street Co-op which is an amazing secondhand store I think a lot of New York is just finding these random pieces and having confidence that they will work with you because if you love them that's enough couches are really stressful to figure out which ones work for you in your space so when I found this one I actually got it at Walmart and restuffed it myself originally with dubet and linens and things and then finally got professional foam one of my friends came over and he said your apartment is just 100 shades of clay and I love that so much I actually went to Europe this summer along the beach of Sicily there are all these tiles that because they're in the ocean they have the same effect as seag glass so they're all like buffed out and round and I want to do something really cool with them I was inspired by the Snippets of glaze that are still kind of on the piece like look how cool that is this is a multifunctional uh space for mainly work this is a very raw piece of wood here that I actually use for wedging clay this is really work table 90% of the time because of how Grand it is and because it's literally sitting on top of a an existing desk I kind of have the freedom to make this a dining table I just drap some Linens put some candles host some friends I host these Supper Club style events that are for the ceramic ceremonies that I host I have about 8 to 10 people that come over and we do little ceremonies with wellness and pottery and everyone gets to make a piece so I recently hosted one and that's where all these pieces are from so it's just fun to kind of host someone else's Creative Expressions this is the rest of my uh summer collection that I made inspired by tomatoes from my trip to Europe I just feel like they highlight the simple things in life all of my collections are pretty much Based On A Feeling or something that I experienced and I feel like bringing out that experience through cup and highlighting different expressions with glazes and colors that's just more That's My Style then I have a bunch of random vases uh some of which go to galleries my dad flew in for 48 hours I think put down his bags and he takes out a measuring tape he doesn't even really say hi to me first he just puts out the measuring tape and he goes okay we're going to build these shelves for you and we went to the lumber yards and spent like I said 48 Hours literally doing this and then he left and and that was it this ladder actually came from butcher's daughter they were getting rid of it and my partner at the time snagged it but it doesn't have any function like I do drape I did drape this blanket over it I spend hours cooking I'm plant-based so I eat a lot from home just so I know what ingredients are in my food I love the idea of celebrating the things that you nourish yourself with so things activity wise visually habitually I love creating rituals in the kitchen so knives all the things that I usually rotate it with like throughout the week so lentils and pasta rice like these are all my bases but usually I'll always have some rotating produce here that I pick up it's nice to have like a bundance in front of you I really like this one by Jeremy Fox it's all of these really amazing veggie recipes but he does love celebrating vegetables and I just think the way that you present something or really does influence the taste and the entire experience of the dish I'm really led by photography and visuals being pretty visual myself with the art form that I use and I have this curtain is honestly one of the best things I've done for this apartment so far because it just separates not just the space but the energy of this space because when you have funu in your bedroom it's really important to separate your relaxing space from your workspace and because I have every single vibe in the same corners of this apartment it's important to keep things separ so I I do with this curtain and I installed it from Ikea they had these racks I really enjoy muted colors so a lot of the curtains and the bed sheets everything is pretty much the same like color scheme this mirror on the floor here actually it used to be a tabletop that I got from a vintage store and then I removed the base of it nothing's officially hung nothing is in a permanent place I'm constantly changing my style my thoughts the things I want to look at in a day so this feels very me to have things just like existing with me as I'm going through phases of my life kind of have my like little Library which is dangerously balanced on these uh floating shelves that are not nailed in whatsoever a lot of people ask me why I have my books faced reversed so the pages are facing out but again kind of going with that like muted colors and and they have just a different vibe to them without the cover in them and so I kind of enjoy the look of that too I think the first thing I noticed about the bathroom here is the tiling which is so beautiful I don't know if it's Sandstone or some sort of concrete again kind of goes with the theme of like natural materials using clay could not be more fitting all the cupboards which you might have noticed in the kitchen as well have this recycled core so the building's actually like eco-friendly in a way and it has has renewable energy coil Heating in the floors and bamboo flooring they really care about energy here and that could not align like anym than it already does so very happy about that I am a full-time ceramicist and business owner so I do small batch Ceramics where I make more table wear pieces I do have some larger vessels which you might see behind me I also do online digital work as the part-time slash fulltime maybe it's full-time I've lived here for collectively eight or n years I had a part of uh New York Life lived in um the lower portion of Manhattan when I was in third grade so I feel like that's kind of when I fell in love with the city this is the third year that I'll be living in this apartment for first renting this apartment the biggest caveats to it was actually the fact that it's R stabilized so that was a big pandemic gift originally I moved in here with a partner we had lived here for 2 years together and then we split last year and I was able to take on the space by myself that one change really led to the explosion in ceramic production and becoming a business owner in the full flushed form of it and it allowed me to really step up to the plate and show myself how I can do this finances are really interesting when you're put into position that is slightly uncomfortable but that pivotal point in my life a year ago was really the most wonderful lesson to know that I'm worthy of taking up this space and making it something that is honoring my career and lifestyle creating room for more community and love in other areas so when one door closes 17 other ones open I really am a firm believer of like our external space is just a direct reflection of who we are inside a lot of this is stuff that feeds me back and I talk a lot about nourishment if you know me or being something that is in the form of food or conversation the words we use and especially the things that we surround oursel with so a lot of the colors and the objects here are very crafty and DIY a lot of the stuff is also secondhand my big emphasis in life is to use what's already here and we're equipped fully with energy and the love we need to live as a compassionate theming human being but also we have all the supplies physically whether it's Trends or random desires or all the pieces are are existing like fashion repeats itself history repeats itself the neighborhood is extremely homey there are so many new families dogs kids really just allow me to know that there's a lot of really cool opportunity for growth here whether I'm creative ever want to start a family here I also love that there's just kind of everything you need at your fingertips while still being removed from the city One Stop away from the city which is lovely because I do enjoy the energy of the city but I now know that that small micro separation compared to other buroughs and places you could be at really did make the biggest difference to keeping the longevity of my New York experience it literally hosts whoever you want to be that day and I think the Unapologetic energy of everyone around you really gives you space to be whoever you want to be that day whatever mindset you want to take on and it gives you this freedom to just be yourself it's such a fertile City for just who you are and what you want to do