00:01When you take risks leading a life putting art first, you're risking the
00:08security aspect. I don't have a nine-to-five. I have a 24-7. For my pottery
00:15business, typically it's about 100 to 200 pieces per collection. That accumulates
00:21to about 800 pieces per year, which is so wild. I can't even believe that this
00:28tiny wheel and 575 square feet holds all of that. And I feel like in New York there
00:36is this real intensity. Having this function out of a studio apartment where
00:43my bed is behind me, but then also my ceramics and my reclaim bucket, it's like
00:47all in the same ecosystem and all the logistics, the boxes, the paper wrapping,
00:53the clay on the floor, the mopping and dusting every single day, recycling clay,
00:58the glaze, the stories told. I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot. And I wouldn't have it any other
01:05way.
01:07Hi, I'm Taya Kapila. This is my 575 square foot apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
01:21I lived in New York, I think from ages four to nine, and felt such a calling to come back.
01:28I think the total amount was 11 grand that I saved throughout high school to get here, land my feet
01:35on the ground and just begin. And by the time I moved in, I think I had $0 in my
01:40bank account.
01:41My lease was $19.50 when I first got here. And I currently pay $2,800, which is objectively a
01:49lot.
01:50But I live in New York and also live in Williamsburg, but I feel lucky to live here.
01:55And I have made it six years in this apartment, which is crazy.
02:05Here's the living room space. I want to take you through some of the most central pieces of
02:10this entire apartment, one of which is this chair. It's called a Naga chair. This actually is something
02:16that was carved by a single piece of wood. And every morning I'll sit here and the light in the
02:23summertime kind of comes in in a very unique way. So I'll take my little cup of whatever,
02:29usually coffee, and I'll sit right here and I just feel like I'm in a tree. That's really nice.
02:34I got this coffee table from Dobbin Street Co-op. This couch is from Six Penny and it's incredibly
02:41comfortable. I really want someone to come on here and put their feet up on the couch and get
02:46comfortable. And then over here, I have kind of my makeshift record station. This is where
02:53my grandpa's records that I got from his home in Kansas live. There's a lot of old school Christmas
03:00music, but also some great albums like Beatles. Right now I have a Miles Davis in there.
03:06This is a multi-purpose living room. It's not just a living room. I often get asked questions whether
03:12the mixing of different purposes of space gets in the way of anything or interrupts the flow. And I think
03:19there's a lot of room to create boundaries. So if you have good mental boundaries, like I think
03:25even though it's a silly little curtain separating one space from another, it adds so much to the
03:31intentionality of the space. The other part of this living room space is actually like a storage
03:38strip or a faux closet. So I'll show you that. It's graciously hiding behind this curtain here,
03:45but this is kind of where all of the clunkier things hide. I have glazes on top. I have candles,
03:52recording devices and wires. This is just the back end office of all the other stuff. Like
03:58eye gear. I'm a handyman. I'm a handy person. My dad is a engineer and has taught me kind of
04:04all I know
04:05with how to fix things and be totally competent. Many of my ceramic tools are here and sponges, got some
04:13bags to protect the piece so it doesn't dry out so much. And then of course my wheel below. But
04:18this is where I also just hide stuff if I don't really want to look at it.
04:25I actually, when I first found this apartment, I moved in here with a partner. We found this one on
04:31StreetEasy. And then after that shift and allowance of new space from that uncoupling, I think granted so
04:41much more room to really highlight pottery. My first wheel was a gift from Amazon. I think it was a
04:47hundred dollars. And from there I just practiced. I now have my ceramics and then I have my ceramic
04:54ceremonies. I made this space kind of a supper club style event space that keep me afloat in this apartment.
05:13Welcome to the shelves. I built these with my dad. We built these shelves custom so they would hold the
05:20weight
05:21of all these pieces because they range varying weights. I have these dowels that can be placed
05:28here and we can kind of customize where the shelves go. And I have a raw work table. This is
05:34where I wedge
05:34all my clay, put all my pieces. This is also where sometimes I post or I'll eat dinner. And I
05:39decided to
05:40open doors as like a studio style event where people would come over in my residential space.
05:45And I'd host a ceramic ceremony, like six people max. And we'd sit around here and I'd like squeeze behind
05:53the
05:53shelves to get people what they needed. And it was a very tender moment. I did that for about a
05:59year and then
06:02slowly caught traction in different places and now have an external studio space where I host bigger events.
06:09So I'll take you through the lower level. This is where all of my clay bulk is. But a lot
06:15of shipping
06:16equipment is down here as well. So it hides under this big table. These crates are really great because
06:21they stack and they hold so much. It's I think almost 35 cups per crate and I carry all of
06:29these to my
06:29studio space. So all of this does make it to the studio and I've only had a few casualties. Sometimes
06:34you
06:34break stuff. I'm doing a little tassel series for New York Design Week. And this is going to be a
06:41little lamp that you can put a little tea light inside. I have a really big piece here that I
06:47just finished. I wanted to do a series that was folding onto human body. So this is a little fragile,
06:54but I'll try. It's like kind of hugging and molding to the body. If you were hugging a piece,
07:00it's like a very tender, tender moment. It's not often you like cradle things. I'm not a mom,
07:07so I have pottery instead of children. And that's what I'm working on at this moment.
07:25This is the curtain that divides the living room and the bedroom area. So I actually got them at
07:31Facebook Marketplace, but they're originally from Ikea. And then I was recently working on
07:36different jewelry pieces because I love clunky, chunky jewelry. And I was going to intend on making
07:43this a cuff, but it was too small for my wrist. So I thought, let's make it a curtain cuff.
07:48And
07:49now it lives here. And then I have my makeshift bookshelf library section. I have some of my
07:57favorite pieces though, from different people in different parts of the world. The bigger art that
08:03shines through in this room would be the larger paintings here. This really large one that was
08:08originally a canvas I bought from Blick. And it became a kind of a symbol of self-care. I painted
08:16this on Valentine's Day last year, and this was my fun activity. This is a lamp I actually found off
08:21a Facebook Marketplace. And my mom had this beautiful lamp exactly like this with little tassel at the end.
08:27And then this was kind of like my way of protecting the bed. I know it looks like really nice
08:32and kept,
08:33but it's actually a protection. I just didn't want the underneath to get all messy. It's like,
08:39I have white bedding actually. But this touching outdoor clothes to me just feels crazy, especially
08:45in New York. So I keep it separate and have this as a little buffer. And then when I peel
08:50back that
08:50layer, it becomes like fresh sheets all over again for a night's rest.
09:03So this is the kitchen space. This is a really unique detail that the building did. They made
09:08renewable energy in the building along with some recycled different materials. Like this is cork.
09:15I have all my spices here. This is quite traditional to India, having a display like this of readily
09:20available spices. But I use a ton. I cook a lot. I enjoy the slow process. This vessel had a
09:27mishap
09:27in the kiln and cracked at the bottom, but still holds a really cool function to hold on my dry
09:34spoons.
09:35Everything here has kind of just been collected throughout the years. And I like to have it on
09:40display. Whenever I do Givali celebrations or Holi, I'll just use this to puja the space and create
09:48more of a ceremonial environment for people. I actually made this little incense house, which
09:53rests on top of this plate here. And you can put a cone inside and then it creates a nice
10:00like chimney
10:00effect. I wash all of my pieces here when they come out of the kiln and they have like that
10:07layer of dust
10:07from firing from greenware to bisque. I also clean up all of my tools here and I have a sink
10:14trap below
10:15that catches all of the clay and residue along with other things because I cook and eat in this kitchen
10:21as well. But it sees a lot of mess for sure. I got this from Facebook Marketplace. Down below you
10:29have
10:29a lot of my ceramic pieces that I use for serving bowls and my onions, potatoes. I have a whole
10:36stack of
10:37these brown stoneware plates that I've made. I would say 80% of my apartment is made from clay.
10:45All right, let's go to the bathroom now.
10:50So this is the bathroom area. The things in here are just also different DIY projects. Like I had these
10:59shelves
11:00installed and then really didn't enjoy them. So I plastered over it and it created a very similar
11:06facade like clay would be, but they're very light because it's just plaster.
11:15So I just made this vessel really satisfied and I made a little dent in it because it's supposed to
11:23be
11:23touched and I think some handles on the side would be nice, but I'll wire it off and let her
11:29dry.
11:32Clay will humble you and it's a teacher. Every single stage of this process is teaching you a lesson.
11:37You'll find a crack in the clay. As soon as you get attached to the glaze, the glaze will bubble
11:43and
11:43have pinholes or I don't know, but then you're taught to love it and you learn that love is elastic
11:49and
11:49there's so much room to experiment and play. But as soon as you get attached to something,
11:54it's going to change.
11:59I have an update. I moved. I cannot believe that I'm saying this because
12:08after filming, this is really when all of this changed. The biggest reason why I moved out was
12:14because I did get priced out of my apartment, which is a very heartbreaking and violating
12:20experience. This new apartment does come with a significantly different price tag. My rent is $47.50
12:26and that's the most I've ever paid for rent before. I feel like it just keeps getting scarier and
12:32scarier and scarier out on the market right now. And I feel very grateful to be able to try a
12:39leap like
12:39this. Everything will be set up. Everything from the old space has been moved here. I'm learning that
12:44nothing fits the same, but to exist in this space is to be open to the offerings of what it
12:52has. And so
12:53I'm trying to remain very open.
Comments