Lauren is the maker and designer behind Ochre, a ceramics and jewellery label run from her studio in Mullumbimby, in the Northern Rivers, about fifteen minutes from Byron Bay. Everything Ochre makes – ceramics, jewellery, and more recently, ceramic lighting – is designed and made by Lauren herself.
Ochre didn’t start out this way. It began as a ceramic jewellery label. As Lauren’s relationship with clay deepened, so did the range: ceramic beads first, then homewares, then lighting. The business has grown the way she has, gradually and led by her own evolving skill and interests. But everything she touches is imprinted with her unique eye for shape, colour and texture, making her brand so beautiful and recognisable.
An average day for Lauren doesn’t look like one thing. It could be unpacking the kiln, glazing, packing pieces back up. It could be making stock for the online shop or for stockists, in pottery or in jewellery. And if there’s a workshop on, it’s tidying the studio, picking flowers, setting up the cheese platter, and welcoming people in for a clay, wine and cheese session.
Lauren introduced me to her slab roller, and indeed the concept of slab-laid pottery. This was my first experience with this type of ceramics and it blew me away! Lauren found this handmade slab roller being sold on Facebook Marketplace and immediately knew it was what her process was lacking. She uses it to roll out large pieces of speckled clay, onto which she places pattern pieces and then cuts out. Using these pattern pieces, she builds her ceramics on top of moulds to create beautifully balanced shapes of mugs, bowls, vases and lamps.
Because alongside the making, Lauren teaches. She runs pottery and jewellery-making workshops from the Mullumbimby studio, along with pop up events all around Australia, and when I asked her what she loves most about the business she’s built, she didn’t hesitate.
‘Teaching,’ she told me. She’s a mum to a toddler, and she’s honest about the juggle. But teaching, she said, is where it all comes together. ‘Even if it’s just two hours for somebody, and they got out of their head and came away with something they love, that’s enough.’
I asked her, too, how she knows when a piece is finished – a question I’ve been putting to every maker in this series.
‘The girls who work with me would laugh at this,’ she said, ‘because I’m always the one saying, enough, stop faffing, enough.’ A lot of her making falls into production, so part of it is simply knowing when a piece is done and it’s time to move on. But when she’s building a collection, she doesn’t overthink it. ‘I’m such a gut feeling person. I go with my gut.’
Lauren is also mindful of what Ochre leaves behind. Every sale contributes to tree planting through One Tree Planted — over 3,000 trees since she started in October 2020.
You can find Lauren’s work, and book into one of her workshops, at ochreceramics.com, or follow along on Instagram @ochre.thelabel.
