Evelin Samuel: Music and Ceramics Don't Interfere With Each Other

Estonian musician and ceramic artist Evelin Samuel shared on the show "OP" that her two creative pursuits - music and working with clay - don't compete for her attention but rather structure her day: mornings belong to ceramics, evenings to music.

A fascination with form and glaze

Lately Samuel has been drawn to large-scale ceramic pieces, especially voluminous vases. She has also become captivated by the process of creating glazes, which she compares to alchemy - something close to turning matter into gold.

To achieve a flawless result, the artist relies on artificial intelligence when developing her glazes. The technology helps her adjust the composition - making a glaze glossier or more matte - and suggests alternative ingredients when one component is missing, calculating the needed proportions itself. AI has also helped her build her own website.

Music in her ears, and her son on stage

Samuel said she hadn't felt such excitement since the first time she put on headphones and went for a walk with her favorite music playing - an experience that convinced her evil would have no place in the world if everyone always listened to music they loved.

A particularly meaningful moment for her was recording an album last year, for which composer Tõnis Kõrvits wrote an arrangement for a string quintet and piano. Samuel has also recently launched a joint project with her son, who is studying piano in the 11th grade at the Tallinn Music and Ballet School (MUBA). The two have already given their first joint concerts together, which she describes as especially valuable "quality time" spent with her child.