Meet Tiffany Chua | Founder – Dirty Hands Only Ceramics

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tiffany Chua and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tiffany, what role has risk played in your life or career?
When I first started Dirty Hands, it was more of a hobby, a place to get out of my head. I was a designer, but full time designing meant that I had to always be creative. No one cared that if you had “writers block”, you had to get the job done, so ceramics was a safe place as it’s a 100% focus when you’re on the wheel.

I did it every day for 5 years, making stuff on the side, doing small collaborations and teaching on weekends. One day a friend of mine who loved what I did, pushed me to jump into the ocean. Since I was already pretty worn out from my job (12 years of designing!) I just took the leap of faith and opened my own studio.

It was crazy, juggling rent, making sure people came for classes, creating content to feed the social media audience, finances.. TAX, backend operations, you name it.

Now I’m 3 years in the making as a full time potter and I’ve moved into a bigger studio. My partner and I live in a one bed room penthouse where I teach ceramics on the roof. We also own a small company called Dirty Supper, where we host private dinners- family style bbq on our roof. We’re also doing a residency in our friends 10 seater restaurant (Punch & Consequence by Lowtide) where my partner’s creates and cooks a 6 course tasting menu that changes every month

I feel a little like I’m living the life of a retiree at 34, I wake up, have coffee and make things. People say I’m living the “Singaporean Dream”, except I’m still stressing about finances, my back and my neck is killing me, but I get to go for yoga at 3.30 in the afternoon, and I love what I do. I can’t say that I’d be doing all this if I never took a risk!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think my style of ceramics is the best representation of how bad I am with Math and Science but they made a love child called Pottery and I managed to somehow make that work, if that make sense.

I think what sets me apart from others might be my style of glazing, thats at least what I’ve been told.

The lessons I’ve learned along the way is that no matter how bad things can be, blasting music on high and have a pint with friends ALWAYS MAKES IT BETTER.

Brand story… as cliche as it can be.. follow your heart and your gut??

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’ll take them for an ice cold beer at lunch, around 5-7pm I’ll take them to a secret spot near marina bay where the boats go by and have some wine and cheese. In the evening we’ll go the Jeffos – BEST WINGS IN SINGAPORE, and end it at a bar where theres some (good)live music.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family has always been encouraging, my mum especially who allowed me to mess up her house when I was still living with her. My friends, Sarah my brainstorm buddy, Weis who writes my proposals, Jean my dark and twisted sister, Fee who corrects my grammers.. Jeanette who owns DDYI and her husband who allowed me to mess up their loft on weekends when I was “homeless”. My partner Pete, who now tolerates my dirty mess.

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