An ASPIRE Design & Home
Maker Monday: An ASPIRE Exclusive Interview With Sandra Vlock
Introducing this week’s Maker Monday, Sandra Vlock. With a concept starting as an intuitive sketch, Sandra Vlock can take her ideas and bring them to life. She is constantly inspired by nature’s landscape involving the ocean, the desert, and everything in between. The pieces she designed for Studio Vlock include repurposed mooring buoys to become fire vessels (fireballs) using sustainable materials such as steel plates to create gates, lanterns, and fire screens. Sandra’s unique narrative style inspires gathering and memorable experiences.
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Andrew Joseph: Describe your design style as if you were explaining it to someone who cannot see.
Sandra Vlock: My natural “hand” or design style is just how I see and imagine the world around me. It comes from within. My imagery is story-like; vignettes observed in nature, a secret world of details to discover. The immediacy of a sketch is what inspires my work—on paper or in steel. My design style is authentic and captures the essence of things.
Andrew: What is something you hope to see trending in design in the future?
Sandra: Hand-crafted. Authenticity. Understanding (and valuing) the creative process as a way for people to connect with the art and the artist.
Andrew: If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Sandra: That’s easy: to fly! Or to easily inhabit the underwater world without fear or gear. I am always looking to discover other ways of seeing.
Andrew: If you weren’t a designer, you’d be ….?
Sandra: A great Listener. I have honed my skills interpreting aspirations (what people say and feel) into physical spaces and places that have meaning. That always begins with listening and listening well.
Andrew: What are three words to describe where you live?
Sandra: Village. Shoreline. Nature
Andrew: What’s something you always travel with?
Sandra: Sketchbook, smudgeable soft charcoal pencils and felt tip pens, pastels or watercolor—always! Whatever fits easily into a backpack. Running shoes.