Sooki Studio & Supply

Wow, what a wild ride!!!!! It’s been a year since my mom and I opened up Sooki Supply and I took over the lease for the property for the studio and store. A year ago we were so excited to begin this new chapter of our lives and also had SUCH a steep learning curve ahead of us. It’s been extremely fun and extremely exhausting caring for this incredible property and creating a store we feel proud to invite friends, old and new, into. The store was a retirement gift to my mom and everyday I see her dancing while she’s working, making friends with so many of our neighbors and regulars and doing whatever the hell she wants it makes me so happy. Thank you to all of our friends and family, you know who you are, that have supported and encouraged us so much over the last year. Thank you to everyone who has come in to support us, bought something, brought us gifts and come in just to say hi, it means so much. Almost everyday when my mom and I are driving home after work we tell each other we can’t believe it all and how grateful we are. Everyone’s support allows us to run a business we love and believe in that supports our family, teaching artists and staff and the hundreds of people we share this space with. My mom and I are both major gift givers, it’s how we show our love and being makers and store owners has been a total extension of it. Over the last months we’ve been filling the store with ceramics we’ve made and objects we absolutely love. We’ve been searching for well designed, useful for everyday, well priced affordable goods that are built to last that we want to share with our community. We’re so excited to share it all with you and help put gifts together for your loved ones as we enter the holiday season. We are SO happy to share that we now have physical gift cards and wrapping paper!! Visit us Thursday-Monday from 11am-6pm to see and feel it all. And mark your calendars for @galasorg Queernissage market tomorrow and Sooki Mart: Holiday Edition in December 13th from 11am-4pm. THANK YOU AND SEE YOU SOON!!! Lots of love from Natalia and Gina 🩷 Portrait by @nicolethirtyfive Gift card & logo design in collab with @srk3 !

Wow what a ride! Thank you to everyone who has supported Sooki over the last (almost) 6 years!!! The studio would be nothing without our community. Everyone’s support means the world to my mom and I, it allows us to wake up everyday and do what we love ~ to create a space that allows so many people to come together, feel safe, create and connect. Thank you for being apart of the ride, we are so excited for everything to come 💞💞💞💞💞 We’re back open today-Monday from 11am-6pm. Come by for tasty snacks, my very comprehensive drink selection, lots of great supplies or just to say hi 👋 Big thank you to @atlasacopian for capturing us in our very happy place 🥰

Six months at our Frogtown studio and WOW it’s been such a labor of love sculpting our studio, day by day into a space that feels welcoming, flexible, functional and inspirational. We are so happy to share the many ways of engaging with our studio! 🔭 Studio Membership 〰️ 24/7 access 〰️ discounts on workshops 〰️ monthly member potlucks 〰️ ample shelf + work space 〰️ online member forum 〰️ weekly, high quality firings 〰️ firing only services 〰️ wild clay + large scale support 〰️ quintessential kitchenette with refreshments + snacks 〰️ encouraging & welcoming community 〰️ limited to 30 makers - LGBTQ + BIPOC focused 〰️ peaceful indoor/outdoor work environment off the LA River bike path ☄️ Rentals 〰️ workshops 〰️ dinners 〰️ markets 〰️ screenings 〰️ panels, lectures & discussions 〰️ film/photo shoots 〰️ performances 〰️ up to 200 guests 〰️ fully modular layout 〰️ community, private & commercial events 〰️ & more 🌿 Workshops We aim to provide access to creative education as a means to support mental wellness & foster community. Workshops utilize sliding scale pricing and are available for all ages and abilities. Join us this summer for: 〰️ The Imperfect Cup | @anahitpogosian 〰️ Tongues & Tales Series: Arabic Reading | @hajarara.ii 〰️ Creative Sculpture | @youngsunceramics 〰️ Clay Exploration: Ages 10-13 | @alysoniwamotoceramics 〰️ Speaking in Clay: Ages 14-17 | @akocastuera 🌟 Private Group Workshops 〰️ friends, family or colleagues 〰️ a space to bond through creative expression 〰️ varying experience levels & all ages welcome 〰️ group sizes ranging from 3-60 participants 〰️ fully customizable 🔎 Private Lessons & Consultations 〰️ focused + individualized attention 〰️ planing + fabrication support from design to firing 〰️ hand building, wheel throwing, surface decoration & glazing 💌 Gift card A thoughtful & impactful gift for a loved one seeking a creative outlet to increase mental wellness 〰️ customizable amounts 〰️ no expiration 〰️ can be used on all programming & products Find more information on all of our offerings through the link in our bio, we hope to see you at the studio soon! 📸 @nicolethirtyfive

Communauté 🫶🏽🙌🏽🙏🏽🫂🤗 📸: @nicolethirtyfive

Out of focus snippy snaps around the studio 💞

BIG LOVE TO @plenazotribe and all the beautiful people who made today happen. Our hearts are so full ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

We’re so excited to welcome Cultural Roots Nursery | @culturalrootsnursery to the Sooki Studio & Supply | @sooki__studio this weekend for a plant pop up! Saturday 5/2 from 3-6 pm Sunday 5/3 from 12-3 pm 2971 Allesandro St, Frogtown LA 90039 Cultural Roots Nursery was founded in 2020 with a mission to heal the connection between Asian American diaspora and our ancestral foodways by increasing the availability and abundance of culturally important heritage plants. They grow over 100 varieties of Asian heritage vegetables, herbs, fruit, and trees at their nursery using ecologically friendly growing practices. This weekend they’ll have a selection of plant starters including: - Perilla - Tulsi Basil - Chamomile - Taiwanese eggplant, & more :) Please click the link in @culturalrootsnursery ’s bio to reserve plants ahead of time using the Spring pre-order form. Payment will be taken at pick-up. We’re excited to host Cultural Roots founder Li Schmidt. Li is a first generation Taiwanese American farmer. She has a decade of organic farming and gardening experience with a Masters in community development from UC Davis. She is also a farmer member of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative (CFJC) and the Asian American Farmers Alliance, which both work towards achieving justice for farmers of color. Thank you to our friend Jess at @gu_grocery for making this sweet connection! 🌱

Tide pooling!!! 🪸🐠🌅 Our first studio field trip 🥰 birthed out of a manifestation by one of our members a few weeks prior. This member led trip gathered a group of 20 studio members and friends to venture down to San Pedro at 7am on a Sunday. It was soooooooo sweet we’re still beaming from it. We’ve got lots more trips planned and most of it comes to fruition in our studio Discord, it’s so sweet and the link to join it is in our bio. As we enter 6 years of Sooki, seeing these relationships, community and joy form brings big big heart thumps 🥹🥰😭 the thing that gets me big time is seeing such an eclectic group of people get along, be so comfortable and embraced by one another for being their genuine weird wonderful selves 💞💞💞 Big thanks to @lindseykusterman for leading the trip, @fridaypersimmon for being the logistics queen and to @lindseykusterman for letting me borrow her camera to capture so many sweet moments and @strawberryfun for taking a picture of me in my total happy place just as I started to overheat BIG LOVE TO THE SOOKI COMMUNITY!!! 🌱🌿🌳

Kites for Liberation: An Anti-War Kite Workshop 🪁🍉 Taught by Yaeun Stevie Choi | @gomekites Sunday, May 3rd from 4-7pm Masks required | ADA accessible @sooki__studio 2971 Allesandro St, Frogtown LA In partnership with @cultivarte.project Profits donated to @thesameerproject Join artist Yaeun Stevie Choi for a hands-on kite-making workshop rooted in cultural practice, collective care, and creative resistance. Since 2018, Stevie has been researching, building, and teaching kite-making as a form that embodies regional artistry, play, freedom, and a reclaiming of the sky in the face of its privatization and militarization. This workshop is conceived and co-hosted by artist Evelyn Serrano | @toevelynserrano , who has been working with the Lebanese-Palestinian kite form as a gesture of solidarity, including the creation of a kite honoring Palestinian poet and educator Refaat Alareer and the liberation of the Palestinian people. In this iteration, participants are invited to create kites in support of Palestine, Lebanon, and other communities impacted by war, violence, and displacement—reflecting on the role of the U.S. in these global realities. Participants will learn to construct a Lebanese-Palestinian-style kite that will be completed and ready to fly by the end of the session. The workshop will culminate in an invitation to gather as a collective and fly these kites at the upcoming @clockshopla Kite Festival at LA State Historic Park on May 9, from 2–6 pm. Together, we will lift messages of remembrance, resistance, and hope into the sky. 〰️〰️〰️ Yaeun Stevie Choi (they/she) is an artist based in Koreatown, Los Angeles, who have been making, researching, and holding workshops on kites since their interest began in 2018. They believe building kites can represent appreciation for regional artistry, play and freedom, and resistance against the privatization and militarization of the sky. Choi dedicates their kitemaking knowledge to a group of kite masters on an online Korean kitemakers forum, Youtubers, and kitemaking friends here in Los Angeles. Learn more and register through the link in @sooki__studio bio 🦋

We are honored to welcome Maestro Ramiro Ramírez Duarte | @ramirorduarte to the studio for two very special workshops on Indigenous Clay Instruments in collaboration with @cultivarte.project Saturday, May 2nd, 4-7pm Introduction: Ocarinas All experience levels and ages welcome Tuesday, May 5th, 6-9pm Intermediate: Double Flute Ceramics experience required ADA Accessible | Masks required 2971 Allesandro St, Frogtown LA 90039 Link to register in @sooki__studio bio This is educational event is hosted by CultivArte, a non profit fiscally sponsored project by Fulcrum Arts, a 501c3 organization. In this workshop, Maestro Ramiro will teach us how to make indigenous clay instruments. The workshop will include a brief history, hands on technique and demonstration of the instruments. All students will make their own pieces. All pieces will be fired within 3 weeks and ready for pick up. Ramiro Ramirez Duarte is a master musician and indigenous clay instrument maker from the Otomi people of Guanajuato, central Mexico. He is a former member of Grupo Tribu, and as a soloist has worked in making music for films, including Black Panther Wakanda Forever. This workshop is hosted in partnership with Cultivarte, a not-for-profit project that strives to provide low cost, accessible, and diverse arts programming led by professional teaching artists in Los Angeles County. Learn more at cultivarte.info & @cultivarte.project Photos by @lindseykusterman

Plenazo Tribe LIVE Fundraiser Concert 🔥🔥🔥 Dance to Puerto Rican Plena on May 1st with @plenazotribe , an LA based band featured in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance! We’ll have drinks, fresh Chilean empanadas and Colombian guava and cheese filled pan de bono, come early before they sell out! Doors open: 6:30pm | Concert: 7-8pm 100% of profits donated to Immigrant Defenders Law Center @immdef_lawcenter ADA accessible | Family friendly | All ages welcome 🎟️TICKETS AT WWW.SOOKI.STUDIO 🎟️ 2971 Allesandro St, Los Angeles, Frogtown 90039 Plenazo Tribe is a vibrant collective of musicians, dancers and culture bearers bringing the soulful rhythms of Puerto Rico’s plena to life in the heart of Los Angeles. Born from the vibrant streets of Los Angeles but deeply rooted in the heart of Puerto Rico, Plenazo Tribe is more than a band—it’s a movement. With rhythms that pulse with tradition and a sound that speaks to the modern era, this collective of global musicians has redefined Plena, bringing it to audiences far and wide. What started as a passion project in a North Hollywood restaurant has grown into a powerhouse of energy and sound. With members hailing from Puerto Rico, France, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and California, Plenazo Tribe embodies cultural fusion at its finest. 〰️ This event is part of the Frogtown First Fridays with @frogtownarts ! 15+ venues with activities, music, crafts, food pop ups and more! This is a car-free, low impact community event. Be kind to our neighbors; dispose of trash properly, be mindful if you have to park, Please consider using rideshare services, public transportation, ride your bike or walk to this event. Bring the kids, bring grandma-even the dog, just don’t bring the car! For more info visit @frogtownarts In partnership with @cultivarte.project More and tickets available via @sooki__studio 💞💞💞

Tatreez + The Art of Resistance 101 with Sabri Sami Sundos | @sabri 🇵🇸🪡 Friday, May 8th from 6-8pm 🐛 Link to register in bio 🐞 Masks required | ADA accessible 🦋 2971 Allesandro St, Los Angeles, Frogtown 90039 🛤️ Tatreez + The Art of Resistance 101 is an introduction to Palestinian resistance through the art of Tatreez, led by Brooklyn-based Palestinian-American artist Sabri Sami Sundos. This beginner level course will educate students not only on the craft but also on its origins, focusing on the history of its use as a form of resistance against occupying forces. In this 2 hour course, students will be provided with Aida cloth, tapestry needles, thread and 2 motifs, as well as a translation of various other motifs for those looking to dive deeper into this resilient craft. Through the lens of Palestinian resistance and storytelling, students will walk away with a greater understanding of not only a new skill but of a people’s fight for liberation. Instructor Sabri Sami Sundos is a Palestinian American painter & textile artist. rooted in his personal experience being raised in the diaspora, Sundos explores themes of identity, labor and time. Through the merging of traditional craft and cultural iconography his work emphasizes the importance of agency & human touch, highlighting the inherent tactile nature of art-making as a means of reclaiming and preserving heritage. Sundos creates work that continues to foster dialogue around tradition, memory, and an undying hope for the future. He is also the founder of Unibrow Sun, an organization focused on uplifting narratives of solidarity through art & education All images courtesy of Sabri Sundos.