Meet Claire Alba | Inventor & Artist

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

Hi Claire, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’m a ceramic artist who makes a sex blanket. And earrings, necklaces, and rings. And tableware. And a carrying clutch for that sex blanket. But ceramics – the ceramics came first. Like this:

13 years ago, I was at a bead shop with my mom and she suggested that I make my own beads. I literally covered my ears; I knew making beads is complicated – the clay, the glaze, the kiln. Not to mention, I was living in a one-bedroom apartment at the time, with my two small kids, in Brooklyn, NY. But I decided that playing around with clay would be a fun activity anyway and I could get some help from a pottery studio for the firing and glazing (and firing again). So I began creating some jewelry. Not beads as my mom suggested, but rather, unique, geometric shapes. I incorporated my ceramic pieces with metal findings that I learned how to make by watching YouTube videos. I really loved the process and the jewelry I was making so I soon decided to buy a kiln. Being small and portable, I ran the kiln from my bathtub at night, keeping it and my kids at a safe distance from one another. Then I began selling – at craft markets, boutiques, and online.. “corico” is the name of my company, which is the combination of my daughters’ names, Cori and Coco. Corico jewelry is rather bold and either white or quite colorful. It is surprisingly lightweight, the earrings are made with hypoallergenic titanium wire, the rings are all adjustable, and the pendant necklaces are made with either a cable wire or handmade chain. Currently, I sell mostly wholesale to boutiques, but I do keep an Etsy shop open for customers to find me directly.

It was a few years into the jewelry-making that I was at a dinner party with friends when someone was putting out a plate full of olives and the demonstrative little pit bowl we all use. It occurred to me that elegant serve ware for olives that would also hide the pits isn’t something I had seen. And we all wanted it. I told everyone at the party that since I had a kiln, I would take that task on myself and create a new kind of olive boat. The first iteration was pretty but not so practical. I put it on a shelf. Literally. A few years later (still making jewelry) I ended up working in a ceramic studio as a potter, hand-building plate ware for restaurants, including places like Momofuku in NYC. Fun fact – David Chang’s now-wife, Grace, came to work with us in the studio, glazing the pieces we made for the restaurant. She was an absolute pleasure to have around. Refining my skills there allowed me to reimagine and create a better olive boat, which I did by hand for quite a while. And with this new-improved design, I began shopping it around. Thegrommet.com now carries it, as does Target.com, it is listed on Amazon and is of course available on the product website, www.corico.com.

People love the simple design and real functionality of The Olive Boat. Typically, once they see how practical it is, they begin imagining all the other things it would be useful for, like cherries. Cherries! Of course. And that is how The Cherry Bowl came to be. The Cherry Bowl is now available for purchase at corico.com and on amazon.

Now, while all this artistic creation had been going on, I was experiencing my own personal transition – a much-welcomed divorce! Emerging onto the dating scene, I found myself in a not-so-funny comedy of errors; I had a bizarre spell of getting lucky only (and I mean only) during my unlucky time of the month. It was finally at a lovely Airbnb (with sparkling white sheets and white towels) when I decided I needed a product dedicated to protecting the sheets for this purpose. So I made it! It’s called The Layer. The Layer is an extraordinarily absorbent and completely waterproof intimacy blanket that protects whatever is underneath from all imaginable sexy messes. It has been a hit! It is a truly phenomenal product and folds up small enough to bring anywhere. The Layer is for sale at getthelayer.com as well as Amazon.

I moved from Brooklyn to Denver at the beginning of the pandemic. Quarantine allowed me to really focus on marketing these products while enjoying the natural beauty of Colorado. Feeling at home here and at ease with life returning to some normalcy, I continue to work on expanding my businesses while exploring new creative endeavors.

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?
Some of my favorite things to do in and around Denver are: walking around Confluence Park and eating at local restaurants like La Diabla and Potager. The Northern strip of Larimer as well as the square are fun spots – especially Central Market. Outdoor concerts at City Park and the Botanic Garden are always lovely. So far, I have to say the Jazz Fest downtown has been my favorite music fest. The crowd it draws is so diverse and the music is just phenomenal.

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 mother, certainly, deserves the loudest shoutout. She was always encouraging and my greatest cheerleader; she cultivated my spirit of, “oh, I’ll just do that, myself”. That’s such an important step – to begin. Some people get stuck in getting everything just right before they embark on an endeavor. I just do it. I get that from her, I think. She’s been gone for 6 years, And during these past several years, it’s other entrepreneurs that provide me with support and encouragement. Very close to me are the owners of Mad Lemon, canned lemonade cocktails, and BIOM Cannabis – specifically Maxwell Hawk (co-owner of both). Our companies have been growing very much at the same time and it’s incredible to be able to compare notes about our challenges and successes. For me, as a solo-entrepreneur, getting people to pay attention can be tricky. Hearing Maxwell celebrate in finally getting a big account, after calling and calling month after month or week after week, is an invaluable reminder of what it takes to get things done. And, perhaps even more importantly, is supporting each other without commiserating or complaining too much. That’s a skill I’m still honing. But it’s an invaluable one: to persevere without feeling like it ought to be easier – to experience the full scope of it with an open mind, to shift, grow, celebrate, and shift again probably.

Website: https://corico.com https://getthelayer.com

Instagram: @corico.com @getthelayer.com

Image Credits
The first two images (the olive boat and the cherry bowl) were taken by Lea Dixon The jewelry pics are ones I took The Layer photos were taken by Mariessa and Evan Smith