Shih doesn't work as a ceramicist full-time—she studied journalism and has a day job a a creative director—and she's quickly been overwhelmed with positive responses to her work. "I started making vessels based on those of the ancient Chinese Qing and Song dynasties, wanting to connect to my own ancestral heritage and see where the work went from there, and at some point I started folding dumplings," explains Shih. "Six dumplings turned into six hundred, it happened out of nowhere. I’ve never been an artist very interested in production pottery—I'm not someone who makes same mug over and over—so it was very surprising to me to be sitting down every night for hours and folding the same thing over and over. It made me feel really connected to this lineage of Asian women doing this type of labor."