Sascha Brastoff

Sascha Brastoff, 1917-1993, was born Samuel Brostofsky. He accomplished many things in his life. He danced several seasons with the Cleveland Ballet as a teen. It is there he was encouraged to change his name to Sascha. He attended the Cleveland School of Art on scholarship and studied art and ballet. Moving to NYC he worked for Macy’s as a window dresser and at 24 had a successful showing of his ceramics selling items to major New York museums. He was in the Army Air Corps where he was involved with the USO and discovered costume design. He went on to work at 20th Century Fox and in 1947 opened a decorative ceramic factory in Los Angeles which was backed by Winthrop Rockefeller. He became one of the top ceramic artists in the US. In 1962 Sascha had a breakdown and left his studio becoming somewhat reclusive he concentrated on pastel and oil painting and magnesium sculpture. In the 1970s he created a line of jewelry for Merle Norman among other ventures. In the 1980s he was in poor health but continued working on his own private art, jewelry and costume pieces along with commissioned jewelry. He passed in February of 1993.