farm show part two: advice to a young homemaker

Exanding on Gift to Young Homemaker shown in the previous post, this small installation contains Russian and English active verbs. The Russian advice book lies at the foot of the alcove.

All pieces are sold individually and are available through farmprojectspace.com for the rest of the summer. Email or call the gallery for a price list and shipping info.

farm show part one: gift to a young homemaker

My mom gave me a wonderful pre-Revolution Russian book, called Gift to a Young Homemaker. It is filled with everything from how to set a table, to what to do with a freshly-caught fish, to how to make your own beer. It is written in Old Russian, first published in 1861, but a lot of it is useful even in today’s modern world. The book was banned during Soviet Russia, due to it’s pre-Revolutionary content, though my family had a copy of it, as I am sure many other homemakers did (a quiet rebellion).

Keeping Gift in mind, I created a set table inspired by my Russian summers at our family’s dacha (a country house); now showing at farm. During Soviet times, a homemaker had to be inventive, growing and preserving food, as everyday necessities were hard to come by. With all the limitations, my grandmother still set a gorgeous table, using good china, outside.

I’m not a creative cook, like my grandmother and my mom, but I can make ceramics to serve the food. The pieces I create are not meant for a specific dish, they evoke the handmade, the outdoors, the specialness of friends and family getting together in a beautiful environment.

The table-setting at farm incorporates Russian recipes scanned from Gift, English words relating to the taste of food and the emotion/experience of a family gathering, plus family slides from my childhood. By merging my two cultures, I reach out to my Russian heritage, and introduce English speakers to a little-known historical moment. The exhibit also brings together my love of ceramics with my love of typography.

All pieces are sold individually and are available through farmprojectspace.com for the rest of the summer. Email or call the gallery for a price list and shipping info.

exhibit at farm in wellfleet, cape cod, massachusetts

My month of May is busy getting ready for this show, my very first solo exhibit. So exciting, and a little scary...

Click on the image for a larger view.

dessert plates and tartelette

If you haven't yet visited Tartelette, now is a good time to do so. Helene Dujardin, Tartelette’s author, stylist, and photographer, has just published a wonderful new book, Plate to Pixel. Two copies of the book are being given away as well as four gleena dessert plates (white with calligraphy numbers as shown below). All you have to do is leave a comment on Helene’s blog. April 29th is the last day to enter.

Photograph by Helene Dujardin

what a treat...

...it is to see my work photographed by my customers. I feel fortunate that my ceramics appeals to artists. Below are photographs from a lovely Franco-Russian blog, veshiwish.

Thank you, Anna, for your support and for your beautiful photography!

simply stunning

Photograph courtesy of Cannelle et Vannille

Aran, who writes and styles and photographs one of my favorite blogs, Canelle Et Vanille, is publishing a cook book in the fall of 2012. It will be gorgeous, and I cannot wait to see it. And how lucky that some of gleena pieces are used in the styling? The ivory dessert bowls, shown above, are decorated with an illustration by Cynthia Treen. Thank you, Aran, for your beautiful and inspiring work.

berries on gleena

It is not a coincidence that my dog is named Berrie, berries are my favorite food ever. And what's better than a collection of berries, arranged on a gleena plate? I can't really think of anything...

This beautiful image was created by Helene from Tartelette.

gleena’s spring dessert plates at gump’s in san francisco

With the grayness and the rain-ness and snowy-ness, it doesn’t feel like spring in Rhode Island today. But these dessert plates, created for Gump’s in San Fran, keep me hopeful for warmth, sun and flowers soon.

plates, 1-10

A set of custom 10-inch plates, numbered 1-10.

lovely tarts

gleena dessert plate with calligraphy is used on the cover of this yummy book. Photography by Helene Dujardin.

i miss summer No. 2

Oval serving tray, a new shape for me, 16" long, 12" wide. With hand-holds on either side for easy carrying.

clouds in a blue sky plate

I poured first the white glaze, then the blue, in layers on this plate. I like the effect. Perhaps do a whole place setting with this pattern?

new gourd bowl shape, and new glazing

This is a new addition to my gourd bowl series, it holds 8 cups, and the orange interior is new as well. I’m experimenting with two color options for the gourd bowls, as opposed to the same color inside and out. What do you think?

breakfast is my favorite meal of the day

There was a time when I would grab a bagel and coffee on the way to work and eat at my desk. This was in NYC, when I worked for a design firm, and another life time. Now that I make my own ceramics, they get plenty of use in my house, especially at breakfast. I love a full, leisurely breakfast as I catch up on news and emails: tea, yogurt with granola, and maybe even some toast and jam. That’s why I created this breakfast set. It reminds me of summer with its bright color and sweet bird and flower. I can really use some summer right now.

Available on etsy in gleenashop.

ny gift fair

A big storm put a bit of a damper on the NY Gift Fair, but I still had a wonderful time, and met great people. My neighbors at the fair kept my spirits up, and the five days flew by, even though retailer traffic was somewhat slow. Gleena was picked up by stores in Pittsburgh, Seattle, Chicago, and Canada, to name just a few new locations. I’m excited to get the collections out to them. Thank you for all your support. Your feedback is what encourages me to keep on showing my work.

set up for the ny gift fair

To view at a larger size, please click on the image.

To figure out what pieces I need for the NY Gift Fair, I set up a mock booth in my studio. I like organizing by color, and it seems to make sense for my work. I have many different images that I work with, and the color holds it all together. The missing pieces are coming out of the kiln on Thursday, the day I leave for NYC. I always have to work until the very last minute. I've been like that since high school, writing my senior thesis until dawn of the day it was due.

miss you, summer...

sunflower dinner platters for mom, set of eight

a sweet for your sweet?

Canelle et Vanille, one of my favorite blogs, used the butterfly serving platter and the fern dessert plate beautifully. I can’t wait to make that tart. Thank you, Aran!

HAPPY 2011!

To celebrate the upcoming new year, I would like to give away two sets of the wee teas, one set spells out “HAPPY” the other set “2011”. Please visit my facebook page by January 2nd to enter the drawing.

And the winners are:

HAPPY cup set goes to Olivia Hallman Ullrich
2001 cup set goes to Karen Donohue Fleer
and the ! cup goes to Colleen Reilly

Happy New Year!