In an effort to make the second bedroom in our apartment less of a storage facility and more of a usable space, I need to part with some of my stuff. I’m going to start listing myriad handmade items and supplies in my other etsy shop. First up: ceramics from college (click on the image to go directly to the etsy listing).
Internet, I’ve been keeping a secret from you. The boyfriend asked me to marry him a couple months ago. Now that we’ve finally set a date and booked the location, a good part of the stress is over and I get to move on to the fun parts like the dress and invitations!
Anyway, for Valentine’s day, Mike enlisted his brother to make something to replace the store’s ring box that I keep my ring in each night. David is a bit of a Jack of all artistic trades — ceramicist, woodworker, blacksmith, photographer — and he turned this lovely piece on his lathe.
Amanda Brown and Lizzie Joyce of Spruce design studio combine their backgrounds in art and their love for vintage decor to update furniture sure to “spruce your space.” And while with a little luck anyone can find a great vintage piece, this duo also has an amazing collection of fabrics with which they reupholster their pieces and a great eye for combining colors.
Professor and pottery instructor at several colleges in St. Louis, Rachel is an exceedingly talented ceramicist. She is classically trained with a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from Ohio University in 2006.
Her softly curved thrown vessels are accentuated and decorated with soft lines of glaze or texture. The pieces are then finished in soft colors, which she hopes will “allow people to slow down, carefully examine and be peaceful.”
Throughout the historic parts of New Orleans, the streets are labeled with ceramic tiles embedded into the sidewalk. These beautiful antique tiles are the inspiration for Chris & Nicolle Psilos of nolatiles.com. The duo specializes in home decor items that bring a little bit of NOLA anywhere!
They agreed to share a bit about the business:
This whole thing really evolved out of our love for New Orleans. Using such a unique piece of the city as a basis for our work makes it extremely enjoyable to create our pieces.
Getting started was an extremely intimidating process because we really never considered ourselves “artists” and basically taught ourselves everything through trial and error. We spent lots of time researching many different processes until we decided on our final items: coasters, magnets, plaques and ornaments/displays.
Everything is created in our home and all “raw materials” (with the exception of the heavy duty magnet paper) is purchased over the counter at stores/markets around the city. The most crucial ingredient is the actual picture of the letter or number that we’re using at the time. We literally took thousands of pictures and filtered them down to about 50 or so different images that we use.
Even though we’ve only been at this for less than a year, I can say with confidence that we now do feel like “artists” and are working tirelessly to improve our items that we create!
622 press | LETTERPRESS GOODS MADE BY HAND 