Meet Your Maker: Sophie Milne

A little while back I had the chance to chat with ceramicist Sophie Milne. Sophie's work tends to sit on that happy line between fine art and functional design, creating pieces that are beautiful and simple to use everyday.

S: Tell us a little bit about your background. What path has led you to what you do now?

SM: After finishing a BA I undertook a few short courses to keep myself entertained while I contemplated where to next. When I tried pottery everything seemed to fall into place. I completed a diploma in ceramics, set up a shop/studio with some colleagues and have been making and teaching ever since. My making space has varied during the 14 years since I finished my studies but my passion to create with clay has never diminished.

S: What does a typical day at work involve for you?

SM: There is no typical day as every day is different and it’s often weather dependant in regard to how quickly things are drying. Some typical activities are… throwing, turning pots, decorating, glazing, packing the kiln, unpacking the kiln, sanding, contemplating, drawing, photographing, bookkeeping, blogging, emailing, delivering, packaging, posting…

S: What materials do you most enjoy using and why?

SM: That would be clay. I could give all sorts of reasons relating to the character of this material - its malleability and fluidity - but to be honest I haven’t explored any other material to the same degree and it simply feels like my language. I enjoy ceramic objects, particularly vessels, as they are functional but can also possess a multitude of meanings.

S: What processes do you go through to get to the finished piece? 

SM: I am comfortable with a fairly low tech approach but am no purist in regard to my craft. I use the potter’s wheel, my clay comes from a bag, I use a combination of commercial and natural materials for colours and glazes and I fire in an electric kiln.

S: You tend to often use subdued and earthy tones in your work. What is it about this colour palette that you are drawn to?

SM: I am interested in creating objects that can withstand fashions and trends and I guess I feel an earthy, quiet palette is more likely to be something someone can live with longer than a bold, colourful statement.

The colours I use tend to be the ones I surround myself with in my own home, which to me means they are synonymous with comfort and peacefulness - qualities that I hope my works possess.

S: When starting a new body of work, where do you turn for inspiration and ideas?

SM: The material itself often suggests forms and my ideas usually evolve from previous work. I am inspired by my immediate environment. When I become more acutely aware of one particular aspect of life I sometimes feel driven to celebrate it in vessel form - the rhythm and chaos of power lines for instance or an aerial view of the delineation of fields.

There are also times when I am simply function driven. Right now I seem to be short of good pasta bowls!

S: You also sustain a strong teaching practice alongside creating your own work. How do you strike a balance between these two aspects of your career?

SM: I really enjoy teaching. It’s a constant reminder of the joy of discovering expression through clay and inquiring students remind me to question my own practices and keep a fresh approach to my work. Time wise however this ‘balance’ is a whole other story.

S: What are your future plans for Sophie Milne ceramic pieces?

SM: I am currently playing around with coloured porcelain and inlay. The combination of these two techniques is extending my range of matte finishes and giving new direction to my line work and mark making. I am noticing subtle nostalgic elements creeping into my forms so am allowing myself to explore this a little to see where it leads.

Oh, and I want to make those pasta bowls.

Thanks Sophie - you give us a ring when the pasta bowls are sorted! In the meantime, you can purchase Sophie's work online here, or come in store to receive 20% of Sophie Milne Ceramics until 8th January, 2012. (Um, woo-hoo!) 

Meet Your Maker: Made By White

Recently I was lucky enough to get a hold of the dynamo sister team Kelly and Lyndsay, to chat to them about their impressive jewellery label Made By White.

S: Hi Guys! Thanks for taking the time to do this. First of all, who is Made By White?

MBW: Made By White is two sisters, Lyndsay and Kelly White from Sydney, Australia. We Design, laser cut and hand make everything we do!
 

S: What’s it like being sisters and running a business together? 

MBW: Being sisters and working together is great. We both have similar ideas and interests and we manage to combine our ideas into a brand we both love. We like animals, colour, fairytales, quirky creatures and basically anything cute, and we think our brand reflects that!
 

S: Tell us a little bit about your background. What path has led you to what you do now? 

MBW: We both have design backgrounds and have always been creative for as long as we can remember, due to our mum's continuous crafting when we were little. Currently Lyndsay is a web designer extraordinaire by day (www.whitepixels.com) and Kelly works in a small design boutique a few days a week too(www.made590.com.au). We both have side projects we create as well as making Made By White together which gives us both an opportunity to make something completely ours!

Kelly's project is The Storybook Rabbit (www.thestorybookrabbit.com) which combines her love of vintage, floral, animals and illustration into one of a kind plates for the wall and other things adorned with cute animals (but mostly bunnies) which are sold through her etsy shop.

Lyndsay also has an amazing online store called Candy Stripe Cloud (www.candystripecloud.com) which is a myriad off colourful, fun and cute products. She designs Candy Stripe Cloud jewellery, homewares and sells a million other adorable things there.

So we have very busy and very fun lives which we are lucky enough to share with one another through Made By White and as sisters.
 

S: It's hard to imagine you even having time to run Made By White on top of all these extra projects! Can you take us through the processes that you go through to get to get to an end product?

MBW: We usually start with an idea either one of us will come up with, usually Kelly will do a drawing of the idea/character, Lyndsay will then trace the drawing in illustrator, make the design work technically, and then we'll cut a sample. We'll look at the sample together, talk about if it works, and if its doesn't we'll make adjustments to size, shape, colour, materials etc until it does. Then when we think we have it right we'll make the product up in a small amount and make it available online through madebywhite.com and see what everyone else thinks!
 

S: Can you give us a bit of insight to the company structure of Made By White? Do you have a large team of employees or are you both still very hands on?

MBW: Made By White is literally just us, our very supportive boyfriends, our pets (kelly has a bunny and french bulldog, lyndsay has finches and hungry goldfish) and our at home workspaces! We are both very hands on and make and pack all our own orders, reply to all our own emails and just generally share our brand as best we can.
 

S: All of your pieces are handmade in Australia (by the two of you no less!). What challenges/triumphs have you faced not only manufacturing in Australia, but also having each of your pieces made by hand?

MBW: It obviously is very time consuming but important to us to make each piece by hand because this means we can put a little bit of love into everything we do. We also like to know we can ensure a quality, unique piece in each brooch, necklace or earring set we produce which is all made locally, and not mass produced. We think people do appreciate the specialness of each design and all the work we put into keeping our ideas new. And also we like to think buying locally handmade is a great way to ensure you support designers doing what they love, like us!
 

S: When starting a new body of work, where do you turn for inspiration and ideas?
 

MBW: We love to discover new animals, draw from our travel experiences and just basically look at everything we love and try to design jewellery around it. Sometimes we will see a baby animal and think, "that would be an amazing brooch!" or look at a fairytale we know and see what elements we can interpret and make our own. All our ideas are completely random and some are just based on something as small as a conversation we have together.
 

S: And lastly, what does a typical day in the Made By White studio involve?

MBW: We unfortunately don't have a studio, but Made By White lives in both our houses. On a typical day we might laser cut some pieces, make up a batch of brooches, glue 30 pairs of stud earrings for a stockist, pack orders from our website to go off to their new homes, write a blog and do a trip to the postoffice, (very importantly) picking up some coffees on the way for all of us. It's a busy but fun way to run a little brand together and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Many thanks to you both for taking the time to answer these questions. Shop online for Made By White's current range here!

Meet Your Maker: Page Thirty Three

Recently I had the privilege to have a chat with Bianca Riggio of Page Thirty Three to discuss their new collection, the woes of offshore manufacturing (and how to avoid it) and that tricky line between art and design. 

S: Who is Page Thirty Three?

BR: Page Thirty Three is an object design label run by myself Bianca Riggio & my pertness Ryan Hanrahan.
S: Tell us a little bit about your background. What path has led you to what you do now?

BR: We have both always been creatives, & have always wanted to do an independent, creative venture, so it evolved pretty naturally when we met. We both also studied fine arts.

S: What does a typical day at work involve for you?

BR: It depends a lot on the time of year. In the Christmas season, there is a lot to do in the warehouse.

Ryan starts his day by making 5 Essentail Oil Burners every morning. We try to time block; like one day for production, one day for marketing + PR, one day for research etc... so many hats!

Standard 3:00pm coffee breaks all year around.

S: Is Page Thirty Three art, design or an amalgamation of both? Discuss.

BR: Page Thirty Three is definitely an amalgamation of both art & design. Some our pieces started out as artworks, such as the Cinematic light box & life sucks drinking straws. We are constantly intrigued by the cross pollination of art into other genres. I think its a great thing to be an artist that designs, as there isn't much to be tied down to. We don't know the rules of design, so we just design by intrigue.  I like to think that most of what we do is conceptual.


S: You recently launched your new collection ‘Entertaining the Myth’. With pieces like the scientific-style oil burner and the reclaimed book sculptures, there is quite an old school feel. Can you tell us a little bit about the ideas and direction behind these pieces?

BR: Well over a certain time we collect pictures, fabrics, machines, books. We also visit places like test tube factories and thats were the creation begins. All of these collectables along with our personal interests get mashed up together and come out as the ideas we have for new products. Ryan and i love burning oils at home so as soon as we visited the test tube factory all we saw (in our minds) were oil burners. It was so obvious.

The fact they they are old looking stems more from that we are trying to design towards repurposed materials. They have so much charm and it feels ethically responsible as a designer.

S: The majority of your products are manufactured in Australia. As a country increasingly turning to offshore manufacturing, what are the challenges/triumphs you’ve faced in keeping your production in Australia?

BR: Have you got all day? It is in some cases impossible to manufacture in Australia, because we don't have the actually tooling required. And in other situations the few people who have the machinery are not willing to try and create products.

But overall I guess the biggest challenge is trying to consider multiple things at once, the main question we have to ask ourselves is, would I pay X amount for this? In such a price conscience retail environment you have to make the call sometimes whether the product you have in mind is actually viable at a certain price point. Like you finally find someone in Australia what will make your wacky creation, but you cannot go ahead because it would mean such an inflated retail cost. This is why we are moving to creating pieces in house. 

 
But it's all worth while, we are working towards 100% Australian made. It just feels more aligned with the state of the world, to  try and do small runs of products locally that mass producing. It also allows you to be more responsive to the market condition.
S: What is currently written on your cinematic lightbox?

BR: "Soul food served here" sitting in our kitchen.


Thanks Bianca! It's so good to see a small Australian business creating original and creative products. You can find much of Page Thirty Three's iconic range at Stockroom - lots of perfect Christmas gifts!