{"id":214982,"date":"2023-09-05T17:13:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_news&p=214982"},"modified":"2023-09-05T17:13:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:13:15","slug":"ceramicist-olivia-barry-by-hand","status":"publish","type":"id_news","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/designwire\/ceramicist-olivia-barry-by-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceramicist Olivia Barry Looks to the Past for Present Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\"Olivia
Her ceramic installation, a collaboration with artist James Thomas and commissioned by Gensler, at the Swan, an Orlando, Florida, restaurant. Photography by John Muggenborg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

September 5, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Stephen Treffinger<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Ceramicist Olivia Barry Looks to the Past for Present Designs<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

As a designer and an artist, Olivia Barry merges the problem-solving aspects of industrial design with a deep connection to materials and the making of things with her own hands. The child of an architectural engineer father and a painter mother, she believes this is in her DNA. She also possesses a fierce determination. \u201cThe first thing I did after graduating college in Michigan was drive to New York and look for a job,\u201d which, it being the pre-Internet era, entailed writing a letter to\u2014and getting hired by\u2014furniture designer Dakota Jackson<\/a>. Seven years later, Barry took the same tack with the legendary ceramicist Eva Zeisel, with whom she worked for over a decade up until her death in 2011 at age 105. Along the way, Barry made pottery commissioned by Crate & Barrel, Elizabeth Roberts Architects, and Tsao & McKown, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Olivia Barry\/By Hand<\/a>, the name of her studio and first lighting collection, soft-launched at Field + Supply last fall, officially debuted during ICFF at Wanted Design in May, and won a NYCxDesign Award<\/a>. From her Hudson Valley studio, she tells us about the journey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"The
The namesake founder of Olivia Barry\/By Hand. Photography by Emerald Layne.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Get to Know Ceramicist Olivia Barry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Interior Design: How did you find your way to ceramics?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Barry: My grand\u00admother was a potter, and the exposure I got from her lit a spark in me. I took pottery classes from age 10 in Toronto, where I grew up, and then in Ohio, where we moved when I was a teenager. Wherever I\u2019ve lived, I\u2019ve always found studios in which to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ID: But didn\u2019t you originally study industrial design?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: Yes, at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Although it\u2019s known for automotive design, it has an amazing and unsung industrial design program as well. Another influence was meeting Wendell Castle in high school, when he was giving a talk at the Toledo Museum of Art. I was really interested in his work and the sculptural nature of furniture, so I pursued those ideas in school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

ID: What was that like working with Dakota Jackson?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: I was 22 and it was my first job, so I didn\u2019t know what to expect. The studio was adjacent to the factory. I was able to see everything being made right there. If you design something on a computer and you send the specs to a factory far away, it\u2019s a different process. But working with Dakota was very hands on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ID: Can you describe a typical day with the late Eva Zeisel<\/a>?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: We would work in her living room in her country house. She was very pas\u00adsionate and had a lot of energy. She had clients like Namb\u00e9 commissioning pieces she needed help with, so I would translate her sketches into working drawings. Another project was a stainless-steel flatware set for Crate & Barrel, which we first made of balsa wood using a Dremel, passing it back and forth. Because of her limited eyesight, I would start carving based on drawings, then she\u2019d feel it and we\u2019d talk about it. Then I\u2019d continue carving.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Olivia
Her tinted porcelain Blue Moon Tondo, with a 13-inch diameter, 4-mm thickness, and wiring to be backlit. Photography by John Muggenborg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

ID: What is the most interesting thing you learned from her?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: To be brave. When Eva lived in Russia in the 1930\u2019s, she was imprisoned because she was accused of plotting to kill Stalin. She survived the Gulag for, I believe, 18 months. And then went on to have an incredible life. Eva did things other people hadn\u2019t done before and she did them seemingly fearlessly. She didn\u2019t worry about what was going on in the design world. I don\u2019t think she really noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Olivia
The two in 2007 working on the 101 Collection for Zeisel\u2019s 101st birthday. Photography by Talisman Brolin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ID: How did you end up going out on your own?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: I was working for Eva on the weekends or after hours while also making my own ceramics in a group studio in Brooklyn. I\u2019d done prototypes for what is now my Scroll Luminaire, which ended up in the Design Trust for Public Space auction in 2017. People really responded to them\u2014there was even a bidding war. So, I decided to start working on more, moved out of the city, and built a studio in Tarrytown, where I now live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

ID: Tell us about your round pieces.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: For my Tondos, which is a renaissance term for a circular work of art derived from the Italian rotondo, I wanted to take clay off the table and put it on the wall, a kind of clay painting. I use pigments to tint the clay and blend different colors together using a slab roller. I also do a metallic glaze, which reflects light and movement, but the image isn\u2019t crisp, like a mirror. And they can be wired with lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ID: What\u2019s the idea behind your Scroll series?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: I don\u2019t love lampshades. So I gave myself a problem-solving question: Could I design a lamp out of clay that didn\u2019t need a shade? For the Luminaire, which comes as a lamp or sconce, I came up with a scroll shape, where the body is a sheet of clay and the bulb is hidden inside, and the clay can be tinted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ID: What\u2019s next?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OB: I\u2019m working on a special set of Luminaires for Rue IV in Washington. The pieces will be available in all white, as well as in a custom palette for the showroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Olivia
Her handmade stoneware Scroll Luminaire table lamps, 2022. Photography by John Muggenborg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Peek at Olivia Barry’s Lighting Designs, and More<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"A
A colored-pencil sketch of an ornament for the MoMA Design Store. Image courtesy of Olivia Barry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"the
The resulting Blue Bell ornament in Murano glass for the MoMA Design Store, a 2009 collaboration with Eva Zeisel. Image courtesy of the MoMA Design Store.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A rendering of Barry\u2019s Tondos showing their modular potential. Photography by John Muggenborg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Eva Zeisel II stainless-steel flatware for Crate & Barrel from 2007 (reproductions available at evazeiseloriginals.com). Photography by John Muggenborg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"Centennial
Centennial Goblet, a dual wine\/martini glass by Zeisel and Barry for Bombay Sapphire, 2001.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Olivia
Barry\u2019s pencil sketch of the Centennial. Image courtesy of Olivia Barry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Olivia
Her ceramic installation, a collaboration with artist James Thomas and commissioned by Gensler, at the Swan, an Orlando, Florida, restaurant. Photography by John Muggenborg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The ceramic Leaf sconce, 2023, part of Barry\u2019s Scroll Luminaire series. Photography by John Muggenborg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n