"Morning Walk" Commercial Project

We are so happy to see this custom composition installed in this healthcare setting in Indiana. We started the process with a conversation and a sketch.

After carving in leather hard clay, drying, bisque firing, and glazing in our favorite palette of cheerful colors, the tiles undergo a second glaze firing. After this second firing the bright colors are set and then we apply the semiprecious stones. The photo below shows several of the tiles up to this point. We then grouted the tiles, mounted the rectangular pieces, and set the round tiles into their frames.

Reach out to us if you have a custom commercial or residential project you would like to discuss. You can email us at romyandclare@gmail.com, contact us through etsy messages, or reach out to us on Wescover.  We welcome custom projects and installations from homeowners and designers alike. Simply let us know what you are interested in creating by reaching out to us.

California Kitchen Niche

This was a really fun project. Our client was moving into a new home where space was made for an inset niche in the new kitchen behind the cooktop. After sending an inspiration photo of her favorite tree on the property, Clare sketched up a design (shown below). After approval Clare carved the design in 3 panels in stoneware clay. After the bisque (first) firing, Romy glazed the whimsical scene in our favorite palette of cheery glazes. We carefully packaged and shipped the tiles to California where the panels were professionally installed in the niche.

Please reach out to us if you have a custom project that you would like to discuss! You can learn more about the custom order process here. Please reach out to us on etsy, wescover, or via email at romyandclare@gmail.com.

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Clare & Romy Studio on Wescover.com

You can now find our Clare & Romy Studio line of ceramic art on Wescover. Our Studio line for both residential and commercial spaces offers a midcentury design aesthetic with a more subdued color palette. We started with a new stoneware clay body and locally sourced, small batch glazes and got to work. Check back often as we continue to add new pieces. We offer a trade discount on Wescover and are happy to discuss custom orders.

Alabama Visitors

For the past two or three years, a group of ladies from Alabama make a stop at our studio on their way north where they visit family. It is good fun to visit with them. They each have several pieces of our work and so kindly have shared photos with us of the artwork in their environments. We do love seeing where our artwork makes its new home!

Spotted in HEWN San Francisco!

So nice to see our Mayan Sun wall art from the Sculpted Collection: Keith Fritz + Clare & Romy Studio in the HEWN Showroom in San Francisco!

Photo/ Keith Fritz

Montana Gallery Wall

We love how our 5 inch mounted squares are right at home in this Montana gallery wall. These handmade stoneware ceramic and semiprecious stone mosaic tiles are approximately 5 x 5 x 1” each and are mounted and ready to hang.  Find these made to order along with more original artwork in our shop.  

Red Poppy Serving Bowl Set

With the holiday season approaching we felt like it was time to introduce a few serving pieces suitable for tabletop use for family gatherings.  These larger serving pieces often get snapped up for holiday, housewarming, and wedding gifts too.  Select the gift wrap option when ordering, add your gift message at check out, and we will take care of the rest!  

The 12 1/2” pasta bowl easily handles a pound of your favorite pasta.  The generous 15” salad bowl can take on an aggressive amount of leafy greens with room to toss comfortably!  Red Poppy pattern shown here.

We freehand draw, hand paint and sign each piece individually. Through the use of several layers of underglaze, our pieces boast a rich vibrant color palette. These bowls are functional and food safe.  Find them in our shop>>>

Thistle Ceramic Pendant Necklace in Gift Pouch

A sweet gift for mother, daughter, sister, grandma, gardener, flower lover, nature lover, teacher, dog walker…  Find Thistle Ceramic Pendant Necklace in our shop Made to Order.  Magnetic barrel closure on an 18” coated cable with a 2 1/4 x 1 1/2” Turkish silver-plated pendant filled with our handcarved ceramic tile.  Like all of our jewelry and belt buckles, this necklace comes ready for gifting in a one-of-a-kind, pretty gift pouch (each pouch varies in color and design).  Please order early as each piece is individually hand carved and made to order but worth the wait!

Dragonfly Ceramic and Mosaic Art Bowl

This custom ordered stoneware ceramic and mosaic art bowl was ordered by a longtime client in Michigan.  Because she wanted to feature the bowl on her oversized coffee table, she asked us to make the largest bowl we could. We asked our friend Monte Young to throw this 20 inch bowl for us and we carved this whimsical pattern into the raw clay, then bisque fired, glazed in this bold palette, and fired again. She especially likes dragonflies so we incorporated them here and added mosaic accents of turquoise, amethyst, cultured pearl, and bits of coral as well.

We enjoy the process of working with customers to create a piece that suits their needs.  If you are interested in a custom piece of your own, find more info here.  Find more handcarved art bowls in our online shop.

Anticipating Spring!

We are so happy to introduce this fresh hand carved stoneware art bowl to inject a little joy into the universe!  Our friend and potter Monte Young expertly threw this bowl for us and we hand-carved this cheerful design into the clay, glazed it in our favorite bright color palette, and after firing, added semiprecious stones and grout for a more textured mosaic effect. 

This generously sized art bowl makes a wonderful fruit bowl, dining table centerpiece, entryway catch-all, or pretty display bowl, but is not food safe.

See more of our hand-carved bowls, platters, and vessels here >>>

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Kitchen Upgrade: Canisters with a Point of View

We like to look for art and housewares that have a unique flair so we make things for our friends and customers that fill that bill for them as well. Along with the influence of our travels, pattern and texture inform a lot of our designs. This Arabesque black and white set is an example of that. We consider these functional art for your kitchen. You can find them along with our other canister designs here >>>

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Exciting New Partnership with Artful Home!

We are very happy to announce our recent partnership with Artful Home!  Artful Home offers juried art, craft, and design for your home and wardrobe.  We are honored to be selected to show our work in the company of such fine artists.  Please watch as we continue to add new works of art to our collection. 

Hand-carved Stoneware and Mosaic Tiles framed in Reclaimed Vintage Indian Corbels

We love everything about these vintage Indian corbels - such elegant shapes, wonderful carving, and above all a beautiful patina that can’t be recreated - just two wonderfully unique pieces.  Here we show them as a wonderfully impactful statement piece on Romy’s covered porch fireplace mantel.  

We refreshed the set with the addition of our hand-carved stoneware and semiprecious stone mosaic tiles on each corbel.  The corbel tile on the left is centered with faceted amethyst and a ring of turquoise. The corbel tile on the right has a red flower centered with amethyst and surrounded by a ring of green jade.  These pieces are ready to hang either vertically or horizontally.

Overall size each 27 x 35 x 1 1/2” approximately.

Find the set in our shop here>>>

Studio Garden Tour

Last week we had a little photoshoot at our studio and thought we would take a moment to document the garden areas that surround it. For the longest time our rain boots were never far out of reach as they were a requirement to make the short walk from the driveway and Clare’s house in rainy weather. At least that was the case until we added a new river stone garden path composed of local stones harvested from a creek on a friend’s property.

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The studio sits near Clare’s house and surrounding acreage which is full of nature’s inspiration. Despite southern Indiana’s summer heat and humidity, we like to keep the studio doors and windows open and only in the most desperate of days do we flip on the air conditioner. Maybe it’s ingrained to us as we spent many hours playing outside together as kids and creating our own worlds in the trees and creek beds in our own back yards.

Nearby is the vegetable garden and fire pit area that sits in the clearing on the edge of Clare’s apple trees (below). A patinated half-moon of iron scrollwork sits as an introduction to the tomato and basil garden. As you pass through the entry to the four raised bed boxes a well-worn Chinese grinding stone centers the paths’ intersection. Tucked in the herringbone brick path are geodes, plentiful in southern Indiana.

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Over the years we have collected a few pieces of art from other artists and friends. Amongst the purple coneflower patch is a cheerful garden stake from glass artist Diana Juratovac from Clintonville, OH. Across the drive from the coneflower bed is the side porch to Clare’s house where a wonderful portrait piece by Tennessee folk artist Michael Hooper welcomes friends and family.

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Approaching the studio Clare created a new bed which borders a parking area in front of the studio. It is defined by more of the large creek stones and filled with assorted sedums, creeping Jenny, ajuga, and pink impatiens.

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We feel fortunate to come to work in these surroundings. We host the Beehive Arts Market at our studio and its surroundings and invite you to visit with us in our studio at the next Beehive in 2021. In the meantime, if you are looking for our artwork, you may find it in our etsy shop>>

Still Life Flowers

When we are in our booth at in-person art shows, many customers ask us for art that fits certain spaces in their house. These are substantial panels on their own, but when grouped together in this set of three, it brings life to wall space above a headboard, dining room buffet, sofa wall, or bathroom garden tub. Our ceramic and mosaic artwork is well-suited to damp bathroom spaces and a single panel is perfectly proportioned to the area above a toilet tank. We think you can transform a neutral or all black and white decor with this uplifting and colorful modern stylized still life. 

The series of photos below illuminates our process. We hand-sculpt these whimsical tiles from Indiana stoneware clay, then bisque fire, glaze, fire again, and add semiprecious stones and grout for a mosaic effect. The colorful tiles are then set in painted black wood frames. We sign the artwork on the back.

You can purchase a single panel or the set of three here.

Carved panel in raw clay

Drying - waiting for bisque firing (first fire)

After bisque firing

Post-glaze but pre-glaze fire

After glaze fire and ready for semiprecious stone mosaic touches

Clare grouting

Lean into the Light, Still Life Flowers Ceramic and Mosaic Wall Art

Sunflower with Suzani Band, Still Life Flowers Ceramic and Mosaic Wall Art

First Flowers, Still Life Flowers Ceramic and Mosaic Wall Art

Black and White Modern Motifs Wall Sculpture

What a week!  Checked off a couple of boxes this week that we have had on our to-do list for a  ~ l o n g ~  time.  Glad also to introduce our Black and White Modern Motifs wall sculpture.  It was a fun challenge to answer the call for a larger black and white piece and we limited ourselves to one semiprecious stone in this case it was cultured pearl.  Thought about using black onyx but felt it would not be discernible from the black glazed areas.  We really like the subtleness of the pearl here.  Find this piece (made to order) in our #etsy shop here.

Six of the original twelve have already been purchased from our First Look event.  If you want to be among the first to see our latest one-of-a-kind wall art, pottery, home accessories, and jewelry, AND get them at a discount, sign up for our mailing list. Be sure to tick the “First Look” box.  Sign up here…. http://eepurl.com/m2ylr

Living Room Art

Pretty day today and we take comfort in keeping as close to normal of a routine as we can as we socially distance in our studio. Feels good to have the door open and hear the birds as we work create some new work. We are really excited about a triptych (photo above shows one of the three panels) we are working on that we think would feel right at home above a sofa or buffet in a living room or dining room space. The set would also work well above a headboard in a bedroom and, since our work is ceramic, it actually is perfect for humid bathroom spaces too. This soon-to-be-finished set of three would be really pretty above a bathtub area.

We just finished carving the design in this 11” x 21” slab and it now awaits its bisque firing. Looking forward to adding the colors in the glazing process, then it will get its glaze firing and its semiprecious stone mosaic touches. We will post a pic of the finished work in coming days. To see more of our original wall art, visit our shop here.

Also a friendly reminder: Mother’s Day is May 10th and if you would like to gift your mother, grandmother, or special person a flower of some sort, why not make it one that never wilts! Find cheerful floral wall art, as well as a selection of colorful, hand-carved floral pendant necklaces, rings, and bracelets, in our shop by clicking here.

Studio Pup

If you have paid a visit to our studio, you likely have been abundantly welcomed by Bella. She is a gregarious 3 year old golden doodle with A LOT of curiosity. Here she is nosing her way into a jewelry photo shoot, making the perfect backdrop for one of our handsculpted stoneware tile and coral statement rings. Find it in our shop.

Community Art

We had a lot of fun yesterday at the The Beehive’s latest work session on the Beehive’s Community Art Project that will be installed in the new Jasper Public Library, Jasper, Indiana.  During the 2019 Beehive gathering, many of you contributed to this public work by painting different areas on the panels with your own designs.  We were impressed by all the talent and enthusiasm you all showed for this project!

Jasper is fortunate to have a great city arts program and is currently building the new Cultural Center in our downtown area, which will combine our public library with our city arts program and will include artist studios, classroom spaces, multiple galleries and shared public spaces.  This large art piece will be installed in the main area of the new library.  We are both very happy to be a part of the Beehive and are proud to help create this inspiring piece!

The first photo shows Clare sketching out the overlay designs, the second photo shows the final look of a section of the project after the overlay design was painted on, and the third photo is of the community-painted panel prior to the overlay work. The photo below is from the 2019 Beehive where members of the community were invited to paint on panels which will be installed in the new library upon its completion.

Making room...

After having spent a good deal of time thinking about our next move forward with our design work, we know that we need (and want) to concentrate on our one-of-a-kind pieces. This, of course, means that we need to make literal and figurative space to accommodate this effort. Although it was a difficult decision, we have decided to limit our offering of pottery serveware pieces. Therefore we are offering our retired designs at a discount which makes it a great time to add to your Romy & Clare collections before certain designs are gone. Find them under the SALE tab in our etsy shop or click here.

Where are we headed? Find out by signing up for our mailing list and be sure to check the box to be included on the First Look list. At our First Look event, you will be among the first to see our latest designs and have the ability to purchase them for a limited time at a discount. We are excited about our upcoming projects and look forward to showing them off to you!