For years confetti dots were a pattern I festooned my dishes with. As polka dots grew in popularity, I stopped doing them as much. I think I felt like I wanted to ‘own’ dots? How crazy is that? I sort of like to think I reinvigorated the passion we inherently have for dots. Ah, the vanity! Damien Hirst’s use of dots in particular got to me because his were fetching such extravagent prices! My somewhat modest efforts at dots by comparison recessed into the back of my memory into an archive of early designs.

However, porcelain is a very durable product and people who have purchased my dishes over the years tend to continue to use them. A couple of weeks ago one such couple called me, 5 years since the last time I heard from them. They have a set of my confetti dot dishes and use them to this day. They have purchased a second home in California to be closer to new grandchildren and guess what? They want another set of confetti dot dishes! I was so impressed that I got back into dots.

So, this spring and summer we will feature confetti dots and lots of spring colors. Gardening has also started to become a more central component of my practice. The flowers that bloom during this season inspire my choice of colors and the fresh produce available seasonally locally also inspire cooking and entertaining, bringing friends together over a calm repast. What could be better?

Summer is finally starting to emerge following a false start back in March leading into a long cold spring. Today, after a week of cold and rainy weather, warmth and sunshine are beginning to assert themselves in our neck of the woods. I was finally able to get into the garden last week to begin planting a few things and look forward to doing more planting this weekend. In the meantime, these colorful dishes came out of the kiln for a client and are being packed up to find their way into a New York apartment. They remind me of so many blossoms right now – daffodil, azalea, bluebell, hydrangea and lilac. Bringing a little color from the garden into the studio, through the firing process and onto the table in the form of dishes is a kind of magical thing. Flowers’ blooms are seasonal and ephemeral. I love making more permanent their fleeting tones. Eating is always a party on colorful dishes.

Spring Collection for Great Finds

Maggie Calhoun of Great Finds in Valatie, New York is a terrific friend and colleague. She stopped by today to pick up some new work for the store — cups, bowls, platters and vases in bright colors — perfect for spring and Mother’s Day! I love her visits. Today she came with a gift — a four pack of pansies — ready to sink into the dirt after the last frost! Looks like we’re getting one tonight, so all those plants I have been collecting are coming indoors! (that tip courtesy of Chris Cashen of Miller’s Crossing)

4 piece place settings, in brights

I have been giving a set of dishes to DIFFA’s Dining by Design event for several years. This year I gave 12 place settings, 2 each in my favorite brights. Event opens in NYC this Thursay and runs through the weekend. Culminating dinner on Monday March, 26th. Should be quite an event. I love DIFFA and all the good work that they do. This year, I dedicate my donation to Phillip Patterson. xo

saucers and cake plates

New stuff hot out of the kiln heading to NYC or the new stylist sourcing store, the Prop Workshop.

I received this great shot from my friend, the designer/architect Eric Rymshaw at Fury Design. Notice the polka dotted bowls near the flat screen. Hmmm…. maybe time to do a few dots.

Collection for Great Finds, Valatie New York. Oval platters, bowls, cups

Dinner for three on davistudio plates

My friend Arthur sent me this lovely photo of a recent dinner he served on my dishes.

Film Columbia Coffee Cup

Our local film festival opens tomorrow. Pat and I are finishing packing up 50 of these lovelies to drop off at the film office to stick in the swag bags for all the film makers attending. If you are in upstate New York this week into the weekend, don’t miss it. Every year there are academy award winning sneaks and world class film choices. Curated by Peter Biskind.

Swadeshi  was the economic model Ghandi taught and demonstrated to get the British colonists out of India. In his words, “I must not serve my distant neighbour at the expense of the nearest.” According to Satish Kumar, “The British believed in centralized, industrialized, and mechanized modes of production. Gandhi turned this principle on its head and envisioned a decentralized, homegrown, hand-crafted mode of production. In his words, “Not mass production, but production by the masses.” Spinning cotton and weaving fabric or “khadi” was at the core of the swadeshi movement. In the 21st century, swadeshi means making stuff and selling it in small artisanal studios – art, craft.

What is Techno Swadeshi? How does technology enhance the possibility of swadeshi? Almost 100 years after Gandhi introduced his highly effective economic reform in India, the web and advances in technology have added multiple layers to our ability to participate in this revolutionary way of being. It could be thought of as a way to make things on a micro level, market them via the internet and change how we acquire goods.

My own studio practice has given me the hands on experience to share this possibility. I am engaged in making fine porcelain dinnerware, not for mass consumption but for a niche market. My motivation is to do what I am passionate about and make a living doing that. I have chosen not to out source my production, but that doesn’t mean I won’t out source as much as possible in order to achieve my basic premise. I buy my clay mixed and ready to go, because I can. I buy my glazes. I buy my boxes, packing material and use Fed Ex to ship my work all over the world. Doing what it takes to make a real living by making is more possible now than ever.

Is this pure Swadeshi? Maybe not, but it has the ear marks of a solution to mass produced junk available on every street corner around the world. Swadeshi, in the purest sense, is a local movement, becoming self-sustaining through the development of a local economy, and local production of goods needed to survive, to thrive and perhaps to evolve. In a free world, a democratic world, being engaged with all kinds of people is truly an act of generosity. If I set my priorities, my personal hierarchy as:

1) family

2) local community

3) region

4) nation

5) world

A micro-enterprise, one based on creation, innovation and production, has the potential to replace mass production as a means to satisfy the needs of people for food and goods. Using all the tools available to do this adds traction to an enterprise. The tools available today which gives Techno Swadeshi a chance to work include all of the technology at our disposal – computers, software, the internet, and the small tools for production itself.

This includes the need for a producer to market their work and their story. Social justice is built in. Environmental responsibility becomes possible. Believing in the power of positive manifestation of reality can and will create an alternate universe that promotes a peaceful exchange of ideas, resources and value. Art? Yes. All art functions. Techno Swadeshi can re-evolutionize the way the world looks and behaves. Social sculpture. Maybe it’s an idea whose time has come. So, make stuff and sell it! (Just be sure it is good…)