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JIM FRANCO This photographer and video director by day is a ceramicist at night (and very early in the morning). H OW I GOT MY START
MY C E R AM IC S ST YLE
change. I take a ball of clay and transform it into a useful object. If I’m lucky, it might also satisfy my sense of design and proportion.
Simple and quiet. It’s about crafting a piece with a form that is almost plain.
I ’ M I N S PI R E D BY
WHAT I LOVE
WH E RE TO BUY
The immediate sense of completion and
jimfrancoceramics.com; $40–$300
ASYA PALATOVA
University of Cincinnati. Then, while I was working as a graphic designer, I was accepted into the graduate ceramics program at Rhode Island School of Design.
The owner of Gleena (which means “clay” in Russian) specializes in soft, sugary colors and vintage illustrations transferred in metal ink. H OW I GOT MY START
Evening ceramics courses as an undergraduate at the
Painting. Seeing the work of other ceramics artists.
MY C E R AM IC S ST YLE
Is influenced by summers spent at my family dacha, a Russian country house. It’s a source of endless inspiration. WHAT I LOVE
Creating a new shape or glaze. It’s like Christmas every time you open a kiln. I ’ M I N S PI R E D BY
Being outside. Some of the plants, insects, and birds I see end up as imagery on my pieces. WH E RE TO BUY
gleena.com; $20–$250
30 BHG | September 2016
PHOTOS: (JIM’S PORTRAIT AND CERAMICS) JIM FRANCO, (ASYA’S PORTRAIT) DANIELA STALLINGER, (ASYA’S CERAMICS) ASYA PALATOVA
I have for years loved handmade ceramic pieces. About four years ago my partner said, “I bet you could make bowls,” and it started me thinking. The first time I made a cylinder I immediately became obsessed with throwing on the wheel.
