It’s Giveaway Week!!! We have two fun giveaways this week, starting with this hand-crafted utensil jar from Christine Tavares Pottery! We fell for Christine’s “organic chic” (and totally affordable!) pieces when we featured this jar as an idea for a winter bulb planter.
Enter to win by just leaving a comment on this post! Tell us what you think, how you’d use it, whatever you want. We’ll pick a winner from the comments later this week and notify the winner by email.
Read on for our interview with Christine and her tips on how to add affordable, original art to your home:
Hi Christine! Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into pottery.
I’ve been married to the funniest man in the world for 15 years and we live outside of St.Louis. I get to thank him for my premature smile lines! We have three beautiful children and three dogs. I’m a “working artist” and I also teach part-time. I love reading, wine, music and entertaining.
Since I can remember, I have always been creating something…drawings, paintings, sculptures, edible treats, etc. I found clay mistakenly in high school when I thought “ceramics” was a class where we would paint little statues and dishes. Imagine my surprise on the first day when the teacher brought out lumps of brown mud! I was disappointed for about 30 seconds. Clay and I have had a nonstop love affair ever since.
I create functional vessels for every day use like mugs, serving platters, pouring vessels, bowls, etc. It is important to me for things to be useful and beautiful. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to be at a gathering with friends or family and to see food beautifully displayed on handmade pottery. I currently selling my work on Etsy, on consignment and in local art fairs.
What are 3 items that you couldn’t live without in your home?
My Dyson backpack vacuum cleaner (again – 3 dogs), my treadle wheel (it allows me to feel more connected to my work) and laughter.
We love your pieces. Do you have a favorite that you’ve created over the years?
Early in my career, my pieces were very tight and controlled and not very interesting. I was having a creative block and Paul Dresang (my college instructor) put me through an exercise in letting go. He said, “Take a piece of clay out of your bag, throw it down on the wheel. Just make something”. I was furious! But I realized what a thrill it was to just let go.
My favorite piece is something that I didn’t have the strength, creativity or courage to do on my own. By letting go, I was able to break away from manufactured-looking, cold pieces of pottery and find my style which is organic, rustic and sophisticated all at once. Here is a picture of that wonderful, graceful and fluid little bowl.
Who or what do you look to for inspiration?
Much of my work is inspired by nature. I really like the femininity of flowing lines, rounded shapes and waves. I also am inspired by elements of a comfortable home so I try to make items that add to a home’s surroundings. Some of my favorite ceramic artists are Bede Clark, Charity Davis-Woodard, and Clary Illian.
A lot of people see original art and bespoke pieces as expensive and unattainable. Do you have any tips on how the average person could incorporate more art in their home?
Functional pottery is the perfect way to incorporate art into your home! Everyday pieces that you use often typically aren’t too expensive and they are actually little pieces of art! Visit local art fairs, Etsy.com and events at local universities. College art departments occasionally have sales on many types of art from students as well as from the faculty. You can find some wonderful art at bargain prices.
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This pot is so beautiful! I would probably use it on my back patio for herbs or another potted plant or veggie (I am always trying new things in my garden!).
What a wonderful interview – I’ve known Christine since we were kindergarten Girl Scout troop leaders together and have always been inspired by her dedication to her art. I love the idea of a winter bulb planter, and I especially appreciated Christine’s comments about affordable ways to add art to my home.
Love this! I have been wanting to start a little herb garden so there’s a good chance I’d use it for that. I also just love having fresh flowers around so some bulbs might be a great idea!
Fun interview. I like the last question! I would use this as a plantar for one of my dark purple vine plants.
I can boast several pieces of Christine’s pottery in my home. I love the earthy but graceful quality of her work – and the affordability. The piece displayed here could easily stand on it’s own, but could hold wild flowers or indeed bulbs for Spring. The lucky winner will surely treasure it as I do each of mine.
Christine I love your story. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I’ve decided to do something special with my
“funny” husband should I be lucky enough to win the piece. If my husband leaves the house before me, he’s going to drop a note in the vessel for me to read at work when I need it most. I will do the same for him should I leave before he does. This will give us both a chance to smile throughout our day. We’re calling it, “The Love Cup”.
I love this jar. It makes me think about trees and the rich dark earth. It looks like something that I would make and it reminds me of something that I did make-my daughter. Creating is something that Christine has been doing for most of her life and through the years her artwork keeps getting better and better.
If this jar were mine I would see and feel the love that went into it and I would always treasure it.
I loved this jar when I saw it in the previous idea for a winter bulb planter, but I saw it as something totally different. My fiance talked me into saving a cork from a bottle of wine we had at dinner one night which I found to be very strange, little did I know he was proposing that night and thought that I would want to hold onto it. I have had this cork for over a year now, and have also collected many others. I think this jar would be a perfect decorative and earthy piece to display them all in, especially the most important one!
Wow! This pottery is beautiful. If I won this, I would definitely use it to plant herbs in, and keep it in my kitchen window so I could see it (and use it) daily.
I love the pot! I am totally into unique pieces of art that double as functional things in my home. I would plant some herbs or flowers for spring on my back patio. I the love the style of it, so fun 🙂
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Very fun pot! I think it could be useful to store wooden spoons in the kitchen!
(although I do like the idea of daffodils growing out of it!)
I love Christine’s work and her super cool style. I’m pretty sure this piece would get filled with the many, many daffodils my daughters will pick this spring and the many, many wildflowers they’ll pick all summer.
LOVE Christine’s work! It’s so sensual and earthy.
I would use the beautiful pot in my bathroom b/cit would perfectly match the decor in my little bathing sanctuary. Probably I would fill it with herbs or salts.
I would use it on my counter for all my various kitchen utensils – my wooden spoons and large and small whisks would look lovely in such a vessel! Its colors remind me of a forest – woodsy and earthy.
Wonderful pots! Your description of “letting go” so that the natural beauty of clay and glaze can be released is inspiring. Having your pot would remind to let that happen every day.
Beautiful pottery! Love the ideas for how to incorporate more art!
My Husband and I have purchased a couple of Christine’s pieces before and they are proudly displayed in our home. Her work is fresh and unique and not just a “show piece”. Keep up the good work Christine! 🙂
I have a few pottery pieces that I was given as wedding gifts from my friend’s mom. They are from somewhere near Athens, OH and they have many neat pieces. I think I would use a pottery piece such as this to put on the mantel of the fireplace in the new house. Perhaps some sort of branch or other decorative pieces to bring the earth and wood themes for feng shui into the home 🙂
I would use this pottery as awesome decor in my living room because it would match perfectly. 🙂 That is, nothing really matches, but it all looks really cool together.
My fiance and I are always leaving our keys, school ID’s, work keys etc… around the house. I would keep it on our shelf right next to our door as a reminder to drop our keys in the jar so that we aren’t running around like crazy trying to collect these things in the morning!
I think I would use the pottery to display an arrangement of dried wheat, straw flowers, seed pods or other finds from the yard or farmers market.
The above can be used all yr. Round as flower pot