As a potter, it is a pleasure and privilege to buy another potter’s work. I know firsthand how laborious working with clay is. I also know how hard is it to quantify originality, imagination, and the many failed pieces that pave the way for the successful ones. Machines have become so damn good at emulating human hands that $50 mugs are hard to justify. Until you’ve held one. Sipped hot ginger tea out of one. Until you’ve amassed a collection of them, purchased over time, each one with its own distinct personality and story. I came across Caitlin O’Reilly faceted mugs in emerald today and I love them. Her mini dishes are tactile and warm, too. I walked away with a large bowl glazed in a deep, dark oxidized green that reminded me of an ocean pool. Now, what to fill it with? Shells? Lemons? Or nothing at all?

I really like Jane Ormes‘ use of pattern and colour. Her folk art inspired bowls could have belonged to your Great Aunt Astrilde, if Great Aunt Astrilde had superb taste. Her drawings are equally whimsical. I’m no fan of pigeons, but I do love this one. Have a scroll through her work. It’ll amuse and delight you.

Amy Brnger‘s flowers are loose and painterly, and just what I wanted to find at the end of a long week. Some are so loose that they barely even look like flowers. Her Grape Hyacinths, Forget-Me-Nots and her Daffodils are my favourites. Light, fresh, vivid colours –– I could easily snap up a collection of them.

Ariana Heinzman‘s ceramics are a striking fusion of organic form with colourful surface decoration. It’s the heavy black outlines that accentuate her rich and zany designs. Beautifully playful, her vessels have an air of Marimekko meets Die Brücke meets African mud cloth meets Kazuri beads. That’s what I see, anyway. While I love her colour rich vases and cups, it’s the monochromatic ones that I’m most drawn to. One never tires of the bold, graphic appeal of black and white.

Filed away in the very large folder of things I love the idea of, but would never want to live with, is the jet black bathroom. Charcoal tiles, obsidian walls and a black marble tub fit for King Tut –– it doesn’t get darker and more decadent than that. Smoky mirrors do wonders for one’s self esteem. Keep the lighting dim and moody. Maybe I could live here, after all.