Collaboration speaks to our values here at Martha Mae. While we always curate our shop with high-quality, thoughtful goods that we believe in, working with artists on exclusive products allows us to bring some of our visions to life.
After working with Julia Finlayson of Grandmont Street on our Tiny Dining collection, the conversation began on making a line of artist tools. Ones that we feel like are missing from our personal practices and others that came out of conversations with our artist friends.
The Martha Mae team stopped by Julia's ceramic studio in Evanston to get a behind-the-scenes look at how she is creating each and every piece in our Studio Tools collection by hand. You can view a video of the process and studio here.
Julia's work is timeless yet perfectly suited for any space it finds itself in. Heirlooms in the making.
Coming to ceramics from other creative avenues, Julia's career shift celebrates how embracing new skills and passions can lead to growth and exploration in both work and life.
During our studio visit, Julia walked us through her process of making paint palettes. First thrown on the wheel, then each paint well is shaped and molded by hand. We love that each piece in this collection feels truly one-of-a-kind, each thoughtfully formed by Julia's creativity and craftsmanship.
Months of planning go into each of our product collaborations. Some stem from a simple passing conversation, while others come from an idea that has been brewing for some time. The process, while always different, shares the similarity that wherever we end up is different from where we started. Discussions and tests allow us to alter our products to be their best possible versions.
In collaborating with Julia, we've come away with The Stacking Palette - a small stacking paint palette, The Petite Palette - a palette featuring a brush rest, The Tool Holder - large vessels to store your brushes and tools, The Petite Tool Holder - small cups to organize your tiny objects, and The Feather - a print/photo holder to display your artwork.
We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look!
If you're an artist, send us a message at info@marthamae.info with ideas or suggestions about art tools that you would love to utilize in your practice. As we continue to build this line, we'd love to incorporate your ideas.