Stevie Michaels has spent her professional life split between Sydney and London, jumping between creative direction for luxury brands and interior design. She studied design after leaving high school, and even worked at Liberty London (dream job!) after graduating.
After a stint in as an interior designer at a Sydney-based architecture firm, last year the versatile designer took the leap and started her own homewares brand. In just twelve months, it’s already her full-time job!
Inspired by the Mediterranean coast, the small-batch homewares collection spans glassware and ceramics. Vases named after famous European beaches (Marseille, Biarritz, Saint-Raphael) are splashed with oceanic blues, sunshine yellow carafes, side plates adorned with painted seafood and nautical shapes, and platters edged with rippling waves. Each ceramic piece features Stevie’s own handpainted motifs.
‘I work with a local maker to execute each piece in small batches, from either a slip cast stone mould or hand thrown base, depending on the design,’ Stevie says. ‘The piece is then finessed, hand painted by me in my studio in Sydney, before it goes the kiln to be fired, glazed, and fired again.’
It’s a labour intensive process, but this craft-based approach yields a unique, handcrafted feel to each piece.
The same is true for Stevie’s bumpy, mottled glassware, which is made by artisans in Venice, using medieval Murano glassblowing techniques. Created in small batches, each piece is unique. Exactly the kind of timeless, functional design piece that we love!
See the full collection here.
