Our current featured artist is the lovely British Ceramicist Helen Beard, who created the above piece especially for Ashes & Milk as part of the most adorable Bird Cup Collection. I am in awe with the texture detail of Helen’s brushwork, each stroke carefully placed to represent feathers on the wing, tail, head and downy chest. The sky blue wash around the mouth of the cup is the perfect aviary for this little Warbler.

You can view the entire collection here and the newly added cups here here here and here.

I hope I don’t embarrass Helen too much by posting this video of her, but I could not pass up the chance to show you how charming of a person she is.

You can also see how Helen creates these ceramics right here.

Thank you Heather for the honorable mention at Elle Decoration.

When Heather emailed me to say that she loved our new website and that she was going to write up an article on Elle Decoration, I was extremely flattered. Especially because I immediately recognized her as Skinny Laminx, and she remembered that last year I had purchased two of her graphically stunning tea towels. It’s neat how that happens: when a circle is completed between people.

Thank you Grace for writing a beautiful article about Ashes & Milk.

Last year when I was looking for a website designer for Ashes & Milk, I worked up the courage to ask Grace for a recommendation in which she was awesome enough to refer me to the design team who created her blog. Also-Design is a three person company split between New York City and my own lovely Chicago. When I first met the husband and wife team of Matt and Jenny, I instantly liked them. I thought, “They remind me of friends of mine” and “we’ve probably been in the same places before and happen not to meet.” As it turns out we are neighbors, literally located within a few blocks of each other. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them in addition to working with them to create Ashes & Milk. I look forward to the many West Logan Square gatherings to come, especially the 4th of July (wink).

I also wanted to acknowledge that I learned something invaluable from being featured on blogs like Design*Sponge and Decor8 that reach a wide audience. People have expressed various perspectives mostly positive and some challenging, equally rich in content and satisfying to hear. For those of you who shared your thoughts, I thank you for being so open and giving me more insight about what we are aiming to do at Ashes & Milk.

Thank you Holly for the sweet post!

Sneak peek of business cards by Sonnenzimmer.

The idea of Ashes & Milk came into being one year ago as I began sharing photographs of my artwork on Flickr. Initially these posts were for friends and family, as a way to offer them some shy, unspoken details about me. Over time I found myself within an online community, consisting of a group of people devoted to expressing a visually enhanced life. It was when I sold this piece to a fellow Flickr enthusiast that made these relationships from the internet a reality. I wanted to expand on these connections by creating an online gallery space called Ashes & Milk, where patrons can buy original artwork directly from the site.

The work offered at Ashes & Milk are one of kind pieces that are made by hand, created by one person, designed for one person. This project has been implemented with great care and thoroughness: from devising a website with Also Design, to curating artwork from around the world, and learning about the people whose work represented. As I have spent hours upon hours examining artists and the things they make, I have fallen in love with each person’s unique process of construction, and their driving force of creation. Artists are gifted with the ability to step outside of themselves and to observe the world around them with such great detail. In response they compose the most unexpected, beautiful things, a quality that I so endear and can never get enough of.

I am honored for the opportunity to present a very fine selection of artists and their work on Ashes & Milk.

I hope you enjoy this site as much as I have putting it together.

A special thanks to:

My husband Adam – for his genuine thoughts and heartwarming support.
Jen – for spontaneous discussions and pointing out my literary redundancies.
Matt – for troubleshooting and his smart use of code and algorithms.
Anja - for the encouragement to open up and share.
Carol – for having a piece of me in her home.
Jenny and Matt – at Also Design for a gorgeously fun website.
Besty – for her art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner.
Nadine and Nick – at Sonnenzimmer for beautiful hand-printed business cards and marketing collateral.
Jim – for his problem solving and technical support.
All the Artists – for being the source of inspiration that founded Ashes & Milk.

Oxoxoxo, Nikko Moy