Dreamed about since 2002 but more fully operational since 2007 (due to a second bachelor’s degree), Ezme Designs (Ehzmee Dezignz ) focuses on creating funky, unique ceramic items for your home. Some of our pieces are one of a kind and some are created in limited edition but everything is handmade by Chanda in a ceramics studio at the Berkeley Potters Guild in California. Stoneware and porcelain pieces are made using slipcasting, handbuilding and wheel throwing techniques and are inspired by plants, flowers, seed pods, Minimalism, Asian Art, retro designs, antiques and Nana’s china cabinet.
Where did the name Ezme come from anyway?
One of Chanda’s favorite movies is an old seventies film with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase called “Foul Play”. In the movie, Goldie Hawn’s next door neighbor (played by Burgess Meredith) has a pet snake named Ezme (Esme). In the movie, Goldie Hawn works as a librarian — at the time of starting to work in clay, Chanda was a librarian. Foul Play is set in San Francisco. Chanda lives close enough in Oakland. Chris’ nickname for Chanda is chili pickle. In Turkish cuisine, ezme is a thick, mildly spicy paste of sun-dried Turkish chile peppers. Coincidence or fate?
You can buy the movie here!
Owner / Accountant / Designer / Craftsperson:
Chanda has worked in clay for over ten years and completed a second degree in ceramics at the California College of Arts (and Crafts) after previously studying Anthropology and Photography as a first degree.
She is obsessed with plants and flowers and most intensely in re-occurring repetitive patterns based particularly in nature. However, she is also inspired by an eclectic combination of art nouveau, 50’s and 60’s graphic art, botanical drawings, microscopic cell formations and garish flowery things. One of her favorite books is The Secret Life of Plants which inspired housewives of the 1970s to start talking to their plants.
Designer / Marketing / PR:
Christopher Aynesworth is a musician who plays guitar, banjo, harmonica, bass, keyboard, ukulele and most recently drums.
He has also owned his own web and graphic design business, Ouroboros since 1997. He manages all of Ezme Designs’ print and web needs along with marketing and public relations and dutifully helps Chanda set up and man craft show booths. Among many other interests, he loves to travel, make silly voices, read Jungian psychology, watch Star Wars and hang with our cats, Olivia and Mirabelle in our home office.