Instant Friends Catch “Clay Fever” and Launch Ceramic Studio Cee & She

March, 2025 | By: Leah Whalen | Photography: Jenny Bravo

“I think there’s something really cathartic about having your hands literally in mud, right?” asks Christina Wnek of Cee and She. We are sitting in the pottery studio she shares with her artistic partner Ashley O’Brion, sipping coffee from mugs they made from that “mud,” reflecting on their journey as ceramicists and potters. “It’s like meditation,” O’Brion muses. “When working with clay, you’re not in front of a screen. You’re using your hands. You’re turned off from everything. That long hallway outside is a portal to this meditative, creative, intuitive space that we get to inhabit when we’re just working with the material.”

O’Brion and Wnek first met a decade ago in a professional context—O’Brion is a graphic designer, Wnek is a commercial photographer—and as O’Brion recalls, “We became instant friends.” She continues, “We collaborated on some projects, and then I started working at a local college in the brand department, and I hired Christina to come and do photography for the college.” They both loved their work but were feeling a need for a different creative outlet, preferably one that wasn’t mediated by screens, and the college offered an adult education evening pottery class. On a whim, they signed up. “There was no goal other than just, let’s have a night a week where we get to go and create in a completely different medium,” says O’Brion. Wnek adds, “Also, at the time, we still had little kids. It was nice to have a ‘get out of the house, hang out with other women that are creative’ scheduled time.”

“So we took the class, and something was just unlocked in both of us,” says O’Brion, smiling widely at the memory. “Suddenly, we were messaging and talking all the time about clay and what we were making. We were going in on the weekends or during the week to do extra work.” One of the ceramics professors noticed their passion. “He became a friend and a mentor, and he just let us use the college clay studio all the time. When you’re a professor, you love to see students who are excited. He said to us, ‘Oh, you guys have the clay fever.’ That’s what he termed it,” says O’Brion. “We absolutely had clay fever! We were thinking about it all the time, even though, as Christina mentioned, it was a difficult moment to bring something new into our lives. But it definitely forced a shift in our lives to figure out where we could find the time to start working toward something new.”

Time to work toward something new was about to be in ample supply: the initial adult ed class took place in the fall of 2019, and a few short months later Wnek and O’Brion, like much of the rest of the world, found themselves stuck at home during lockdown. But while others scrambled to find new hobbies like knitting or sourdough baking, the women knew just how to fill the hours. “I was in my attic; Christina was in her basement,” recalls O’Brion. “Our mentor let us take wheels home from the college to our homes because we couldn’t be on campus at that point. We had our tools that we had amassed from being in the class, and then we got more tools. We were so productive, we were just filling up tables of things that we would then go into the empty college to fire.” That fall, they took a creative retreat together to imagine how they could expand the role of clay in both of their lives. “It felt, at that time, so much like a pipe dream. Sure, we’ll go on this creative retreat, and it will be a wonderful little amount of time, and yes, we’ll vision board. But I don’t know that at that moment we realistically felt like we were going to build something, because again, we were at max capacity with our jobs and our families,” says O’Brion. “But it was a year later that we signed the lease here in the studio, exactly a year.”

“I met Christina Watka on the shoot for a Maine Home+Design story in 2020,” says Wnek. The local installation artist had just begun looking for a studio to share when O’Brion and Wnek decided to expand their practice; it seemed fated. “She said, ‘I know you guys are thinking about starting something. Would you be willing to go in on a studio share with me?’” remembers O’Brion. “And we said yes within 24 hours. Our families were startled, to say the least!” “I went to my husband, and I said, ‘I’m just letting you know that I’m doing this,’” recalls Wnek, laughing. “I said, ‘I welcome your feedback, but I’m still doing this, no matter what.’” They found a loft in the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook and began to set up. Sharing the space made the venture more affordable, but, as O’Brion points out slightly ruefully, “Starting a pottery studio is probably one of the most expensive artistic situations that you can get into, outside of glassblowing or metalwork.” Still, they slowly built up their equipment and materials thanks to Facebook Marketplace and other mill tenants; they bought a kiln from Campfire Pottery, for example, when Campfire moved out of the mill to a new studio.

Watka, too, moved out of their shared studio in early 2024, which precipitated some soul-searching. “Up to that point, Christina would sometimes refer to Cee and She as our business, and I would immediately correct her and say, ‘You mean our art practice?’ And she would say, ‘Yeah, of course, our art practice,’” says O’Brion. “I think we kept trying to take money concerns out of the conversation—we didn’t want to let money determine what we were making. But then, at the end of this past summer, we were thinking, okay, money does come into play here a little bit. Now we really had a decision. Are we going to be able to afford to have our studio? Do we want to keep going? Or should we pack it up and go home?”

O’Brion says that the answer to those questions was immediate: “We both had a bodily response. Our eyes got all misty, and we said no, not only has this been about producing work, but this work has also changed our lives. It has become one of the most important things and the most defining things for both of us.” Wnek concurs: “I think we have always looked to the future and known that we’re going to be doing this, in some capacity, forever. We want to be little old ladies in our little old seaside cottages with pottery wheels! So to stop now felt wrong.” “It felt like there was so much more to accomplish here,” concludes O’Brion.

O’Brion and Wnek felt they had built a good base of work in the preceding three years, with a couple of grants and some gallery shows under their belts, but as part of their soul searching they changed things up. “We said, we’re going to take no classes this year. We’re going to say no to a few shows; we’re going to just hunker down, and we’re going to strip it all back to just form. We need to take all the colors away. We need to take all the decoration away. And we need to start with just the simple structure,” says O’Brion. “Up until that point, we had just been hopping from idea to idea,” says Wnek. “But in 2024 we recommitted to using all of the experience that we had been building up.” Their current work, the Garden Series, emerged organically out of this thinking. “We asked ourselves, what’s the form that resonates without any of the decoration, if you will, apart from that that pulled from the natural world?” says O’Brion. What came to them were shapes of flowers: of vases that unfurl leaves at the necks, candlesticks that look like buds opening, and delicate porcelain flowers that dangle from botanically dyed silk ribbons. With their creamy white hue, they focus the gaze on the hand-built shapes alone. The pieces convey strength and fragility at the same time.

“The forms are representative of the natural world, and in 2025 we’re feeling very excited to layer other ways of incorporating nature into the pieces, and then also explore where this form and series can go. Because there’s so much iteration that can happen,” says O’Brion. “We just have so many ideas of direction we want to take,” says Wnek. “It excites us a lot!” “Yes, we’re madly in love with this work,” agrees O’Brion. “We feel like the Garden Series is different from what we’ve seen from other ceramicists and other potters. It feels very uniquely us.”

A Bowdoin Exhibition Traces Monhegan Island’s Ecological History Through Three Centuries of Artwork

March, 2025 | By: Lucky Platt

Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s newest exhibition, Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island, revolves around a botanical troublemaker known as dwarf mistletoe. The parasitic plant’s destructive impact on Monhegan’s white spruce trees has been a focus of Bowdoin College biologist Barry A. Logan’s research since the early 2000s, when he first began visiting the island. Dwarf mistletoe infects young white spruce, causing a chaotic and deadly response within the host tree’s vascular system.

About five years ago, in one of those great “what if” moments that excite and provoke interdisciplinary conversation and collaboration, Logan wondered aloud while talking with Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s codirector Frank H. Goodyear and with Jennifer Pye, director and chief curator of the Monhegan Museum of Art and History: What would it look like to tell the island’s ecological story through art? “Monhegan is such a small, well-documented piece of the world,” says Pye, who has been walking the wildlands since childhood. “The idea that the ecological history of a place could be traced through museum art collections has changed how I see artwork.”

Artists have knowingly or unknowingly documented the island’s ecological history for as long as they’ve carried easels, sketchbooks, and cameras into the Monhegan landscape. The exhibition looks back to early depictions of the island landscape, when Monhegan was emerging as a tourist destination and artist colony. The watercolor Crowsnest, Monhegan(1892) by Sears Gallagher, Mary King Longfellow’s untitled watercolor circa 1900, and Bert Poole’s lithograph of Monhegan village from 1896 are time capsules of young spruce trees in Lobster Cove and the deforested Monhegan headlands at the turn of the century. Edward Hopper’s Monhegan Landscape, painted between 1916 and 1919, depicts a young white spruce clinging to the sea cliff, with branches distorted in a manner indicative of dwarf mistletoe infection. Rockwell Kent’s Sun, Manana, Monhegan, a centerpiece of the exhibition, was painted in two sessions divided by almost 50 years. Kent started the painting in 1907 and returned to the island with the same canvas in 1954 to add new young spruce trees to the foreground.

Throughout the galleries, a soundscape designed and recorded on the island by Bowdoin students evokes place, and Accra Shepp’s powerful photographs are a “record of this moment in time,” while also in compelling conversation with the historical works all around them. Shepp is a New York City–based artist who has lived most of his life on islands, documenting them. For the exhibition, he traveled to Monhegan in every season; Barry’s Trees (archival pigment photograph, 2023) is as much an ecological story of Monhegan’s secondary forest as it is an expression of the resilience of the wildlands. Also commissioned for the exhibition is an arresting series of woodcuts by Barbara Petter Putman depicting the “witches’ broom” effect of dwarf mistletoe infection on stunted white spruce branches. Putnam’s beautifully rendered entanglements are close-up, brutal documentation of the lethal parasite.

The exhibition highlights the many fascinating Monhegan ecologies—from the island’s geographical origins with the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the most recent ice age to the island’s use by the Wabanaki as a seasonal fishing station, and the near destruction of its forestlands in the nineteenth century. Later, abandoned sheep pastures throughout the island made way for white spruce trees to grow in clusters that the dwarf mistletoe could more easily infiltrate, and then, in the mid-twentieth century, the ecological balance was tipped further with the introduction of deer to the island, and the dreadful ticks that came (and eventually went) with the deer. In a hopeful sense, the exhibition affirms a present-day story of Monhegan wildlands on the rebound—a resilience deeply indebted to the passion and foresight of the Monhegan Associates. Formed in 1954 by Ted Edison (son of Thomas), the island’s land trust is dedicated to letting “natural processes prevail.” They do the hard work of keeping the island trails wild.

A smaller-scale version of the Bowdoin exhibition will travel to the Monhegan Museum of Art and History this summer. While the Monhegan Museum does not normally exhibit works by living artists, the curators will make an exception for Shepp’s photographs. On Monhegan, the soundscape will be live, and the ancient woods and wildlands that inspired so many of the exhibition’s works will be open to wandering and loving exploration. Bring a sketchbook.

Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island will be on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick until June 1, 2025; it will then travel to the Monhegan Museum of Art and History on Monhegan Island from July 1 to September 30, 2025.

A Two-Story Timber Frame Pickleball Court in the Making

The timber frame structure forms a large central volume open across all floors that houses a pickleball court with upper mezzanines at each end of the barn. This layout required a narrow connector to facilitate circulation between the mezzanines. Made of steel, the bridge provides a dramatic contrast to the timbers. The relative delicacy of the steelwork compared to the heft of the adjacent timber structure deemphasizes the catwalk, making it less of an intrusion as it passes through the central court area. The apparent lightness of the slender steel sections, combined with the bar grating that forms the walking surface, allows plenty of natural light to enter the space from the adjacent windows.

Peter Anderson designed the steel structure around two welded frames that serve as lateral braces between the timber posts and tie beams. These braces are usually diagonal timbers, which would have interfered with circulation along the outer wall. The structure’s steel brace frames were conceived as rectangular portals that both brace the timber structure and support the secondary steel catwalk. The portals themselves are formed by a continuous T-shape of welded steel plate. The top and outer extensions of the T are mortised into the timbers and through-bolted, while the inner and lower T sections suspend and support the steel channels spanning the space between mezzanines. When viewed from anywhere other than the catwalk, this portal frame configuration presents as a very thin steel plate enhancing the contrast between the steel and wood structures.

Location: Phippsburg
Architect: Peter Anderson
Builder: Houses & Barns by John Libby
Landscape Architect: Cowles Studio
Construction Start: Fall 2024
Construction Complete: Summer 2025

Winter Holben’s New Studio in Kittery Foreside Blends Contemporary and Historic Elements

Set on the site of a formerly neglected building adjacent to their current office and the popular Lil’s Cafe in Kittery Foreside, this new structure will serve as architecture and design firm Winter Holben’s new studio, a contemporary gallery, a third-floor apartment offering views of the Piscataqua River, and two affordable housing units.

The design takes inspiration from the eclectic mix of materials and forms found in Kittery Foreside, blending contemporary and historic elements. A key feature is the facade, which introduces a modern interpretation of the historic shingle ribbon course. The thermally modified Maine radiata pine boards provide a twist on this traditional architectural detail, with sleek lines and rhythmic patterns. They are paired with weathered Corten steel panels, referencing the region’s industrial and maritime heritage, including the nearby working waterfront and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The building’s massing responds creatively to the constraints of the small site, maximizing its prominent corner while using a stepped design to reduce the scale of the upper floor.

Locally sourced materials, such as TimberHP wood fiber insulation from Maine, reduce the building’s environmental footprint” “and support the regional economy. The project also includes an all-electric, energy-efficient mechanical system, ample natural light to reduce energy consumption, and provisions for rainwater management. A solar array and backup power system will provide renewable energy, further enhancing the building’s commitment to sustainability. This development represents a forward- thinking addition to the Foreside, where history and modernity meet in a way that enhances the community fabric while respecting its rich architectural heritage.”

Location: Kittery Foreside
Architect: Winter Holben
Builder: Bridgeside Building Co.
Civil Engineer: Altus Engineering
Structural Engineer: Structural Integrity
Landscape Architect: Woodburn & Company
Construction Start: Summer 2024
Construction Complete: Spring 2025

Design Wire January/February 2025

Blind Tiger Carleton, AWOL Kennebunkport, Blind Tiger Danforth (Photos: Read McKendree / Courtesy of Lark Hotels)

Eight Maine properties were awarded a coveted MICHELIN KEY as part of the second-ever list of the country’s most outstanding hotels named by MICHELIN GUIDE. Similar to the way Michelin Stars recognizes restaurants for top-notch cooking, the new Michelin Key designation highlights the best of the best in hospitality. More than 5,000 hotels across the globe were vetted and judged in five categories: excellent architecture and interior design, quality and consistency of service, personality and character, value for the price, and significant contribution to the neighborhood. Four LARK HOTELS properties were awarded One Key status—both BLIND TIGER locations in Portland, the KENNEBUNK CAPTAINS COLLECTION, and AWOL KENNEBUNKPORT—along with the LINCOLN HOTEL in Biddeford, CAMDEN HARBOUR INN, Cape Neddick’s CLIFF HOUSE MAINE, and the WHITE BARN INN AND SPA by AUBERGE RESORTS COLLECTION.

National eyewear chain WARBY PARKER will soon open its first storefront in Maine at 184 Middle Street in Portland’s Old Port. The building, which was originally completed between 1867 and 1874 and is known as WILLIAM WIDGERY THOMAS BLOCK, features first-floor retail space and will soon showcase three one- and two-bedroom private lofts as part of THE DOCENT’S COLLECTION, a boutique hospitality offering that blends modern, mobile-first service with the amenities of a luxury residential rental. “We are dedicated to the stewardship of historic buildings. By carefully preserving their architectural heritage while welcoming modern tenants, we ensure that these storied spaces evolve and resonate with today’s visitors,” says Tim Soley, president of EAST BROWN COW, the real estate management, investment, and development firm that owns Thomas Block and other properties in the area. Warby Parker’s Portland location will showcase the brand’s full optical and sun offerings, contact lenses, and accessories, with artwork by Maine-based artist CHRISTOPHER DAVID RYAN.

The PRINCETON REVIEW ranked the COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC (COA) in Bar Harbor number one in its latest Guide to Green Colleges across the United States. Published annually since 2010, the guide aims to help college applicants understand which schools place an emphasis on environmental responsibility. COA was cited as “exceptional” in its green distinctions thanks in part to its carbon neutrality and its commitment to becoming fossil fuel–free by 2030. According to MaineBiz, the college is currently “phasing out single-use plastics; reducing, recycling, and composting waste; transitioning to renewable sources; sourcing food sustainably; and using nontoxic cleaning products.” New campus buildings at COA, including a 12,000-square-foot dormitory and a 30,000-square-foot academic center, were designed on passive house principles, with mass-timber construction and rooftop solar arrays. Other Maine schools ranked in the top 50 of the Guide to Green Colleges include Colby College in Waterville (#11), Bates College in Lewiston (#20), and the University of Maine at Orono (#47).

Maine-based furniture company THOS. MOSER released two new products that honor the state’s rich manufacturing heritage and the heirloom quality and craftsmanship that can only be achieved when something is made by hand. The BATES BED, which pays homage to the bobbin and spool beds of the early 1800s, features rounded corners carved from a solid block of wood and joined to the leg with an interlocking mortise and tenon joint; the complementary BATES SIDE TABLE has tapered legs and similarly curved details. The collection’s name comes from the BATES MANUFACTURING COMPANY, established by American textile tycoon and philanthropist Benjamin Bates in 1852, as well as BATES COLLEGE, which was initially founded as the Maine State Seminary in 1855 and renamed in honor of Benjamin Bates in 1864. TOM MOSER, who founded the eponymous furniture brand more than 50 years ago, has a personal connection to the college: he held the positions of associate professor of speech and debate coach as well as African American Society advisor before taking a leave of absence to pursue his interest in furniture building.

Now available for short-term rental on VRBO is the eight-bedroom, three-bathroom FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED SUMMER HOME in Deer Isle, designed by architect WILLIAM RALPH EMERSON, often referred to as “the father of the shingle style.” The cottage, known as Felsted, was built in 1897 as a retirement home for landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the mastermind behind New York City’s famed Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace, and several national parks and college campuses (including the University of Maine in Orono). Sitting on four acres with over 600 feet of shoreline, the property was used as a hotel from 1925 to 1940 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Felsted, which was the setting for two films (Mel Gibson’s Man Without a Face and the 2003 romance Finding Home), is an iconic representation of how early shingle-style architecture was meant to blend into the coastal landscape.

Photo: Courtesy of Sameer A. Khan / Fotobuddy

SHASHANK GUPTA, a third-year PhD candidate at PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, and REZA MOINI, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, recently developed a novel cement material inspired by the outer layer of human bone. Made by a hybrid 3D printing and casting process using standard hardened cement paste, the bio-inspired material features a geometric structure of cylindrical and elliptical tubes that allows it to endure progressive damage in lieu of sudden failure. Early research suggests the lightweight, crack-resistant material could be particularly useful for specialized projects like bridges and tunnels and in areas with seismic activity or extreme weather conditions. “Our approach, which manipulates geometry instead of relying on fibers or additives, has the potential to be a cost-effective solution once the manufacturing process is optimized,” Gupta told Fast Company.

AXIOM SPACE and Italian fashion house PRADA recently revealed the AXIOM EXTRAVEHICULAR MOBILITY UNIT (AxEMU) SPACESUIT that will be worn on NASA’s ARTEMIS III mission, which aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon. According to a press release, Prada’s design and product development team provided “customized material recommendations and features that would both protect astronauts against the unique challenges of the lunar environment and visually inspire future space exploration.” The gender-neutral, one-size- fits-all design provides astronauts with increased flexibility, performance, and safety on space walks and while exploring the lunar south pole. AxEMU has undergone extensive testing in an underwater environment meant to simulate the lunar surface, in reduced gravity simulations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and at state-of-the-art Axiom Space and SpaceX facilities. “Our elite teams have redefined spacesuit development, establishing new pathways to innovative solutions and applying a state-of-the-art design approach for the AxEMU. We have broken the mold. The Axiom Space–Prada partnership has set a new foundational model for cross-industry collaboration, further expanding what’s possible in commercial space,” says Matt Ondler, president at Axiom Space.

Mélange by Daher Interior Design Expands to Maine

January, 2025 | Photography: Jessica Webb

Interior design studio Daher Interior Design, led by mother-son duo Paula and Clayton, completed a gut renovation of the former Market Day building at 135 Port Road in Kennebunk’s Lower Village last year. To celebrate the studio’s expansion into Maine, along with the opening of its new retail outpost, Mélange, MH+D invited architects, designers, real estate agents, and builders to mix and mingle among the store’s regionally and globally sourced home accessories, lighting, bespoke upholstery, and artwork. Complimentary bites and beverages were provided by Experience Maine and Maine Events Co.

*Guests mingle inside Mélange’s 3,000-squarefoot* *retail and studio space in Kennebunk.*

How to Make Aragosta’s Lobster Casconcelli at Home

January, 2025 | By: Devin Finigan | Photography: Nicole Wolf

Vermont native Devin Finigan, the James Beard–nominated executive chef at Aragosta at Goose Cove, graciously reworked the seasonal restaurant’s stuffed lobster pasta recipe for MH+D readers cooking at home. Instead of filling the pasta (as pictured here on Aragosta’s spring menu), Finigan’s simplified version combines the buttery sauce and seasoned lobster mixture with cooked pasta (any shape works!) on the stovetop.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

16 ounces dried pasta

For the gremolata
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon lemon zest

For the lobster
1 pound cooked and diced Maine lobster meat
4 ounces mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Salt

For the beurre blanc
1/2 cup white wine
1 teaspoon diced shallot
2 tablespoons butter, cubed
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Salt, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions in heavily salted water. Make sure to keep the pasta al dente, as it will be finished later in the pan. Set aside.

2. Make the gremolata. In a small bowl, combine garlic, parsley, and lemon zest and stir. Set aside.

3. In another bowl, combine the lobster meat, mascarpone, lemon juice, lemon zest, parsley, garlic, and salt to taste. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Set aside.

4. Make the beurre blanc. Add white wine and diced shallot to a pan over medium-high heat. Reduce until roughly 2 tablespoons remain. Once reduced, add the cubed butter and stir until melted. Add the heavy cream. Continue to cook, stirring continuously, until sauce is fully emulsified and starting to thicken. Reduce until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.

5. Once the beurre blanc sauce is reduced, add the lobster mixture to the pan and stir well to combine. Add the cooked pasta and stir until fully incorporated. Adjust seasonings to taste. Serve in a bowl and top with the gremolata.

Interior Designer and Account Executive Jill Albers on the Philosophy of Life-Centered Design

“Life-centered design asks us to consider all life in our design solutions, expanding the traditional constituents we solve for.”

MH+D ASKS ALBERS TO TELL US MORE.

Q. When were you first exposed to life-centered design, and what your initial reaction?

A. I am an account executive at Interface, a global leader in modular flooring; our company’s mission is Climate Take Back. In 2022 our director of design purpose, Chip DeGrace, made an internal presentation and showed us the headline from the UN Climate Change website, announcing Interface’s 2020 UN Climate Action Award. He had crossed out the word “transforming” and wrote in “designing.” He went on to explain that, while we work for a manufacturer, we are no less a design-driven company than the architectural and design community we work with directly. Our company mission was not created by chance or luck, but through direct actions and plans that were deliberately designed. We are designers, all of us, and there is power in design, especially in the face of climate change.

This discussion immediately spoke to me because design is my core passion. My degree and work experience before joining Interface was in interior design. This recharacterization of looking at everything as a design problem, and all of us as designers, made so much sense. Immediately, I understood the power of this concept—if we can rally the entire architectural community behind it.

Further on in the presentation, the idea of life-centered design (LCD) emerged. Simply put, LCD is a design philosophy that asks us to consider all life in our design solutions, expanding the traditional constituents for which we solve for. It evolved from the more traditional design theory of focusing on the human as the end benefactor of design solutions. Within LCD, there are a series of principles that help guide us to think outside our previous lens. At Interface, we have started to explore how six of these themes can be applied in a design approach: designing for all life equally, designing with nature, designing for connection, designing in collaboration, designing for good, and designing with the past and future in mind.

Q. Where could one start to incorporate LCD into their design approach?

A. It can be overwhelming at first to try to apply all life to design. It took me a minute to digest the concept. A less intimidating way that I think we can start is by asking everyone to think and act with the humbler “we” mindset—rather than “me.” We must remember that every project decision, even those that seem small and insignificant, has impacts up and down the supply chain. Start with the ones that feel bite-sized and work up to the more complex problems.

Q. What principles and themes of LCD do you think resonate in Maine?

A. Mainers are passionate and proud of our natural beauty and undeveloped land. From the forests to the coast, we’re surrounded by ecosystems that are our duty to protect. We are perfectly poised to consider not just how the built environment will impact the human life it’s being designed for, but also how it can work with and not against the local ecosystem.

Simultaneously, we will see overlap with designing with the past and future in mind. I can’t help but think of my grandmother when I think of this theme. She was one of five born on a family farm in Mars Hill in Aroostook County. Dedication to their home, their deep family values, and their community was critical to the family’s survival. Decisions were based on need versus want: nothing was wasted, and quality and craftsmanship were immensely valuable. They found honor in the ability to pass items and skills through multiple generations. It was a humble and happy place, and I am now one of the many torchbearers in my family continuing this legacy and sharing these values with my children and future generations. I love to joke that my grandmother was the greatest environmentalist I never knew I knew. And apparently she could have taught us a thing a two about considering ALL LIFE as well. Who knew!

MH+D is proud to partner with acclaimed architectural photographer Trent Bell on his architecture, design, and photography podcast. To hear Bell’s conversation with Albers, please visit adppodcast.com.

This Finnish Vase Inspired by Waves Takes 12 Steps to Produce

January, 2025 | By: Danielle Devine | Photo courtesy of MoMA Design Store

Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) designed what is commonly referred to as the Savoy Vase in 1936. Aalto is known for using organic forms in his architecture, bentwood furniture designs, and glass.

The initial design for the vase was one of ten free-form object designs (ranging from a shallow dish to a tall vase) roughly sketched in crayon and pencil on colored paper by Aalto for a 1936 competition organized by Finland’s prominent glassworks, Karhula and Iittala. The purpose of the competition was to determine what would be showcased in the Swedish Pavilion inside the 1937 Paris World’s Fair. Fun fact: The vase was given the Swedish code name Eskimoerindens skinnbuxa (Eskimo woman’s leather pants) when it was entered in the competition. There are a couple of theories when it comes to Aalto’s inspiration for the piece. One is that the shape was inspired by Eskimo women’s pants (hence the code name); another is that the piece mimics the waves in Finland’s lake-rich landscape; conveniently, “aalto” in Finnish means “waves.”

The same year, Aalto and his wife, architect Aino Marsio Aalto, were commissioned to design custom furnishings and fixtures for a new luxury restaurant in Helsinki called the Savoy. The vase won first prize at the Paris exhibition and was also selected for the Savoy. Aalto created the initial prototypes by blowing glass through the center of an arrangement of wooden sticks stuck in the ground. The glass swelled only in some places, creating undulating shapes.

The vase’s production was not straightforward. Aalto tried to replicate his original by using thin sheets of steel to form the shape with the help of steel pegs, but the curves were too pointed. Wooden molds did the trick and were used up until 1954, when they were replaced with cast iron ones. The original height of the Savoy vase was 140 millimeters (5.5 inches), made in clear, brown, sky blue, sea green, and smoke glass. Today, the Iittala factory still produces the Savoy vase in various sizes along with other vases from the 1936 series. However, the designation “Aalto” is used for all of them, and they are distinguished only by their product number.

Each Savoy vase takes seven craftspeople over 30 hours to create, with 12 stages of production. Various glassmaking techniques are used; to finish, the piece is put in an annealing kiln, where the vessel slowly cools to eliminate any internal stress in its glass. The Savoy vase is part of the permanent collections of several museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Interior Designer Natalie Papier’s Welcoming Entryway is a Lesson in Form and Function

January, 2025 | By: Becca Abramson | Photography: Megan Easterday / Easterday Creative

Designer and artist Natalie Papier, founder of interior design company Home Ec. and star of the Magnolia Network show Artfully Designed, is unapologetic about her love for funky textiles, eccentric art, colorful wallpaper, and all things others might consider unconventional. Three years in the making, Papier’s first design book, Start with the Art (Voracious, 2024), features nearly 300 pages of delightful spaces and insightful tips for decorating on a budget with a focus on affordable art and how it can serve as the springboard to an incredible room. In the first chapter, titled “But Natalie, I don’t know anything about art…,” Papier divulges the undeniable truth: you don’t have to. “Choosing a piece of art comes down to one question,” she writes. “Does it move you?”

Perhaps because this column is called Style Room, we have yet to feature an entryway; the foyer of Papier’s Charlotte, North Carolina, home provided the perfect opportunity to do so. “To me, an entryway is the book cover to your home,” the designer told MH+D. “You’re setting the stage with your style right from the moment you open the front door.” Papier emphasizes that foyers are functional (with necessary items like a mirror, coatrack, and bench to put on your shoes) while simultaneously providing a chance for personality to shine through (in paint color, wallpaper, art, and lighting choices).

The biggest challenge Papier faced in designing her own foyer was its sheer size. “Because it’s so big, with such tall ceilings, I had to think about it in stages,” she explains. The lacquered credenza and mirror (both found on Facebook Marketplace) act as a focal point upon entry, while the credenza doubles as a storage container for the family. High ceilings called for a dramatic chandelier (read: floating art); this selection from Stray Dog Designs is a favorite of Papier’s thanks to its overall scale and handmade papier-mâché artistry. “The scale of the art [on the credenza] was also an important variable,” she notes, adding that leaning art in the arranged vignette—as opposed to framing art on the wall—means she can “swap new pieces in and out as the mood strikes.” Rethink your own entryway with these nine finds inspired by Papier’s playful approach.