52 | Oregon Home You started working with Matt Lightner and have gone on to work with many other renowned chefs. My process has not changed very much over the years. I still work with chefs who appreciate my work and aesthetic, and so encourage me to create work that will also inspire their work. We will discuss general things like forms for certain dishes, and then more evocative suggestions reflecting the seasons or the feeling of a storm, for example. The beauty of these relationships is that each collection is unique to the chef and the restaurant. So it’s like you’re in a conversation with the chef. Yes, we always start our conversations around filling out a base collection to work from. As restaurants get going, there will be pieces that are requested to fill in gaps in the collection or to add something special for a particular dish they have in mind. Sometimes they request seasonal colors or forms, or want to see something interesting to spark their imagination for a new dish. It must change the experience to dine on handmade forms. I think what chefs respond to is that my work is both organic and refined. Each piece of a given form is slightly, subtly different so that each stands on its own and gives more interest to a table. It is a quiet difference, but it makes one realize that the pieces are made by hand and not machine-made. It adds another aesthetic layer to the experience without taking away from the central focus of the culinary offering. You also live with your products at home. Home is where most of my seconds and test pieces live and are well loved. It’s the best product-testing lab you can have. It gives me the opportunity to get a deep understanding of how things feel in the hand, how they will wear over time, which pieces are easiest to use, which ones we reach for most and which details are most exciting to discover.
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