Emze Designs Interview & Giveaway

Happy Solstice dear readers! On this first day of summer let us take this opportunity to introduce you to Bay Area pottery maker Emze Designs. Owned and operated by Chanda who has been selling her work in California since 2007, our 2nd annual summer UCU will be her first show out-of-state. She's also gotten bitten by the giveaway bug and is offering up a handmade ceramic catchall dish! Perfect for holding keys, soap, soy sauce, rings while washing your hands, or anything.

UCU: What is your favorite part about large-scale craft shows like Urban Craft Uprising?
ED: People, people, people. I love meeting fellow vendors, sharing business tips and stories, seeing their amazing work and spending some of my earnings expanding my amazing collection of handmade art. Meeting my customers and getting to talk to them face to face is so much more gratifying than just having someone faceless purchase your work through a store (even though that is great too). You can get pretty hypercritical about your work and lonely when you are in a dark, dusty ceramics studio working solitary for months.

UCU: Is there something you are hoping to shop for, a treasure you'd like to find at this year's Summer UCU?
ED: Anything that I find will become a memory of my trip for me. I have so many amazing memories from when I lived in Seattle that I am sure twenty years from now I will remember "Oh yeah, I bought that at that awesome UCU show!" That is one of the reasons you buy handmade, right?

UCU: What kind of snacks will you have in your booth to survive the long but exciting hours of Urban Craft Uprising?
ED: I am gluten intolerant so I have to make my own food -- usually a sandwich and I love carrots and hummus. Also lots and lots of water and after the show I always look forward to that first glass of red wine.

Thanks for answering our questions Chanda! Now about that giveaway... Want to win this cute dish? Leave a comment below and we will select one winner at random to be announced this Friday. The winner can pick up their new catchall dish at the UCU booth at the show July 10-11.