From my earliest memories of wandering the forest and riverbanks to this moment right now, I remain enamored of the flora and fauna of this world—its light side as well as the dark.
— Laura Zindel
By Ann C. Landenberger
It starts with a highly articulated pencil drawing. From there the image is transferred to clay in any one of myriad shapes and forms — each in balance, both functional and beautiful.
Every handmade form is fabricated with creamy white earthenware using a combination of slip casting and ram press techniques. After the initial bisque firing, the ware is brushed with a proprietary hand-mixed glaze that is the signature rich nature-tone brown glaze that evokes wood and metal. The soft white glazed canvas is then decorated with silkscreened enamel transfers of Laura Zindel’s original pencil drawings. Melted to the surface, these create her classic elegant black-on-white designs.
Nature fuels Zindel. With her solid background — she earned her bachelor of fine arts from Rhode Island School of Design and her master of fine arts from University of Massachusetts Amherst — she has created images that have earned a range of followers and a feature in Country Living.
Visiting her efficient and well-appointed Brattleboro studio, one is surrounded by Zindel’s passions: ceramics and John James Audubon-inspired illustrations. These appear throughout on pieces of unique housewares in various stages of production.
Artist Laura Zindel shares a moment with Thorsten Lauterbach, her husband and business partner.
From the sparky glint in a hummingbird’s eye to the sweet innocence of a daisy, it’s all on Zindel’s sketchpad.
“I draw all the time. I represent my subject exactly as it is with the smallest details intact: the textured fur on the nose of a hare, the patterns of feathers on a screech owl or the repetition of a bud of hops. I search for the tiny clues that give each living thing its unique dignity,” she says.
A clayworker for as long as she can remember, Zindel has always seen that medium as “a canvas to carry a narrative.” When years ago she figured out how to melt design onto clay, her art became holistic. She’s since consistently heeded what she’s inspired to draw.
A wise businessperson, she also listens to her customers, who tell her what they’d like to see on pieces.
Zindel’s 7,000-square-foot studio is thoughtfully parsed into several rooms facilitating steps in her production process. With high ceilings and a vast upstairs loft serving as office and creative space, the place sings of imaginative energy and well-tuned business practice. It all feels upbeat and furthers contentment and purpose among her seven employees, most of whom also are trained ceramics artists.
Thorsten Lauterbach, Zindel’s husband and business partner, is a skilled carpenter and electrician who’s built out each of their studio spaces and perfected the studio’s packing and shipping processes. He maintains the equipment keeping the studio such a finely tuned machine.
Lauterbach, a native of Berlin, Germany, was surprised, at the start of his relationship with Zindel in the late 1990s, by the American subculture of craft fairs. Intrigued, he happily teamed with Zindel to start producing her designs in a small San Francisco storefront. They moved back East, to a 1778 farmhouse in Guilford, and in 2004 renovated their horse barn as their first Vermont studio.
Operations moved in 2012 to an industrial building acquired by the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC), a private, nonprofit economic development organization that catalyzes industrial and commercial growth throughout Southeastern Vermont.
Production manager Rob Cartelli, with Zindel since 2006, handles a broad sweep for production: everything from creating dies to inserting just-right-sized balloons into air-drying pots to ensure they don’t torque as they settle.
Eighty percent of Zindel’s business is wholesale. She sells to approximately 350 independent galleries and retail stores nationwide. She says most of her sales are generated through her trade showrooms in Atlanta, Dallas, and New York City. She also sells directly to customers from her website and from her Brattleboro studio showroom.
In Vermont you can find Zindel’s work at Ruggles & Hunt in Brattleboro; the Guilford Country Store (which serves food on and in her creations to customers dining in); Common Deer in Burlington; Shelburne Museum; Stowe Kitchen Bath & Linens; Woodstock Inn & Resort; Mercantile at Grafton Inn; The Kitchen Store at JK Adams in Dorset; Hildene Museum in Manchester; and Moose River Lake & Lodge Store in St. Johnsbury.
Zindel says she is inspired by nature—and by wonder rooms, or cabinets of curiosity, dating to the 16th century. Both have served her well as she’s built an eclectic and loyal following of collectors. Already known for her items on a broad range of natural images—woodland creatures such as deer, owls, hare and fox; insects; farm animals; fruits and vegetables—she recently expanded her collection to represent hummingbirds and flowers. Zindel says her customers encompass all nature lovers “who want to curate their own personal story.”
She explains, “Life is good. Every day we face new challenges and problems.”
It’s clear in this inspiring studio that Zindel loves what she does—as does her team. And with that spirit, one can assume they’ll just keep figuring it out.
Laura Zindel Design
22 Browne Court, Brattleboro
http://www.laurazindel.com,
802 254-8930
Studio open Mon-Fri, 9a-5p
