After only one month spent in Japan I was overwhelmed with impressions and new ideas.

 I have grown to love and understand japanese tradition of ceramics and the Wabi Sabi philosophy, especially when apllied to tableware.
Upon returning to Ljubljana I have contacted Shin Sato, head chef of japanese restaurant Sato Bento, and we decided to collaborate.
Sato Bento restaurant is just a block away from Juha studio, neighbours practicaly. Because of it, at lunchtime I feel almost like being in Tajimi at times, this little city with great local homemade food that is one of the centers for japanese ceramics.

Shin is a conoiseur of japanese ceramics and tableware, its tradition and aesthetics. He gave me creative freedom in the interpretation of my plate for his restaurant, where I let myself be influenced and guided by Wabi Sabi philosophy, that I am more and more adopting as my own.

 

I really enjoy creating tableware! It provides enough room to creatively and visualy express myself, finding new forms and experimenting with techniques. The whole proces is time consuming but very rewarding. I get the most pleasure out of it in the end, when the plate or bowl or whatever other shape, comes to life on the table together with the dish it was meant for. Although tableware is functional, I still find enough room to communicate my personal interpretation and aesthetics to the users, who are more or less acoustumed to handmade ceramics produced in limited series and the medium of ceramics in general. These pieces travel from hand to hand, communicate in a tactile and visual way with the user and they can change their aesthetics according to new contexts.


TaBar and Jakob Pintar

Trough my long friendship and collaboration with photographer Suzan Gabrijan I got to know Jakob Pintar, chef at TaBar, while he was preparing for the San Pelegrino Young Chef Award in 2019. We started working together on a concept for the presentation of his dish Alpine Ostrich. I created a set of main plate, small plate, heater and sauce cup for the dish, using textures and imprints of oak and beech bark that conceptualy aligned with the dish competing in the finals in Milan.


Grič and Luka Košir

After difficult pandemic times the sphere of gastronomy and restaurants is getting back on its feet. The Michelin Guide awarded a shining star to restaurant Grič, a family run restaurant headed by the imensely talented young chef Luka Košir. At a mindful pace I have designed several pieces of ceramics for their dishes and various presentation needs, inspired by the refined rustic ambient and philosophy of restaurant Grič. For the plates, bowls, boxes, cups, mugs and other objects I have used different techniques and materials, from various clays to porcelain…anyway, the pictures speak more than words.


Photo by Suzan Gabrijan