Process // About
Zizi was haphazardly founded in 2020, when a lot of us lost our day jobs and sought comfort in making things we loved. Pottery was my sour dough. My daughter and I created a fun zone in a backyard work shed. She made videos about kinetic sand (she was 6) and I bought a crappy wheel on craigslist, which I still use today. Pottery wasn't new to me but having time to dedicate to it was. For the previous 6 years, I put a lot of effort into attending classes at community centers or small pottery studios. At this stage in my life, working full time with small kid, it felt like a heroic feat to carve time out of the week to make a ceramic pumpkin with a gaggle of most typically retired ladies. At the time, I didn't know why I had to do it, but I had to. I kept at it and when the pandemic hit, I was happy I had something to pour myself into.
It was always challenging to sign my pieces, Krysta Jabczenski, way too many letters to carve into clay. I didn't have a great signature and was open to a different name when it fell into my lap. At the time, my Daughter had a chameleon named, Zizi. I was a bit envious of the name! So simple! So energizing! And only 4 poetic letters. It's weird, for sure, to name a pottery line after a short lived chameleon but all I can say is, it felt right. Unfortunately, a year or so later someone asked me why I named the business "weener" in French. I don't speak french, that was horrifying. One incredible day a kindergartener came up to me to tell me her name was Zizi and that she wanted to see my studio. She was a tiny angel who concretized this name for me in all it's meanings.
The blue was instigated through one of my freelance jobs as a photographer. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum hired me on a few different occasions to photograph her homes in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. At her home in Ghost Ranch, there's a dining room with adobe walls and blue dinnerware. I thought it was the perfect color in a neutral setting but, I wanted it to be matte. So, I set off on experimenting with different glazes and clays to get the combo I wanted. I immediately started selling work on Instagram and landed a few wholesale orders.
In 2022, Local Legend potter Janet Williams asked me if I'd be interested in renting her old studio, which is where I work today. I am here working abut 6 days a week and share this space with Ale Bremmer Jewelry and Oldies Flower Co. On Saturdays, I keep it open for shopping from 10-2. We are often open to hosting workshops and other events.
I love both production pottery and one of a kind pieces. It's largely gratifying to see production work get more and more refined through time. Sometimes I love coming to the studio and plugging in to making the same shapes on repeat. The one-of-a-kind work is where I get to play. I love to build shapes intuitively and stop when it feels right. I feel rooted in both processes and don't see that changing anytime soon.
It's just me, Krysta, running this whole thing. I throw the pieces, I photograph everything, I made this website, I answer the emails, I ship everything. I hope eventually I am able to hire a couple of employees but, for the time being I really appreciate your patience and support in this one woman business.
Thank you for following along <3
