Object of Desire: A Tulipière for Every Season – Gardenista

Visitors to the sell-out Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam might find themselves wandering through the Delftware gallery, in search of delightful tulipières. While these tulip-holding ceramic vessels are magnificent, reaching to around 4-feet tall, they are not covetable exactly, and the same can be said for more contemporary offerings at museum shops. A tulipière when it’s empty can resemble a human heart with arteries, and it is not always improved with flowers. Fortunately, the ceramicist Kay Schuckhart in upstate New York has the answer.

A former designer of books and art director for fondly remembered journals like Spy, Kay prefers to work with clay these days. Her ceramics business goes by the name of Furbelow and Bibelot, roughly translated into less romantic language as “pleats and trinkets.”

Photography by Kay Schuckhart.

Kay has been doing ceramics for seven years and is more of a graphic designer than a tulip maniac, which explains her interest in form over historical pastiche. However, with a long-held interest in archeology and design history, her art references are en point for a handsome tulipière shape: “I’m aiming for grotto-fabulous.”

Kay’s first adventure into 3-D modeling was in the form of papier-mâché, using custom water slide decals to incorporate surface imagery. “I was using a lot of seashell images, which eventually translated into shell-encrusted tulipières.”

A vessel that can be used during any season. Furbelow and Bibelot will be showing at Flower Show: Celebrate Spring! at Lyndhurst mansion, NY, and at the annual Topiaries & Tulipières event at Hillside, Claverack, NY, on September 10, 2023.

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