Custom Tableware
Palette San Francisco
Palette was a restaurant located in San Francisco's SOMA district that celebrated and displayed local artwork. As part of my role at Palette, I was responsible for sourcing artists to create unique handmade artwork that would be used for dining service. This included commissioning custom glassware, plates, oyster knives, and wine decanters. These special items played a significant role in enhancing the dining experience and could be purchased at the Palette Retail Shop on-site or online. Some of the artists involved in this project were part of the Palette Artist Residency program, which I directed. This program provided the artists with a dedicated studio space to create and produce original artwork specifically for use and sale at Palette.
Artists: Andrew Kontrabecki, Sam Schumacher (Rocket Glass Works), James Austin, Marc Bauer (Made for a Museum), Galen Garretson (Town Cutler), Sasha Duerr, Jane Kim (Ink Dwell), Josh Powell (Bristle Bros), Shawn Lovell (Shawn Lovell Metalworks)
Artist Residency Program Participants
Andrew Kontrabecki | Ceramics
Andrew Kontrabecki is a ceramicist and ceramics instructor. For over 25 years, Andrew has honed his craft, drawing inspiration from ancient ceramic cookware and Japanese and Korean wood-fired pottery. For Palette, Andrew worked alongside the culinary team as well as other collaborating artists to create custom ceramic wares inspired by each recipe, ingredient, season, natural element or in-house art exhibition.
James Austin | Blacksmith
James Austin is a passionate blacksmith who employs techniques from medieval times to craft one of a kind objects. James is all about chemistry and traditional methods. For the custom oyster knife, James set out to the true natural source, sand. With the power of a magnet in sand with iron run off, James gathered material he would then smelt in this studio to produce an ingot of metal. From this ingot he would work meticulously to melt and pound out a thin smooth curved knife, which was then placed in a hand carved handle of driftwood foraged from the shores of Northern California.
Sam Schumacher | Glassblower
We worked with glassblower Sam Schumacher to create handblown glassware and wine decanters. You’ll see in the video below the liberty we gave artists to create these special works of art. For example, Sam chose to utilize recycled glass for the water vessels, melting down a mix of used glass creates a uniform blue color in each piece. Our guests were then able to purchase these items for themselves through the retail shop. The excitement he had about seeing a room full of people using his works to imbibe and enjoy some time together still fills me with an immense amount of satisfaction and joy.