Interview with Babette Holland

September 17, 2009 · Posted in Home decor, Lighting fixtures

Babette Holland is a Brooklyn, NY-based company that creates beautiful handspun aluminum lamps and mirrors. Babette was willing to answer a few questions for us for a more detailed look into her business.

Babette and Tony (her husband and business partner)

Tell us a little bit about Babette Holland? What were you doing before you started your business?

Well, not having a trust fund, I should have been smart enough to have gotten a “real” job. But being the first in my family to graduate from college, my parents didn’t know this made a difference. They were just thrilled with the idea of “higher education” and learning. So, I went to Alfred University, College of Ceramics Division of Art and Design to study ceramics, and as we all know, it’s an extremely lucrative profession. At least I was poor and smart, so I went for free. Actually, I made money going to college! But, just try and find Alfred on a map… My high school graduating class had at least twice the amount of people than the whole school – including those studying for their Masters and Doctorates. But, it was the best place in America to study Ceramics and very few people got in. But OMG- when I got there I found out there were no movies and no Chinese food. I thought how is a Jewish girl from NY going to survive in this place for four years without going nuts? To add insult to injury, it snowed the second day I was there.

But, it gave you PLENTY of time to work, there were great professors to work with, an incredible library to get lost in, a wonderful “glory hole” filled with tons of work from all over, and when there was time (and there was a lot of that) I ran a few of the businesses – early morning I ran the campus hangout, in the afternoon the beer and lunch place on campus, and in the evening in was the catering facility.

When I graduated, I came home to NY and it almost felt criminal to be doing function work. So I did “art”. I had found a dog named Joe, the love of my life, and we had a standing Tuesday appointment at the vet. Next to the vet was a copper supply store. It seemed pretty natural to figure out how to make something from copper, since clay had always been so cold (was I not thinking?). I started small… baskets with folded aluminum, hampers, but then put away the aluminum and did copper only – BIG – big beds, big mirrors, big vanities. It was great – and I cut all the copper by hand.

Of course being a chicken, I had a bunch of other jobs at the same time I creating all this stuff, even though this was going well. I worked at the best art and architecture bookstore in Soho (Jaap Rietman) – finally being able to build my own library. I worked with Nancy Graves, the sculptures, figuring out how to enamel on all her huge bronze sculpture. I even taught. The only pre-requisite I ever had when taking a job was that I could bring my dog(s). No dog allowed – I walked. I could have kept it all the jobs but wanted to give selling to retail stores a shot. And the streets of Tribeca were safe. No one was ever there – most people were too afraid to come there. So, I took a chance and that was the first time we spun.

How long have you been making your handspun aluminum vases, lamps, mirrors, etc.?

The first spinning we did was a three size vase (which could also double as a champage bucket and candle holder). It sat in a copper frame, with choice of a finial or simple cap. It’s still one of my favorite pieces.

We started making other spun products (without copper or any other materials mixed in) for the first time around 2001/2002. This was also the same time we started working with color. We started with three simple pot shapes. Boy was that exciting! Then things just exploded. It’s like we couldn’t stop. I still want to introduce 100 pieces each year, but it’s not a practical way to run things.

How long does each piece take to make? What is the process like?

OUR COMPANY MOTTO: If there’s a more complicated way to manufacture, we just haven’t found it yet. It’s not that we necessarily try, it just turned out that way. Spinning itself isn’t easy- that’s why no one does it. And to make sure it stayed unpopular, we made sure our shapes were extremely difficult to reproduce by making them multi-chuck forms. We keep taking pieces on and off our wheels to make small steps on each pieces. Only one piece can be made at a time. Watching metal being spun is like watching a slow, rocking dance. The metal, which is cut round and flat to start, is pushed over a form (that we make), called a chuck, and must be pushed over evenly. I love the rings you see – that’s the spinner’s hand, but nicks or uneven groove lines to me is a sign of a lousy spinner. We only have Master Spinners. Our spinners can spin in mid-air, if need be, to get a turn or a lip we want. Not wanting to leave our forms the base color of aluminum, which is beautiful, but again, easy, we went on to develop colors and ways to achieve colorations that made me remember why I suffered through 4 years of glaze chemistry at Alfred. Both are constant, exciting, excruciating and wonderful.

Do you have a favorite item?

Whatever is newest. And definitely whatever is the hardest to do.

What three words would you use to describe a typical day in your life?

Phone, dogs, email. That’s the basic day-to-day. I have to make sure to make time to have fun to do the great things in the shop that I love to do – make new things, work on blasts, our catalogs, new color trends… all the fun stuff. Nothing keeps me from playing with the dogs. Hank, the President, Ruby, the Vice-President, and Ash, at only 5 months, the newest foundling. We’ll see what position he’s about to hold. Right now it looks like Pup-In-Chief.

Babette, Tony, Hank and Ruby

Any funny stories from the design studio you’d care to share? We sure like to laugh…

Truly funny? The day I decided everyone in the shop was going to have a Seder and eat all the wonderful Jewish food they’d heard me complain about for years. Well, we did it, and no one makes fun of me anymore after the gefilte fish with horse radish. Or funny because we had to laugh to keep from crying? We did all the lighting for an extremely famous restaurant and they loved all their lamps. However, one day a food fight broke out and all the silk shades were ruined and needed to be replaced ASAP. We scotch-guarded the replacements and got them on a plane the next day!

What inspires you?

First, it’s an inner battle with myself. I’m the toughest critic I have. More things don’t get done than do. And since we do everything here, it’s simple to do everything we want to. Then, great potters, Val Cushing, Robert Turner, Ruth Duckworth, and so many others. Russell Wright and Frank Lloyd Wright. Current architects and designers- and that list would be massive. Prada always- for color. And sculpture, photography, the movies.

When you’re not making gorgeous home furnishings, what do you enjoy doing?

Thank you so much for that, I appreciate it. Well, I love being with Tony outside the shop, although we’re never totally “outside” the shop. We love ranting at politics and lunatics – geez we should live where you are! Antiquing for our sort of still new home (a Mid-Century Modern home with way too much space) is a weekly activity. Book collecting – art and architecture is still and will always be my biggest passion. Going to the movies. Reading. Drawing. We also have a bomb shelter and one of these days I’m going to put a kiln in there and make clay dogs, because by now I think you know I love nothing more than dogs. I work at a dog shelter – in fact the one I worked at as a kid. I volunteer for a few other organizations, too, both good deed-type organizations and for the Democratic Party. I have a few TV shows I’m just addicted to – Dexter and Mad Men. And of course, Keith Oberman, Rachel Maddow, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. I love being with my sister, who is a well-known photographer, and her husband, who should be a chef by trade. And I’m very lucky to have wonderful friends who I love dearly. My dad (aka, the Fossil) is still going strong at 85. Tony loves to garden and I love to watch him. And the Mets just about killed me this year.