Jennifer Lee has two missions as an artist. The first is simple: everything she makes needs to be inspired by Lake Erie. It’s the second one that’s a little tougher: all those pieces inspired by Lake Erie must be both artistic and functional. You’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of Lee’s collection that brings together both of those missions better than her salt pinch bowl ($24), a small 3-by 4-inch vessel that’s built to hold a small amount of salt.
“People who like to cook beautiful food should also have beautiful things in their kitchen to complement that,” says Lee, the owner of Jennifer Lee Studios. While she describes the process of making the stoneware clay pinches as one that’s taken “her entire creative life,” she’s been offering them at her studio for the past four years.
With the clay on the inside of the bowl being glazed and the clay on the outside being raw, the light spotty design of the pinches — which are offered in jade, cream and agate — is reminiscent of the sand and rocks you’ll find on the beach. “This is a cool way to have something functional be displayed in your kitchen,” Lee says. jenniferleestudios.net
