RUTHAN BRODSKY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Mallery Eisenshtadt's hand painted
bowls can be found on display,
or on the dinner table.
cu
A new design
takes shape.
ncormected pieces of teal-
colored circles intersect
black zigzag lines and yel-
low squares on the clear
glass bowl. Painting boldly,
but carefully, so that the col-
ors stay within the geometric
shapes, Mallery Eisensh-
tadt completes the last of
six salad-size bowls and sets it
aside to dry.
"Each of these bowls is hand
painted in free form," says the
28-year-old resident of West
Bloomfield. "I don't use any
stencils, which means no two
bowls are exactly alike. When
someone buys my work at area
stores, she'll be able to coordi-
nate the colors and patterns of
the individual bowls, but there's
no way any two of them will
match exactly. That's part of the
beauty of my work. It's also the
fun part."
Whimsical and practical
...two properties not commonly
used to describe the same thing,
but they work for Ms.
Eisenshtadt.
"Most of us are
accustomed
to buying
' house-
hold--type gifts or
something special
for ourselves in tra-
ditional crystal, sil-
ver or the more
modern acrylic," she says.
"These items can get very cost-
ly. They're very lovely but more
often than not they sit on some
shelf for display.
"My bowls are pretty enough
for display, but they're practical
enough to be used, and they
aren't so expensive that the cus-
tomer or the new bride is un-
comfortable using them.
"People smile when they see
my work. And I love it when one
of my friends says she received
some of my pieces as a shower
or wedding gift."
Ms. Eisenshtadt paints func-
tional items made of clear glass.
The glassware is dishwasher
safe, but she advises hand-
washing her painted glass
pieces.
These are busy months for
Eisenshtadt who often puts in
more than eight hours a day just
to keep up with the customer
demand for her work at Slades,
the Horn of Plenty, Private Col-
lection Gallery and a gift shop
in Pittsburgh. In addition to the
salad bowls, she creates paint-
ed dessert bowls with matching
cups, saucers and water pitch-
ers.
She started her busi-
ness, ME Creations,
working from the West
Bloomfield apartment
that she and hus-
band Steve settled
in last year after
She works amid her art.
they were married. The paint
fumes weren't venting well, so
Ms. Eisenshtadt moved her pro-
duction to the Southfield home
of her parents, Leonard and
Maureen Wayne.
"Mallery was falling behind
in her production schedule and
I offered to help," recalls Ms.
Wayne. "It looked easy; it
wasn't. I worked on the same
bowl all afternoon, starting over
a dozen times, and it still didn't
look good. I handed the bowl
back to her unfinished.
"Mallery expects perfection
and she achieves it by rework-
ing, adjusting the color, or
adding a line here or there to
make each glass piece look the
way she wants it to look. I just
don't have her patience."
Ms. Eisenshtadt was always
interested in creating art, even
as a young child. At Southfield-
Lathrup High School, she won -
a scholastic art award. Even
while earning a bachelor's de-
gree in social work at Michigan
State University, she dabbled
in painting and making jewel-
ry•
After graduation, Ms. Eisen-
shtadt worked for a year as a
caseworker for closed-head-in-
jury patients. It wasn't what she
wanted to do and she left her
job.
During the next few years
she experimented with all sorts
of work, from retail sales to of-
fice management. At the same
time, she maintained her inter-
est in art, thinking of it as a hob-
by rather than a career.
"I started making jewelry,"
Ms. Eisenshtadt says, "and
whenever I'd wear one my pins
or a pair of earrings, someone
would ask if I could make some-
thing for them. That's when I
started Bits of Glitz, my own
jewelry line, and sold it to local
stores and out of the house. That
was also when I became inter-
ested in furniture and glass."
Ms. Eisenshtadt purchased
some plain wood furniture and
painted it with her free-form de-
signs . "It took forever to com-
plete one step stool or a rocking
chair, which made the cost of
the piece very expensive. That's
when I looked into glass more
carefully because it seemed less
complicated and costly to pro-
duce a painted work."
When she isn't spending her
time filling painted glass orders,
Ms. Eisenshtadt helps design
invitations and paints custom
canvases for clients and interi-
or designers. Her goal is to open
her own gallery, sponsoring lo-
cal artists who create whimsi-
cal art. ❑
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