While browsing Etsy for gifts for my grandparents, I ran across a pair of customizable, handmade, shallow bowls nestled into a wooden crate – a perfect gift in which to place rings, keys, and other small items. I ordered the bowls from Paloma’s Nest and found that the proprietor and artisan, Caroline Colom Vasquez, had a unique sensibility. She agreed to discuss her small business with The Curator.
Tell us a little bit about how Paloma’s Nest got started. Where did you get the name of the company from?
The origins of “Paloma’s Nest – the business” and “Paloma’s Nest – the products” are separate, but have beautifully melded together to create something that has exceeded my wildest expectations.
I have been designing my line of ceramic and wood designs for close to ten years now, since I graduated with my design degree and a strong determination to stay creating in the studio. While working various jobs in retail management and product design, I continued to develop my own aesthetic and products, and slowly sold my work to small boutiques nationwide. I grew frustrated at the lack of opportunities available for independent designers, and when I became pregnant with my daughter in 2006, I put my ambitions of a design career on the back burner.
Then one day, shortly after my daughter Paloma was born, I was online looking at baby things, and all of these fabulous websites and blogs (at the time, I didn’t even know what a “blog” was!) kept linking to these little shops on Etsy.com. I was immediately drawn to the Etsy philosophy that together we could create an independent micro-economy for handmade goods, supporting artists to make a living from their work. I thought of all of the lonesome pieces I had sitting abandoned in my studio, signed up with the name Paloma’s Nest (on a whim!), and listed a few items for sale. Within days, the items sold, additional orders started rolling in, the bloggers started writing, and it hasn’t stopped since! I now run my business almost exclusively through my Etsy shop, and the collection has been placed in retail locations throughout the globe.
The name “Paloma’s Nest” now seems so perfect and fitting that I cannot believe I ever called my line anything else. Paloma (meaning “dove” in Spanish) has so many symbolic meanings, including peace, justice, purity, and freedom. My work, crafted from white clay, porcelain, natural wood, and cloth fits so perfectly with the name that you would think that I planned it that way.
Your tag line is “Crafting, one Peace at a time.” One of the stated goals of The Curator is to uncover signs of the “world that ought to be” as they are found in our midst. What part does your work have in creating the world that ought to be?
The tag line is obviously a play on words as to what the definition of a “craft piece” may be. I sometimes struggle with the popular or assumed definition of “craft” and where it fits in with the world of art and design. What is the difference? Is there a difference?
With today’s handmade revolution changing the way we purchase and acquire material things, where do we draw the line between a “craft” item, or a handmade functional design, or a piece of sculpture? Why do we constantly feel the need to label it?
I like to think that my work brings a bit of peace and calm to the viewer through the timeless color palette, materials, and forms. But that idea extends beyond the soothing visual sense or what may be implied by the text stamped on the piece: I create pieces that are designed to become heirlooms, to be cherished for many generations, made from the highest quality materials in my 100% wind-powered studio with the least impact on the environment as possible. When I give a gift to someone for a special occasion, such as a wedding or other celebration, it just feels much more meaningful and responsible to give a gift with “staying power” rather than to giving something that may be considered “disposable.”
Tell us about your typical day, and the way you approach creating your work.
Every piece I make really is crafted one at a time, and every letter is hand stamped, one letter at a time. This requires a lot of patience and can become almost meditative because of the calm concentration it requires. When time permits, I love to sneak off to the studio and allow myself the space to create new product designs.
But the romance and fantasy of my “artist life” ends there! As with most small business owners, my days are long and full – eight days a week. Starting with emails at 7:00 a.m., a good chunk of my time is spent on the administrative and customer service side of things. I make service a priority at all times (which means I am glued to my smartphone all day long), as I strongly believe happy customers are the best investment any business can make.
I then begin processing orders around noon – on alternate days that may mean packing items that are ready to ship or spending the rest of the day in the studio crafting custom pieces. In between, I am “Mami,” picking up the little one at Montessori school and taking care of normal toddler things. The mailman comes around 6:00 p.m. to pick up the day’s work, and often we fill up the back of his little truck with all of my outgoing packages. After dinner with the family, the bath and bedtime routine for Paloma, it’s back to the computer for more emails and busy work. Bedtime is around midnight, on a good day.
It makes me tired just thinking about it.
Where do you get ideas for your work?
My inspiration comes from many places, including vintage and antique objects such as quilts and furniture. I am often inspired simply by how an item is made or constructed, even if I am not as interested in how it looks. I love researching the symbolism in Early Latino, Mexican, and European art, as well as discovering texts from Greek philosophers such as Plato, or the later Ralph Waldo Emerson. I use those inspirations as a starting place for expanding my ideas, and later, for expanding my line of products. Often the natural characteristics of the materials I work with tell me what I need to know and what I need to do to take the design to a finished product.
How has your work affected your customers?
I am so honored to be able to share my work with such a wide audience, and thrilled that my pieces are often ordered for such life-changing events. My custom pieces have been used for everything from wedding proposals to commemoration pieces for loved ones who have passed away.
One of my most popular designs, the Ring Bearer Bowl, has sparked a new tradition in the modern wedding ceremony – the little dish, used in place of a ring bearer pillow, is hand stamped with custom texts, such as names and dates, or lines from the wedding vows, and is designed to be passed on through the family; after the wedding it can be hung on a wall or a holiday tree as decoration. I love to imagine where these pieces will be twenty, thirty, or even fifty years from now.
