By Ellen Morrissey
Photographs by Stephanie Zollshan
Pippa Biddle & Ben Davidson
QUITTNER HOME
Pippa Biddle and Ben Davidson met as children at a summer camp she jokingly refers to as a “benevolent cult.” It’s where they learned to weave, carve wood, and make pottery. It’s also where they developed the ethos that inspires their work at Quittner Home, a design practice, workshop, and retail shop in Germantown, New York. The couple makes and sells lighting, dinnerware, and vases, as well as vintage goods. They describe their work as rooted in the past and at ease in the present. “We are very interested in heritage ceramics,” says Biddle, “and the idea of a contemporary heirloom that can grow and evolve with you. Because when you reside alongside things that are a hundred years old, you don’t want to be in the business of making trash.”
Davidson and Biddle in their workspace, a former garage, while ceramics designer Aleah Stewart-Souris works her magic at the wheel. Davidson’s simple light fixtures, with porcelain bases and brass sockets, were their first handmade pieces sold at Quittner. Their dinnerware represents their vision of a more streamlined, slightly modern take on heirloom examples. Inspired by British stoneware crocks, the vases are finished with names that evoke nature, like lichen, crunchy maple leaf, and fresh snow.
Louis Wallach
LOUIS WALLACH FINE WOODWORKING
Lou Wallach never planned to turn wood. He worked for decades as a photographer and home restorer, and had settled in Stockbridge. While using a lathe to produce cabinet details, he thought, “let’s see if I can make a bowl with this thing.” He made one, then a few more, followed by hollow forms and vases. In short order, he was hooked. These days, he sells his pieces at art fairs and galleries (many are available at Stockbridge Artisans’ Gallery). The thread that runs through his work is sustainability, as he limits himself to fallen or dead trees. “I don’t buy exotic woods from elsewhere, although they can be beautiful,” he says. “It’s all native to the Berkshires, where there’s no shortage of wood. Finding more has never been a challenge. In fact, the material almost finds me.”
Wallach turns wood in his shop on the property his parents bought in the 1970s. Local specimens include cherry, northern white pine, maple, birch, hickory, elm, and red cedar. Many of the pieces are functional and food safe, while some sculptural forms are purely art pieces.
Wendy Krag O’Neil
KRAG SILVERSMITH
In the hayloft behind her home in Stockbridge, silversmith Wendy Krag O’Neil has been making jewelry and accessories—belt buckles, cuff links, key chains—for more than 20 years. Her most popular items feature themes that celebrate life’s passions and favorite places. There’s fishing, tennis, gardening, islands, and bear paws, for Berkshires lovers. She also does a brisk business in bespoke pieces, geared towards recipients who are impossible to buy for (we all have at least one in our lives.) “I’m always up for something new,” she says. “And they can go in so many different directions. It’s like a puzzle, and it never gets old. I learn something from every piece I make.”
O’Neil in her studio (which she shares with her husband, artist Charles Thomas O’Neil). She learned silversmithing from her grandfather, then honed her craft for 10 years in Santa Fe. Buckles for leather belts (which O’Neil also handcrafts), jewelry, and key chains are adorned with monograms and nature motifs. Some proceeds from her bear paw pieces go to Berkshire School.
