Home GROWN

In the Mold

Until six months ago artist Donna Collins couldn’t sell anything-then she started making ceramic cups and plates and her artistic milieu became purely functional.

Collins’ pottery is admired daily by diners in four of the five Massimo da Milano restaurants. With colorful Country, Italian and Etruscan motifs, her plates were designed to complement the decor of each of the restaurants in the chain. What started out as a consignment agreement at the Lover’s Lane location has grown into steady demand for Collins’ work. Massimo owner Kent Mcintosh wants everything she can produce-for his customers and his restaurant walls– as fast as she can finish it.

Thanks to her exposure in the restaurants and in Artisana, the arts consortium and retail store by Fair Park, Collins’ painted cups and plates will be available at Stanley Korshak this spring. Korshak will also carry her wedding platters with the bride’s name and wedding date inscribed.

Collins, who admits to having “the soul of an entrepreneur,” has begun a new enterprise in partnership with the bridal salon. Her platter parties, luncheons where friends and relatives of the engaged couple create special designs in her ready-to-carve-and-paint-and-sign pottery, began this spring.

Collins says her plates are different from other artists’ because she carves intricate designs into each of them. Then she carefully hand-paints the lines, “leaving the images crisp and sharp.”

Collins’ life has definitely changed as her art has taken off. “Nothing was happening,” she says. “Now everything’s happening-and so fast!” -Linda Owen

Catch of the Day

Most anglers hang their favorite fishing lures from their hats, but Janette Blair dangles them from her ears. Depending on her mood, anything from 3-inch worms to bright orange grubs might swing from her lobes. Blair has spawned fishing’s newest fashion, lure earrings.

Several months ago, with prodding from her husband. Bob, Janette walked into a bait and tackle shop and dropped several hundred bucks on an armful of rubber lures that the store owners couldn’t move. Alurings has been reeling them in ever since.

When the folks from “Ed McMa-hon’s Star Search” called, Blair thought it was a joke. After watching the modeling competition on the show one night, she sent them five pairs of the polyvinyl chloride ear-lures on spec. The show is using them in a spokesmodel competition that will air April 24 and May 1.

Alurings are available at Just Add Water in Preston Center.

– Tint Rogers