STORE — MIRO MADE THIS
Every object offered by Miro Made This is completely made by hand—thrown and trimmed on the potter’s wheel, and carefully glazed and finished, piece by piece. Each bears the mark of its maker in subtle variations of curve, form, and texture, as well as those found within the clay body itself. Please note that no two pieces are exactly alike—more sisters than twins: closely related, not exactly duplicates, but still a family.
Collection comprises the mainstays of MMT—the basic forms of teacups, bowls, plates, and carafes that are offered as a recognizable and cohesive body of high-quality work.
Studies are limited editions of different shapes, forms, clay bodies, and glazes that provide Miro with the opportunity to experiment within her chosen medium and expand her practice.
Seconds consists of pieces that have small flaws such as color variations, marks, or inconsistent glazing that renders pieces not suitable for the collection, but nevertheless, still of value. In fact, some favor the greater variations of seconds—depending on a personal preference for uniqueness.
Low Bellied Bowl, No. 37 & 38, Rust / Clear
$50.00
Rounded Bowl, Rust / Clear
$48.00
Small Curved Bowl, Rust / Bright Pink
$37.00
Larger Lidded Jar, Speckled Ochre / Speckled White (Study)
$140.00
Low Wide Rounded Teacups, Speckled Ochre / Speckled White
$48.00
sold out
Small Banchan Bowl, Speckled Ochre / Speckled Ochre
$36.00
Rounded Fruit Bowl, Speckled Ochre / Speckled White
$160.00
Rounded Fruit Bowl No.2, Speckled Ochre / Speckled White
$165.00
Squarish Cup, Speckled Ochre / Various
$42.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Coffee Cup, No.04042301
$140.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Coffeecup, No.
04042302
$140.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Coffee Cup, No. 04072301
$140.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Lidded Jar, No. 12132205
$150.00
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Lidded Jar, No. 12132203
$150.00
Teabowl, Dark Brown / Black
$68.00
sold out
Rounded Teacup, Toast / Blue Grey
$48.00
sold out
Low Medium Bowl, Toast / Blue Grey
$75.00
Squarish Cups, Khaki / Various
$42.00
sold out
Ice Cream Bowl, Khaki / Red Orange
$55.00
Rounded Teacup, Khaki / Red Orange
$48.00
sold out
Small Banchan Bowls, Various
$36.00
Coffee Cup, warm grey/clear
$48.00
sold out
Shallow Flared Bowl, Cream / Clear
$80.00
sold out
Pedestal Bowl, French Vanilla / Clear
$50.
00
Tall Rounded Teacup, French Vanilla / Clear
$55.00
Low Bellied Serving Bowl, French Vanilla / Clear
$120.00
Low Bellied Bowl, French Vanilla / Clear
$65.00
Low Flared Bowl, French Vanilla / Clear
$90.00
Smallish Curved Bowl, Grey / Green Grey Celadon
$36.00
sold out
Small Curved Bowls, Porcelain / Various
$35.00
Small Rounded Dish, Porcelain / Sky Blue
$36.00
Medium Flared Bowl, Grey / White
$70.00
Shallow Low Bowl, Grey / Green Grey Celadon
$100.00
Small Banchan Bowl, Grey / Clear
$36.00
sold out
Small Banchan Bowl, Grey / Green Grey Celadon
$36.00
Salt Cellar, Rust / Clear
$36.00
sold out
Squarish Cup, Rust / Clear (study)
$42.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Coffee Cup, No.
04072306
$140.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Coffee Cup, No. 04072302
$140.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Lidded Jar, No. 04242301
$150.00
sold out
Miro and Miro’s Mom Made This Coffee Cup, No. 04072304
$140.00
sold out
Medium High Bowl, Toast / Yellow Ochre
$65.00
sold out
Small Curved Bowl, Grey / White
$36.00
sold out
Low Curved Serving Bowl, Grey / Green Grey Celadon
$120.00
sold out
Coffee Cup, Porcelain / Clear
$55.00
sold out
Rounded Teacup, French Vanilla/Clear
$48.00
sold out
Rounded Cereal Bowl, Grey / Warm White (Seconds)
$30.00
sold out
Low Medium Flared Bowl, Toast / Blue Grey (seconds)
$50.00
sold out
Low Bellied Serving Bowl, French Vanilla / Clear (Second)
$50.
00
Miro Chun Interview – Miro Made This Pottery
Mimi O Chun
Miro Chun considered playing the violin professionally at one point. It was just one of Chun’s many interests—there was her handmade greeting card business, a decade-long career as an architect, a stint as a baker and cook—before she gave pottery a try. Eventually, inspired by her own family of makers (her mother is an abstract expressionist painter, and her sister is an artist), Chun launched her ceramics line, Miro Made This, in 2014. Here, the Phoenix, Arizona-based potter talks about the importance of constant learning and celebrating art’s imperfections.
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On getting a later start in the profession:
Miro Chun
“I took a ceramics class at a local community college about ten years before this current run, but I couldn’t get the hang of centering pieces on the wheel, so I dropped the class. But this time around, it stuck.
I was older, more focused, and I think that maturity really helps in terms of design. And it was something that was finally making sense of all my experiences—and a good way to channel what I was interested in into one practice.”
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On family influences:
Miro Chun
“When you grow up surrounded by art and design and understand the value in those sort of things, it informs everything: your career, your values, etc. It just seemed normal at the time, but looking back now, I can see the influence. My dad is a tech guy, but he also took amazing photographs, and has one of the best eyes (to discern art, design, composition) of anyone that I know.”
Left: A piece in collaboration with Chun’s mother, abstract expressionist painter Changsoon Oh
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On deciding to launch a line:
Miro Chun
“The catalyst was my sister, who thought that the work I was making was good enough to put out into the world.
And the timing was right with the increasing popularity of handmade goods. Between that, and leaving the [architecture] profession, it seemed like the moment to take the leap. Although truthfully, I’m such a perfectionist that I would have rather taken another ten years to refine my craft before releasing pieces into the public realm.”
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On finding inspiration:
Miro Chun
“Inspiration just generally comes from everyday life. Since this is not my first career, but something that I’ve deliberately chosen, I’m always seeking to make sense of my experiences and things I encounter and relate it back to my practice. I think everyone does this to an extent: We are all looking for meaning and beauty and things that fit with who we are and who we want to be.”
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On mastering techniques:
Miro Chun
“The practice of ceramics is really something for the long haul.
There are so many variables that change the dynamic every time I sit at the wheel, and there are so many things I still need to learn, just about the medium itself.”
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On approaching the idea of perfection as an artist:
Miro Chun
“It’s impossible to make anything perfect, and I’m still learning to be OK with the inevitable imperfections. I actually have a series about it: There are so many private highs and lows in any maker’s process. Sometimes these ‘mistakes’ happen late in the game, when the piece is almost done, and I can’t bear to throw out all the work that’s already been [invested]. So with this series, I’ve been immortalizing those foibles. It’s about trying to find some intrinsic value in my own fallibility, a little beauty in all parts of the process.”
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On cultivating a style:
Miro Chun
“I’m naturally drawn to systems, from my design education and from observing systems in the natural world and understanding how those underlying structures and rhythms often manifest themselves externally to make beautiful things that make sense.
So my ceramics often relate to one another. My tableware collection is a series of pieces that make a family that can be mixed and matched.”
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On handmade pieces:
Miro Chun
“A lot of beautiful commercially made clay bodies usually get covered up with glazes. So I generally like to leave [my work] exposed and unglazed on the exterior. You can see the color, variation, and textures, and feel them, too. You also get to see the way that they age—rough stonewares smooth out over time, with use, and pieces stain and chip and sometimes even crack. I always like to say that the objects we value the most are not the shiny and new, but the old and worn things that show their history of use and convey the memories that make those pieces dear to us.”
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On continually learning:
Miro Chun
“It drives me a little crazy how many people like to consider themselves ‘self-taught.
‘ There’s a reason that there are so many teachers and classes out there, and with this profession, more than anything else, the best way to learn is through experience. So why not continue to take classes, to have mentors, to learn from others?”
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On the proudest moments:
Miro Chun
“There are so many moments of triumph and despair in any ceramicist’s practice because of the volatile nature of the medium. Ask me in 30 years, and I might be able to give you a better answer. For now, I’d say being able to make some of the pieces that we actually use everyday at home—that I actually want to use everyday at home.”
Anastasia Mironova that the transparent world has made states faceless – Gazeta.Ru
In 2009, it seems, I was traveling to Poland from London on a regular bus. We crossed the English Channel by ferry. As soon as we passed the border control, I began to fall asleep. I woke up – stop, everyone leaves. I got out too.
Darkness, small gas station with a cafeteria. Our entire bus lined up for the toilet, I was the last one in it. And when I got out, the bus had left. Forgot about me. I thought: well, tea, Europe, luggage will not be stolen, my wallet and documents, thanks to the old Tyumen hardening, are with me – now they will come back for me, I just need to inform the carrier.
It turned out to be difficult to report: I did not write down the company’s phone number, and I did not have the Internet. The cashier at the checkout spoke only his own language. Then everywhere in Europe there was roaming, calls cost a lot of money. Two or three pounds on the balance sheet would be enough for a couple of minutes of a call to London. I began to dial my husband: it was necessary that he found the carrier’s contacts and said that they had forgotten me. I took out my phone and only then realized that I did not know where I was. It doesn’t mean that I won’t be able to name the city or village where I was dropped off – I don’t understand what country I am in.
Morning is coming soon, I have no idea how many times we stopped, whether we drove fast. I did not look at the route map – through which country we were supposed to go. It could be Belgium, the Netherlands or Germany. Definitely not France – we would have already passed it, and the cashier does not speak French. I cannot determine his language: is it Dutch, Flemish or German? There are no posters, service inscriptions, only opening hours on the sign, a WC icon on the toilet, gas station – network, prices – in euros. On the display window there are pies, cola, Pepsi, Fanta, American bars, on coffee cups there is the logo of the Costa coffee house, it was everywhere in Europe at that time.
The cashier said something to me in his own, babbled and sat me down on the sofa. I realized that he was reassuring me, and I tried to find out from him: what country? I sorted through these three names in all manners of pronunciation known to me, but the cashier only smiled. I called my husband, talked to him about my two pounds and could not explain where I was, so he had to wait for the start of the working day to contact the transport company, which would have guessed where I was left on the schedule.
In the morning, a car with German license plates finally arrived at the gas station, and its driver spoke English. It turned out that I was in a Dutch village on the border with Germany, that the cashier immediately understood everything and tried to contact the carrier himself, but no one picked up the phone in the office until morning.
Now, even for the sake of interest, I opened the map and remembered: the village was called Herungerberg. You know, I understood a lot in that Herungerberg. And, when she later decided not to stay in Europe, she recalled a night in a country where at one particular gas station there was nothing left of her own, except for the cashier, who could not believe that he had been confused with a German.
When I say that I was not upset at all because of the flurry of sanctions, as a result of which we were actually deprived of trips to Europe, they do not believe me. And I really was not upset: I saw all of it. But the main thing is not this.
I am almost forty years old, I have a child, a schoolboy, dogs, cats, a garden, a kitchen garden, work. And I realized quite a long time ago that in my life there was no time left to visit Europe or, for example, Australia. If I could close my eyes and open them in a hotel near the Pompidou Center, then, perhaps, I would still agree to take a walk around Paris. But to prepare, look for tickets, book accommodation, fiddle with a visa – no, thank you, I’m sorry for the time and effort. Because I have already seen all this and I know in advance what awaits me on my next trip.
I had absolutely no regrets about Europe in the spring and summer. And in North America, perhaps, too. Because by that time, after two years of sitting at home, I had made a travel plan for the coming years: countries that I want to return to, countries that I have not yet been to. I marked several routes for long trips and realized that they have neither Europe nor North America. I have been there, I was interested there, but I don’t want to go back there without carefully examining other places.
Because everything is, strictly speaking, one and the same.
Don’t believe me? Let’s do an experiment. Open at random maps of three cities: Saint-Tropez, Chicago and … and Acapulco, for example. I’m sure you can even guess where there are McDonald’s, a Zara store, and, say, a yogurt ice cream parlor. And you know exactly how people look there, what they wear, what movies they went to last weekend, which of the world stars they follow on social networks. In general, with rare exceptions, people who live in these cities will have the same worldview and common patterns of behavior. They will differ only in that there are fewer rich people in Acapulco, more rich people in Chicago, and quite a lot in Saint-Tropez. Otherwise, the inhabitants of these cities are similar to the point of impossibility to distinguish them. Except that in Chicago at this time in the evenings they already put on jackets …
Everything has become insipid and monotonous. Having landed in any city of Western culture, you can tell exactly where to find the notorious McDonald’s, a mall with brands of famous consumer goods, chain cafes, hardware stores, and even nail salons.
Residents of these cities will subscribe to the same trendy queer activists, read the same books about LGBT theory, even in their heads everything will be mostly the same, because they studied at their universities according to unified programs.
Before, in order to get tired of the same Europe, one had to go everywhere. Now it is enough to visit several countries: with minimal observation and due ingenuity, a person will understand what awaits him in the rest.
It is probably convenient and safe to live in such a unified way, but it is not interesting to look at. Living in Saudi Arabia or Turkmenistan is not very fun, but it’s great to be there! The same about Chechnya: hardly anyone wants to wake up as a Chechen from Argun, but how many requests for sights, how many blogs about life there! Almost half of my acquaintances have visited Grozny. Because something else… Few of the real travelers, and not mattresses from the sea, go on vacation to admire nature. Yes, and we don’t go to museums much on vacation.
People want to watch someone else’s culture, someone else’s way of life. Any traveler, if he is not rafting on the Karelian rivers in a kayak, has an ethnographic interest. And what is interesting if everyone lives the same way everywhere? You can call it exotic, or you can call it a search for new knowledge. A person should learn on a journey, and not predict. People go to Chechnya today not because everyone wants to see how it was rebuilt: other people live in Chechnya. We condemn many of their rules of life, but we are interested, because there is something else preserved there, except for a young designer who drinks an online pumpkin latte and reads an article by a non-binary author about a traumatic experience of body shaming …
And people go to Africa not because it’s cheap. People fly to North Korea not to look into the eyes of the Korean military.
Let’s be honest: the world without borders is very boring in places. Let me give you more examples: once in Cambodia I saw a cafe with yogurt ice cream, which I had previously met in Chicago, on our Griboedov Canal and in Moroccan Essaouira: the same fillers, the same interior.
You feel deceived: why did you fly for ten hours?
And in our Luga cafe they sell all the same loose ice cream that I first saw in Edinburgh almost 20 years ago and then met in a couple of dozen more countries: the same containers, the same names, such as “Cote d’Azur”, Turkish Delight. .. Delicious, but how tired it is!!!
I don’t know if we should all be the same, read, watch, eat the same. Maybe that would be more convenient. But it’s boring! Lukashenka has become more interesting than Italy, because he has a lot of interesting things there. And then already Belarus erases its face. A fashionable youth site recommends: “Nine places in Belarus, like in Italy.” The design of the site is also fashionable, like everyone else. And their fashionable authors already call themselves authors. The original invoice is gone. I remember that five years ago the Belarusian media had funny layouts and websites like from the days of our dip-up.
I still remember how in 2008 or 2009 in Belarus mangoes were sold everywhere: in vegetable stalls by weight, in pies, in compotes.
They seem to have sold tractors to Chavez by barter. And how interesting it was! Belarusians, of course, are not pleasant enough: they all walked along the string and choked on mangoes, but I remembered forever. And, honestly, I say without posturing: it is more interesting for me to return to Belarus in Italy, to have time to see it, before everything there is shaved off to zero.
Mongolia or Turkmenistan today is certainly more interesting than Poland and the Czech Republic for those who have been to one of these two countries at least once…
This does not mean, of course, that everyone should go out of their way to preserve their identity. I do not think that nationalities should cling to their language, if it dies, to their culture, because with this approach, only tourists need them. Yes, there are nations where everyone happily goes to work in folk costumes, and there are those among whom you will not find those who want not only to engage in folk dances in the Palace of Culture, but also go to a concert.
Many peoples, especially small ones, dissolve into larger cultures. If so – and let it be, you don’t need to keep it. Burning yourself for the sake of people learning a language they don’t need, or spending huge amounts of money to maintain interest in national cultures is a thankless and dishonest business: everyone should live as he pleases.
But if you show him the French, Americans or Swedes as an example of what will happen to him, this person, and his people in the future, will he be satisfied? No, I’m not talking about the fact that someone does not want to live like the Swedes: probably, in Russia, many people want to. It is a matter of knowing your future. Remember how in childhood everyone told each other “for death”? How long will you live, how will you die? Tell me honestly, did you want to know then how you would end your life and in what year?
In the fact that everyone follows the same path, there is something akin to this bad knowledge of one’s end. It’s half the trouble that you will become like a Frenchman.
For some, it is even happiness to be like the French. The tragedy, after all, is that, having undertaken to catch up with France, we will get the opportunity to see our future in advance and, in general terms, know in advance how we will dress, what we will eat, what we will get carried away with. We will know what our cinemas will look like in a couple of years, what corporations will profit from our supermarkets, what politicians we will start to like.
And this is not stability, but knowledge of one’s future. During the stagnation, everyone knew what would happen tomorrow, but only by analogy with today and yesterday – no one compared their future with the neighbors who lived it first.
Do you want to live like this? God be with them, with the tourists, they will rest on the mattress. Do you really want everyone to drink this damn pumpkin latte in unison, smack the same fashionable nonsense, wear the same hats from chain stores and know what will happen next?
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editorial position.
The only street glass blower in Russia is loved by the whole world, but few people know him in his native country
Yuri Lenshin is one of the most famous glass blowers in the world. He lives in Kaliningrad and has visited 40 countries with his exhibitions. But in Russia, his works can not be seen often. Correspondent Dobro.Zhurnal Oksana Chernysheva learned from the honored artist why it is important for him to glorify Russian glassblowing art.
Just a good craftsman
Yuri Lenshin is 72 years old. Inspiration has not left him for more than half a century. All these years he spends at least two hours a day, including weekends and holidays, in a glass-blowing workshop. To enjoy the work, the artist explains.
Yuri Yurievich is included in the list of the best glassblowers in the world and is listed in the Russian Book of Records of the Planet. He showed his skills to the great-granddaughter of the Danish King Wilhelm, world politicians and heads of foreign companies, TV presenter Leonid Yakubovich, Soviet actor Donatas Banionisis, pianist Denis Matsuev.
“I am the only street glass blower in Russia. And there are about 15 of us in the world. And this is the elite of glassblowing art. Although I do not consider myself outstanding and a genius. And I treat all these epithets with humor. I’m just a good master “, – modestly says Yuri Yuryevich.
According to him, this art of glassblowing is ancient. Unlike today, it does not need to be explained. A good master in him is distinguished by a line of beauty from which one cannot tear oneself away.
“When you come to an exhibition, you stop and can’t move any further – that’s what makes different,” the artist explains. – Glass is visible through the light. And if you did it crookedly, then it will immediately become clear.
In 2018, during the World Cup, people from Brazil came to see the outstanding glass blower. These were well-groomed and wealthy ladies at a respectable age under 80. They told Yuri Yuryevich that they had seen him on TV.
And meeting with him is one of the goals of their trip to Russia.
“Father’s priceless gift”
At first, Yuri Lenshin received a pedagogical education, but did not work as a school teacher for long. His father suggested that he go to the glassblowing business, and he agreed.
“This is an invaluable gift from my father. Now my profession is a glass blower-apparatus. I used to make flasks, test tubes and twisted tubes for chemical laboratories. But then the restructuring began. I had to retrain as an artist, ” recalls Yuri Yuryevich.
According to him, glassblowing is one of the hardest things to learn. To teach blowing something more or less decent, you need 5-7 years, and then another five years you need to watch the student.
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Len’shin blows glass with a gas burner, oxygen and gas cylinder.
This is how figurines of animals and birds, fabulous pegasi, ships, samovars and candlesticks appeared. Today the artist has several collections. The most famous is “Magic Tales of Crystal”. This exhibition of 120 exhibits has traveled almost the whole world.
The artist made another collection during the pandemic. He dedicated it to doctors who “fought this infection, but did not back down.” Some of the works in it reach a meter height.
“I am invited from abroad. I have been to over 40 countries. Both in capitals and small towns. I could expand the collection to a thousand works, but I don’t do it, because it’s difficult to transport,” says Yuri Yuryevich.
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Before the pandemic, the glassblower would pack his collection in the trunk of a car and move around like that. But now you have to fly on airplanes and buy a separate seat right in the cabin.
“Once we flew to Croatia. And they persuaded me to put the boxes in the luggage compartment, but with me. Upon arrival, I saw that the boxes flew well. I went to the bus. And from there I saw how the workers began to throw them onto the conveyor belt. So 12 works were broken. But no one, of course, compensated for anything, ” – Yuri Yurievich regrets.
Lenshin’s solo exhibitions were held in England, Sweden, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Finland, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Benin, Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Costa Rica, Cuba and other countries.
“For a long time I don’t do exhibitions named after myself. My task is a kind of public diplomacy. I want to show Russian glassblowing art, talk about the Kaliningrad region, its people and economy. Because in many countries they did not believe that I was from Russia. They said they couldn’t do that here,” – approves the master.
Yuri Yuryevich and Speaker of the Indian Parliament Rama Devi
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and regional leadership.
An outcast in his own country
Despite his worldwide fame, Yuri Len’shin is little known in Russia. Sometimes exhibitions are held in Kaliningrad, but not often in other cities. The master regrets this and does not understand why.
“You know, I draw an analogy with my country. Russia has become an outcast in the whole world, and I have the same situation here ”, – regrets Yuri Yuryevich.
Last year the artist canceled about ten exhibitions in different countries of the world. He tried to hold them in Russia: from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, and did not find understanding. I called museums, officials and ministers. But there they began to tell him about their problems and lack of funds.
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