Mama Laroo
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- Last Updated: Friday, 12 December 2014 15:35
MamaLaRoo is a line of high quality, functional dinnerware that I have started with my (not-so-silent) partners: my daughters, Ruby (age7) and Lila (age 6). It all started when I was asked to test two new products that Mayco was coming out with; Stoneware Bisque and Designer Liner. As soon as I saw the perfect, simple shapes in the Stoneware Bisque selection, I immediately thought “blank canvas” and wondered what I could apply to it.
Around this same time in our product development, we were putting a product together called Designer Liner, a product specifically for drawing.
I happened to be looking at my daughter’s sketchbooks one day and POW. The idea came…Stoneware Bisque+Designer Liner+Brilliant Kid’s Drawings = Awesome.
I started collecting the best and most hilarious of all the drawings the girls did and copying them onto Stoneware Bisque using the Designer Liner. What I have at that point is a really nice black-line drawing, almost like a coloring book image. Then, I add some Stroke and Coat inside those black lines. After everything is dry, I dip the entire piece (only waxing the white areas) in a Mayco SD Glaze (Stoneware Dipping versions of our Stoneware palette. These are sold dry and I use glazes from the variety of Clears and translucent Ice Glazes).
All of the MamaLaRoo pieces are fired to cone 6, making an amazing, durable and functional surface.
I also add MamaLaRoo imagery to my wheel-thrown work but in this production dinnerware line I predominately use Stoneware Bisque. Our dishes are available for sale in my studio or on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/LBareclay
Dishes are easy to order and orders are easy to fulfill because I can be totally consistent in size and shape. I love starting with bisque as opposed to clay for this venture because I can finish them so quickly. Customers can add pieces to their sets with confidence because the Salad Plate will always be 8.5” in diameter, the Pie Plate will always be 9”, etc.
My girls and I are so proud of MamaLaRoo and they have learned so much responsibility from this. We have regular meetings (always held in Lila’s closet, with the pug keeping minutes) and the girls get paid. They are saving money and coming up with new designs. The new focus on this project has given us even more time together and had literally added a very cool layer to my life.