Emily Henderson is an interior Designer, T.V. Host, HGTV Design Star Winner and owner/writer of the daily style blog, StylebyEmilyHenderson.com

She recently was asked to curate a selection of her favorite interior products for OpenSky and to our delight she chose Irezumi! Here’s what she had to say about it.

“If I could go back and register for china like a normal bride I would register for this. There is nothing fussy about it, but it still feels luxurious and high end, so Grandma Fancy will approve. You can dress it up with crystal glasses and linen napkins, or dress it down with midcentury flatware and modern water glasses. It’s like a good pair of heels….that you eat off of.”

We couldn’t agree more…obviously!

As I write this there are hundreds of beautiful Ink Dish items sailing peacefully (I hope) across the Pacific Ocean from our factory in Bangladesh making their way to the good old US of A.

It is always such a relief when this happens and no more so than this current shipment. We sold out of items so much quicker than we could have anticipated and we were blighted with delay after delay. One of which we were just informed was due to a huge kiln explosion! Luckily it was only property and product that was damaged and everyone is ok. For those of you with back orders and anxious customers thank you SO SO much for your patience, we really appreciate it here at Ink Dish. The product will be at our warehouse in Fort Worth Texas and ready to ship out on the 20th February! (customs delays and natural disasters notwithstanding).

I just got back from a trip back to the UK and I managed to find time to squeeze in one of my childhood favourite haunts: The Walker Art Gallery. I could go on about how inspirational that gallery was to me and how the smell of the place makes me feel etc etc but i won’t. They have a fantastic new Craft and Design gallery which was largely devoted to dinnerware. I have been spending a lot of time looking at the history of decorated ceramics recently and this exhibit was spot on for me.

A member of the extended Ink Dish family (my brother) is now officially the most influential food blogger in London! The Evening Standard said so. They compiled a list of the 1000 most influential people in London (bear in mind there are around 9 million people in London) and he was the only food blogger included in the line up. He is amongst such illustrious company as Jamie Oliver and Heston Blumenthal. Wowsers!

Now Look at his silly little influential face here. Here he is dressed up as a banana.

You can check out his blog here, I always recommend it to my American friends before they head over to London.

We are delighted to offer a sale on May and Tribal Lines gift sets -  in time for the holidays! Simply enter the code ‘hohoho’ in our website store at checkout for a 30% discount on the ideal holiday gift. This offer applies to Tribal Lines 2 mug and 4 side plate gift sets (TRI2MG and TRI4SG) and May 2 mug and 4 side plate gift sets (MAY2MG and MAY4SG). Get them while stocks last!

We are so thrilled to have Dana Oldfather as part of the Ink Dish team. Not only is she an amazingly gifted artist and the talent behind our best seller Kites (more coming soon I promise, we are struggling to keep up with demand!) but she also happens to be the sweetest lady AND a brand new bride!! I got all a flutter over these stunning photos of her July 23rd wedding to Randall Darling, Jr.

As well as getting married to a wonderful man she has managed to fit in

1. Being the artist in residence at Zygote Press www.zygotepress.com
in Cleveland this summer and she has a bunch of cool prints.  It is culminating in a solo show
opening next week Friday, September 9th.  She will also be showing paintings,
a photograph, and her first ever installation!
2. A large painting of Dana’s has been accepted by one of the 7 main exhibition
venues for the ArtPrize Grand Rapids www.artprize.org. They’re awarding 1/2 million over 10 different artists.
3. She just got a big commission for 3 very large paintings for the new Eaton Headquarters
building (500,000 square feet!) going up in Cleveland.
4. Lastly and probably the most exciting, she will be having her first solo museum exhibition in March 2013 at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. They want her to make a 26 foot painting (yikes!)

Well that should be enough Dana news for one day, now feast your eyes on these stunning photos!

You only have to go in the basement of the New York Tabletop show and wade through the piles of wedding magazines or look at the amount of ceramics companies that came out with Wills and Kate plates to know that weddings and dinnerware go hand in hand.

Ink Dish isn’t your run of the mill ceramics company and so we wanted to team up with a wedding registry company that would be a good fit and we believe we found it with NewlyWish. Their focus is design and they carefully hand select and curate the products and really care about what they sell.

We have teamed up with the folks at Newlywish for a giveaway, who doesn’t love a freebie? Please see the details below for a chance to win our Tattoo Lotus 4 side plate gift set or click here

There are ups and downs about owning and running a small design business. One of best things though is the quality of retailers you work with. Our segment of the market is inhabited by design focused professionals who are passionate about what they do. There is a story behind our products and a reason why we do what we do and it’s nice to have people take note and appreciate that.
This month (actually it’s nearly over!) we ran a small promotion with online design store 2Modern who have been a pleasure to work with. The people who started the company clearly have a passion and a lot of experience in the world of design.

“Based in Mill Valley (just over the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge), our individual backgrounds are as varied as the modern designers we represent. Our co-founders, Greg Finney and Jennifer Sitko, have worked together for over ten years in the field of modern product design, brand building, graphic design, and e-commerce. 2Modern’s Relationship Manager, Deanna Miller, has over 10 years of professional experience in interior design and furniture manufacturing. Along with strong customer support, business development and website development teams, our distinctive individual experiences give rise to a diversified product mix and insight into hot trends and important movements in the world of modern design.”

Anyway how do I know they are a cool company who loves design and cares about what they do? Why because they interviewd me about Ink Dish of course!  You can read it here

The Ink Dish team were lucky enough to travel up to Santa Monica this past weekend to see Ink Dish artist David Palmer’s solo show at the William Turner Gallery. It was a fantastic space, The Willam Turner Gallery is part of the Bergamot Station Art Centre which is definitely worth a visit in itself, lots of galleries clustered into a former industrial area. The exhibition was well attended and the artwork was awe inspiring. I hate to describe other artist’s work and luckily for me I don’t have to as David has a video of himself explaining some of his pieces and you can click here to watch. You can also see the paintings and read an essay on the exhibition by clicking here. David Palmer has that rare combination of being methodical and almost scientific in his techniques and extremely hardworking as well as being wildly creative. The exhibition was a great reminder of why we do what we do at Ink Dish. Good times.

Journalist Christina Binkley from The Wall Street Journal recently spent a day with Paul Timman in his studio watching him work, chatting with his clients and discussing the craft of tattooing. The article provides an insight into his life and work and he was named ‘The Rembrandt of Sunset Strip’. Quite an honor and we are very proud of him! Click here to read the full article.