Birds, Flowers, Clouds and Clay

If you’ve been to Fatbird, Roselily or Cloud Walking Coffee (home to Violet Sky Chocolate, The Elder Bread, Love and Macarons, and Flowers and Bones) in South Bend, Indiana, then you’ve probably seen or used dishes made by Alec Hoogland Ceramics.The whimsical water pitchers at Fatbird decorated with flowers and greenery, the sophisticated round plates with thin-lipped edges on which Elder Bread serves its delectable toast menu, and much of the dinnerware Roselily uses to plate its popular Chef’s Tasting menu were all made by Hoogland (they/them) in their basement home studio in South Bend.

“It's fun each time we go to Cloud Walking. … I made mezcal cups for them, so it’s fun to go in the evening when they’re doing dinner service on the weekends to see people using those pieces,” says Hoogland. “I’ve had several customers come to buy stuff and say, ‘I found your work at Fatbird,’ or ‘I found your work at Cloud Walking,’ so that is always really cool when that happens.”

Hoogland connected with “the folks now at Cloud Walking” when they were starting out at LangLab, and they introduced Hoogland to other local restaurateurs when Hoogland and their wife moved to South Bend at the end of 2017. Hoogland grew up in Crown Point and studied ceramics at Indiana Wesleyan, where they met Luke Wright, owner of MudLOVE in Winona Lake. After graduating, Hoogland lived in Warsaw and made pottery at MudLOVE for a year and a half before launching a full-time independent studio practice.

“A lot of my work is inspired by midwestern motifs,” says Hoogland. “Obviously with a wood firing background, there’s a lot of that kind of decay, or more of an industrial look to some of those works, depending on how you fire. I was trying to find a process [with the electric kiln] that sort of spoke that same language. So, I’ve been doing monoprint transferring, which is basically taking slip and underglaze and painting the slip on to newsprint paper and then transferring it onto the work. I’m using wildflower imagery native to this area: coneflowers, cornflowers, sunflowers, lavender and other native plants.”

Hoogland’s early training was in wood firing, but after the pandemic hit, they stopped wood firing and started using only their 10-cubic-foot electric kiln that can fit 100–120 mug-size pieces at a time. Hoogland says they’re also inspired by a lot of children’s books and the things their toddler daughter likes, including birds and flowers. Their work often has a playful yet solid look that combines raw exposed clay, decals, and underglaze paintings and drawings of flowers, leaves, mushrooms and clouds.

“When she was born, I took a month off and threw everything away that was down here [in the studio] and kind of started over and took a workshop on monoprinting,” says Hoogland. “I spent three months trying to figure it out and started building up a new body of work. It’s kind of falling back into that childish energy, bright, a little bit more like a collaging process. I’ve been really into putting birds onto everything, a little ‘Portlandia.’ My daughter’s name is Birdie, so it felt kind of appropriate to add some of those things.”

The birds show up on lids and platters and are 3D rather than monoprint underglaze painting. Another “recent obsession” according to Hoogland is adding wire elements to lidded objects.

“It’s this rural/industrial combination of what you would see in a rust belt city of the Midwest—the raw clay exposed, the introduction of some of that wire gives an industrial feel to it,” says Hoogland. “Then kind of having that rustic feel of the transfer mixed with the landscapey effect of the decals, the florals and bees. The watering cans are a little more rural feeling, and some of my jars and vases are inspired by silos.”

Every piece is fired three times, and it takes a few weeks to complete a body of work. The first firing, the bisque firing, takes out all the moisture so the glaze will stick later. Hoogland sands each piece, adds the underglaze paintings, uses an underglaze wash to fill in the carved line work that accents the imagery, then adds the glaze and fires the pieces a second time. Then they add decals, fire one last time, wet sand and finish.

Most of Hoogland’s ceramics are microwave and dishwasher safe. You can buy their cups, mugs, plates, dinnerware and décor on their website. Hoogland’s planters and wall sconces are also sold at The Botany Shop in South Bend. Hoogland welcomes wholesale orders, and, in addition to their South Bend customers, they make ceramics for Red Dog Roastery in Buchanan, Michigan, Dancer Concrete in Fort Wayne, Indiana, [CxT] Roasting Company in Peoria, Illinois, and O&A Coffee and Supply in Sarasota, Florida.

You can also find Hoogland’s work at the gallery and studio space they opened in June with their wife, Morgan Hoogland, a photographer. She is establishing a tintype photo studio there, and Alec moved their ceramics studio there in July. The Highland Studio & Gallery at 439 S. Michigan St. in South Bend displays artwork from more than 20 artists from around the country, including Michiana ceramic artists Justin Rothshank and Jacob Hostetler.

“With my studio there, my goal is that my work will sell a bit more locally,” says Hoogland. “Having eyes on how it’s being made would have more draw. It’s cool when people get excited about it.”

Alex Hoogland Ceramics
alechooglandceramics.com
@alechooglandceramics

Highland Studio Gallery
439 S. Michigan St.

South Bend, IN
highlandstudioandgallery.com
@highland.sg

Katie Jamieson is an enthusiastic supporter and promoter of Michiana’s growing farm-to-table community and loves to shop, cook and eat local. She is associate editor for Curl magazine, owns Breath of Freedom Massage Therapy in Granger, Indiana, and writes and performs poetry wherever she travels. Katie is also the former publisher of Edible Michiana. Follow Katie on Instagram @followtheflavor.