The maker
My name is Michal Keren Gelman. I live in Israel, on the west Galilee, in a small community located just next to a nature reserve and overlooking at the Mediterranean Sea. I am a wife of a charming jangler, and a mother of 3 kids and a dog.
I started my creative journey, learning jewelry design at the "Bezalel" academy of the arts, at Jerusalem. After graduating I found myself in the theatre world, designing accessories for the stage. It took me about 12 years of searching, traveling, wondering and parenting till I found my home base in clay- It allowed me to express myself with much more simplicity and clarity.
I make Contemporary functional ceramic homeware. I find myself drawn to the functional, but at the same time, I see the material, as touches the evergreen. I am fascinated by this connection.
I love to take a surface, a clay sheet, fold it, give it a capacity, and create a container. play with the rough and the delicate, the horizontal and the widthwise, movement verses stillness. What attracts and drives me forward, is the contact with the material itself, the traditional forms and the way to unravel it.
Though delicate and so fine looking, the pots are amazingly practical, and can be used anywhere in the kitchen, being oven, microwave, and dishwasher proof.
even though I work on my own, being the designer & maker of my ceramic studio, I try to create the finest, unique quality work.
As a small, one woman show business , I'm committed to provide you gallery quality work , 100% handmade, not using any means of mass production.
I hope to bring beauty to your life, and provide you with things you will love and cherish for a lifetime.
Freefolding is my studio brand .