Serving set - For the innio (2013-), later Salt (2018-) restaurant

Júlia Néma is one of the most talented middle generational members of Hungarian ceramics culture. With her authentic craftmanship, the pure formulation of her thoughts and the excellent implementation of her works, Néma is equally outstanding in applied and autonomous ceramics. Her studio – Nema Studio – continuously fulfills orders at a high level, designing and creating catering sets for restaurants in a high temperature, traditional wood firing kiln built by herself. She mastered the method of kiln building on her study trips in Japan and USA from Frederick L. Olsen, one of the best known members of the profession. To summarize her research on this particular topic, Néma has published a book titled Fired up high: Approaches to wood-fired ceramics (see here) which can not be only considered as a professional textbook but also a publication with interdisciplinary approach, worthy of public attention.

There is a tendency in fine dining catering: after using snow-white porcelain plates as an empty canvas of food, wood-fired ceramics are becoming more and more popular. The main characteristics of high temperature wood firing is that the creation is finalized by fire and heat and the effects of the process create unique heat marks, ash layers and glaze melt flow which gives unrepeatable appearance for all pieces. These catering sets get their uniqueness from the power of fire and the beauty of directed randomness.

Júlia Néma started to design serving sets for innio – later Salt – restaurant in 2013. The unique wood-fired set has become the part of the service and by following the changes of the menu, it is constantly expanding with new pieces.

For more information about the artworks of Júlia Néma, see here and here.