Serving set - For the Olimpia 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 tableware and serving 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.

The serving set for Olimpia restaurant, made between 2010 and 2012, is the first unique ceramics set in the history of Hungarian fine dining which has been designed for a particular restaurant, made in high temperature, wood firing kiln. The set of porcelain and stoneware is a result of close cooperation between the ceramist and the chefs and even the names of the item types – e.g. "Csingaléra", "Űrhajó" (Space shuttle), "Kutyatál" (Dog bowl) – were given by the employees of the restaurant. The usage had been left its mark on almost all pieces of the service, increasing the historical and theoretical value of the objects.

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