It was love at first sight. In this former warehouse, Eliana Bernard turns liquid clay into masterpieces of form and function. Like the other makers we fall hard for, Eliana designs objects crafted by hand that serve as an antidote to the mass-produced, throwaway mentality of the day. Eliana’s creations are simple in form but intricate in detail. To create them she uses a less common form of ceramic artistry called slip casting, where liquid clay (or slip) is poured into plaster molds Eliana designs and makes. “A lot of other artists use clay,” she says. “I just fell in love with this process—being able to have this material that you can manipulate and make into whatever it is that you want it to be. It was sort of a bold move.” Her current collection is called “Marbled,” created by swirling colored slip into a cream base. Some pieces are rimmed in gold for an extra shot of chic. Like most of the designs she dreams up, the marble pattern is cued from the world around her. “I find inspiration everywhere,” she says. “I follow a lot of designers on Instagram, so sometimes it’s from an image of an interior—a space, a pattern or texture.” Other days, she says, her muse might be the light flickering through the leaves in a tree or a crack on the ground. As she was building her collection—which includes everything from earrings to dinnerware—she realized her real joy is in creating objects that are as useful as they are beautiful. “With this collection,” Eliana says. “I was just pushing what I could do with the medium, creating these marbled patterns on the surface of the pieces that you can still eat off. I wanted to merge something that was aesthetically pleasing and very delicate into a form that you can actually use.” Eliana’s current line includes pieces in both glossy and matte finishes. New to the mix are candy-colored creations that bring lighthearted swirls to her collection of black and dark teal designs. Find her pieces at art fairs and specialty shops, or click over to elianabernard.com.