My father, Weston Neil Andersen studied in Eva Zeisel’s landmark class at Pratt Institute and was also a close friend of Eva’s. Although Eva was from well-connected urban European environment and my father was from Iowa, they shared a similar design sensibility. Russell Wright asked dad twice to be an apprentice but Weston had a family and did not think he could afford to work for apprentice wages. When Dad and my mother , Brenda Andersen, decided to move to Maine to start their own hands-on production studio, Eva Zeisel exclaimed “but that is such a hard thing to do!” True! It was very hard- and while most of father’s contemporaries designed for large well known dinnerware companies who produced the work in “factories”, Weston and Brenda did it all- They designed their own work, created their own glazes, made their own molds, and hired a staff to produce their own work in their own small production studio and developed retail and wholesale markets. I am in awe of what they achieved, Andersen Design does not get the sort of recognition that my parents colleagues who designed for large companies in urban environments, received and continue to receive to this day- but we were recognized by Christine Churchill, writing in the Collector’s Eye for the “organic” quality, which distinguishes us from the rest- a quality that is a result of the hand-made production process.

Perhaps the reason Andersen Design does not receive recognition is because there is no larger designer- hand craft production movement with which we can be associated. I am sure there are others out there but they have not been formulated into an identifiable group. Through out our history we have been up against categorical parameters, which our activity overlaps but doesn’t quite fit. This is true in all areas- crafts, arts, and “industry”.