In Detroit, Michigan’s historical Indian Village, on a property it shares with a home, you’ll find an old car collector’s garage standing steady despite its 1910 beginnings as a sanctuary for cars made in the early 1900s by the Anderson Electric Car Company. Soaring arched windows cast in high-fire masonry block let in an abundance of light, as do the cupola in the vaulted ceiling and its neighboring skylight — all told, the old garage feels more like a church. For ceramicist Abigail Murray, this church-like garage serves as her home studio, and drives a newfound dream that was born of a major life change.
“Inspired by a request for dishes from a friend and a re-prioritizing of my life after my child [was born], I founded my brand in 2012,” Abigail shares. “I now run my independent ceramics company from my studio in Detroit, using a combination of hand building and slip casting techniques. My pieces are influenced by the intimacy of the relationship between pots and their users.”
With Abigail’s ceramics company underway, her husband got tenure at the University of Michigan while the family was living in Ann Arbor. They were hoping to move to Detroit and find a home with ample studio space so Abigail could run her business from home. The couple set their sights on the Indian Village area, and a year and a half ago, bought their current home with a 575-square-foot garage onsite that was perfect for Abigail’s studio.
“The garage that became the studio hadn’t been rehabbed, probably ever,” Abigail recalls. “The floor was heaved, the windows were painted shut, the plaster on the inside was crumbling. It was still so beautiful though, we didn’t want to change much. Since we had to redo the floor anyway, we decided to put in radiant heating. My old studio was on a slab and the floors were so cold in the winter I had to wear Sorel [boots] inside to keep my feet from getting cold. It was pretty great to avoid that problem.”
All windows were taken out and restored, doors were remade as exact replicas of the originals (to shut properly and be airtight), and the whole interior was plastered cupola to baseboard to eradicate the garage’s original lead plaster walls.
“My goal was to not mess it up,” Abigail admits. “It was in a Packard Car advertisement in 1916 and shortly after we moved in, a Packard collector who was coming to town contacted us to see if the garage was still there and asked if he could bring his car over to take a picture. We said ‘sure,’ and it seemed even more important to keep it close to the original, at least on the outside.”
With the garage studio’s renovation behind her, Abigail can work from the backyard of her home while her five-year-old son plays outside — a privilege that isn’t lost on her. But as working from home often presents distractions (“weeds that need to be pulled, vegetables that need to be picked, laundry that needs to be done, etc.”), Abigail is happy to periodically check her work/life balance as a tradeoff.
“I feel so incredibly privileged to be able to work in this space and to be in this neighborhood,” Abigail shares. “People take a lot of pride in caring for their historic homes and showing them to the community through things like the Indian Village Home Tour. And it’s pretty great to be able to go check kilns in my bathrobe.” —Kelli
Photography by E.E. Berger / @eeberger
Image above: An inspiring place in which Abigail creates her stunning ceramic forms. The new plaster work and grand windows create a lofty, light-filled space ripe for both discipline and creativity.
from Design*Sponge http://www.designsponge.com/2017/12/studio-tour-abigail-murray.html
from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/168787254129
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