New Hampshire Magazine

Hand and Heart

Photo by Susan Laughlin

Sibylle Tornow of Merrimack is a ceramic artist with a hand for drawing. As a student she studied fashion design and learned to render fashion sketches with ink. Now, as a “frustrated watercolorist,” Tornow uses a paintbrush dipped in glaze, with white porcelain stoneware as a canvas.

Her images are lithe and lean, capturing the essence of each blossom or branch taken from her backyard garden.

Loose strokes in a blue glaze are her signature work, but the last several years reveal Asian-influenced imagery — delicate pink cherry blossoms. Beyond tea sets, like the one shown here, she and her husband Ronald have created several lines of containers designed for ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging.

As a student of Antoinette Drouart of Ikebana Flower, Tornow initially learned the rules of the art form. Not one to be limited by rules, she’s since focused on just building containers to support the art. Tornow is now a member of the Ikebana Society in Waltham, Mass.

As a daughter of a ballet dancer, Tornow now shares the artistic stage with her daughter, Nina Zotcavage, a jeweler. The two will be spotlighted at a mother-daughter show at the Sharon Arts Center in May.

The Tornows’ work is available at most League of New Hampshire Craftsmen shops, the Sharon Arts Center in Peterborough, Tate’s Gallery in New Boston, and Ikebana Flower and Design Wares both in Nashua. —Susan Laughlin

Cherry blossom tea pot with tea bowls and tray, sake sets also available

($24 to $110 per piece)
Sibylle & Ronald Tornow
Sibylle’s Pottery, Merrimack,
(603) 424-2592
E-mail: r.tornow@att.net

Where to Buy New Hampshire Magazine
For complete stories, photos and more pick up this month's New Hampshire Magazine at newsstands across New Hampshire or click here to subscribe.