Nina J. Design Studios is a woman owned business engaged in the creation of handbuilt pottery, mixed media paintings and limited edition wearable art made from fine silk and cotton. We are located in the beautiful Shenandoah valley, Virginia.
Our story begins with a young girl who was born in India. Starting from childhood, Neena (Nina J) had an appreciation for beauty and artistic things. Her father’s desire was for her to be multifaceted in her career choices. Neena fulfilled her father’s resolution that her university studies focus on the sciences as well as the arts. Her passion has always been arts, spirituality and nature and she believes that science, the arts and religion coexist harmoniously.
The realization of each of Nina J’s mixed media paintings has been rooted in her dreams; artictic figures, nature and aquatic scenes with vibrant and bold colors have always been at the forefront of her designs. Instead of making prints of the artwork we decided to share the beauty with the world in the form of limited edition silk scarves and apparel.
The lucidity of her dreams carried over into the garden where all the flowers and herbs prompted her to expand into clay. Each handbuilt piece of pottery starts in the garden with fresh flowers and herbs. Leveraging her artistic bent Nina J presses these botanicals into the clay. The finished pieces have a fossilized finish, immortalizing the pressed botanicals. We make vases, bowls, plates, platters, serving dishes, specialty products like spoonrests, soap dishes, jewelry keepers and mugs that are all food safe, dishwasher and microwave safe. We also make signature clay jewelry. Each piece is a unique, signatured work of art.
The pottery pieces inspired Nina J. to make blocks for the specific purpose of designing wearable art from those blocks. This idea gave birth to our latest, closed loop, proprietary method of creating our limited edition wearable and usable art – scarves in silk and cotton, shawls, scrunchies, ponchos and table linens.
Our objective is to harvest nature’s gifts and transform them into wearable and/or functional pieces of art. Each piece will bring a smile to your face and peace in your heart and all eyes will be upon you as you adorn her gorgeous wearable art.
We sell our products through boutiques and museums throughout the USA. To provide further uniqueness to our products and processes we have museums who harvest botanicals from their gardens and ship them to us for their specific creations. We also have the ability to do custom work.
“Live and Walk with Art”
Click the thumbnails for larger images of Nina J.’s work, or visit her website at www.ninastudios.com
J & W Farm started four years ago by John and Wendy R. Venskoske, Jr. with the idea of adding value to local agricultural products. For Christmas that year, we made these birdseed wreaths to give to family members, friends, and wife’s co-workers. They were so much appreciated that we decided to offer it to our current retail outlets that we were selling our food products to. They have been a hit and steadily growing. We use a special blend of birdseed from two local feed stores and custom make them with seasonal ribbon and/or special requests. For Valentine’s Day, we offer a Heart shaped wreath. Our Holiday Birdseed Wreaths are packaged for gift giving and shipping!
