Pitcher perfect

Marketing

Suzy Birstein is looking a little bit tired on a January afternoon. The Vancouver ceramic artist and art teacher has been putting the finishing touches on 38 hand-crafted pitchers for a very important client – and she’s got another 42 to go.

“My kiln has broken down twice, and there’s been complications getting it fixed,” she says in a conversation at her Point Grey home studio. The pitchers, in various stages of completion, are perched on shelves and tables, surrounded by plates, sculptures and tableware covered in vibrant paints and glazes.

The most colourful object in the studio may well be Birstein herself. Hair done in multiple braids, a bright bindi decorating her forehead, the youthful 56-year-old is sporting leopard-print leggings under a sparkly black skirt, a one-shouldered, short-sleeved leopard-print blouse over a brown velvet top, and what look to be platform Birkenstock sandals with rhinestone-encrusted buckles.
“I expected it to take me six weeks to make 80 of these pitchers, and it’s taken me that long to make 40. I’ve done no teaching and hardly any partying,” she says, giggling.

Birstein’s not getting a cheque for her troubles, but she’s getting the kind of exposure that money can’t buy: guaranteed access to A-list celebrities. Last August Birstein received an email out of the blue from Kristina Estlund, who had stumbled upon the artist’s website.

Estlund, as it so happens, works for Distinctive Assets LLC, an L.A.-based company in the business of high-powered swag: it gives free stuff to celebrities at various major events, including a gift basket called “Everybody Wins at the Oscars,” which is hand-delivered the day after the Academy Awards to stars who don’t pick up a golden statue.

This year, amidst the spa packages and perfumes, nominees for best actor, best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress will receive a Suzy Birstein-crafted “motion pitcher” (even if the writers’ strike manages to derail the televised ceremony).

Twenty-one of the pieces will go to stars, and another 17 are destined for members of the press. Birstein decided to make an additional 42 to “celebrate 80 years of the Oscars,” and hopes to sell them at $400 apiece.

If Estlund is to be believed, those 42 pitchers won’t sit on the shelf for long. “For some reason there’s so much interest in celebrities,” she observes. “We’re so interested in what they’re doing, what they’re eating, what they’re drinking, what they're buying, what they're

driving. Now Suzy will be able to get her name out there, possibly be able to commission more work and broaden her horizons."

Birstein, whose kiln is scheduled for repairs, has only this to say about the person who sent her that fateful email: "I love this woman!"