As you all know by now, I’ve always been a nature girl. My childhood was spent freely exploring hillsides, woods, creeks and rocks outside of Atlanta, so I am attuned to the seasons, and the signs of their progress. I love having four distinct seasons. I love how the weather, the temperature, and the flora all provide a frame for our memories of different occasions and holidays. I love the different color pallets and the unique moods inspired by the rich, visual tableau of each season. Our pottery colors, and our whole vibe, has always been inspired by the ever changing and lush colors of the south.
I try to keep people in mind of the seasons and share with them what we find so inspiring in our part of the world. So as long as I’ve had R.Wood Studio, we’ve had seasonal photo shoots. We’d gather our current color scheme of dishes and plenty of fun props, take armloads of tablecloths and baskets of fruit, and decamp to some chosen quaint or rustic beauty spot for a day of shooting. Once there, we forage for wild branches and grasses to add to the mix. I’ve stopped on on the side of many a dirt road to clip some foliage branch or "weeds" on the way to a photo shoot. There’s nothing more fun than styling tabletops in a quaint cabin with wonderful props, foliage, food, flowers, and friends. Add gorgeous natural light and you’re bound to have inspired results. All our photo needs for the upcoming season are thus fulfilled in one creative day. We’ve been doing this for years, and it’s always so much fun.
Of course, to capture all that you need a photographer with a good eye, and we started with the best. Very early on, Rinne Allen came to me and applied for a job. She was already a fan, having grown up in Athens, and started collecting our plates while in high school. After graduating from college, she came to the studio to see if there were any jobs. During the interview I discovered her degree was from Sewanee, which is where I also went for my first year and a half. It also happens to be one big beauty spot, so I knew we shared an appreciation for natural beauty. She had majored in photography, but was up for anything she could do at the studio. I didn’t have the money to hire her, but I knew I wanted her around, so I hired her anyway. Rinne ended up doing every job there is to do at R.Wood Studio, from making the plates, to glazing them, to marketing and managing, and all the while honing her budding and prodigious photographic talents around the studio. We used Rinne’s beautiful photography for all our postcards, catalogs, and other promotions for years. She has a knack for capturing what’s mysterious and moving about our kind of southern beauty, so it was a perfect fit. Now her pictures grace multiple books, and her pictorial essays can be seen in the New York Times. Rinne’s photography all those years helped make R.Wood Studio what it is today: a brand synonymous with beauty. We’ve always been about beauty, and working with someone who sees it so deeply has been a wonderful thing.
