By Louis B. Homer

Sunday Guardian

August 24, 1997

Page 26

This young artistic and creative ceramist is determined to create new heights for her ceramic business. When I visited her factory she was feverishly engaged in preparing a number of exhibits to be sent to an exhibition at Frankfurt, Germany.

"If this is successful it will provide me with an opportunity to get into the European market," she said. D'Ornellas said she is doing this with help from The Association of Craft Enterprises in Trinidad and Tobago, and TIDCO. Already she has completed several dinner sets that are to be shipped to the exhibition in Germany.

"This is a dinner ware set in terra cotta clay with a salamander leaves design. What makes this set different from others, is that it has been hand painted," said D'Ornellas, as she moves freely from one area of the factory to another, ensuring that everything is done according to proper standards.

In he creations she makes full use of the things she sees around her. She uses coconut trees, hibiscus flowers and other living plants and flowers to emphasize the beauty of local plant life.

All her products are hand painted, using bright colours to emphasize the beauty of her designs. Her workshop and display room is set in a quiet and congenial surrounding at Arena Road, Freeport. As owner and manager of her two-year-old company, called Virgin Artware, she moves freely among her six member staff, guiding and encouraging them to produce high quality products.

As a businesswoman her concern is not only about her products, but the welfare of her staff. "When I get up on mornings I am always happy that I am engaged in doing the things I enjoy most. It's yours, and especially when you have the welfare of other persons working with you. Any decision I make affects the livelihood of my workers," she said.

D'Ornellas said although there are fluctuations in the ceramic industry "I make enough money to support myself and pay my staff. Now it is approaching the time when I will be able to make this venture a very lucrative one."

As she sits quietly on her worktable creating her own imaginative designs, she said, "I try to do things that are different. I look at the market to see what is needed and I try to satisfy it, members of my staff are very helpful, sometimes they come up with ideas that are creative, so I use them."

At the factory every item is properly labeled and stacked neatly. There are beautiful vases, a wide array of dinnerware, ashtrays made in different shapes, waste paper baskets, water cans, all hand done in warm bright colours combined with terracotta clay.

Taking a few moments from her busy round of telephone calls and recording the temperatures of objects placed into the oven or refrigerators, D'Ornellas said she started in the field of ceramics doing it as a hobby with her husband, Michael.

"I was working as a medical representative in the science field when Michael and I decided to do a course in ceramics at the Extra Mural Department at the UWI, and that is how it all started. I have no regrets about making that decision," she said.

For the present D'Ornellas is concentrating on the expansion of the factory building in preparation to meet her export trust. As the mother of a one-year-old son she has to find enough time to look after him in spite of her busy schedules.

She had a word of caution for those in the ceramic industry: "If the industry is to survive we need to get into the export market. It is getting to the point where Trinidad cannot sustain the growing ceramic industry. The future of the industry is in export, and that is why I am placing so much emphasis in getting my products to the trade fair in Germany."

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