| So I understand that this meeting was planned , and the slogan was From Was to Still . And I am illustrating Still . Which , of course , I am not agreeing with because , although I am 94 , I am not still working . And anybody who asks me , " Are you still doing this or that ? " I do n't answer because I 'm not doing things still , I 'm doing it like I always did . I still have -- or did I use the word still ? I did n't mean that . ( Laughter ) I have my file which is called To Do . I have my plans . I have my clients . I am doing my work like I always did . So this takes care of my age . I want to show you my work so you know what I am doing and why I am here . This was about 1925. All of these things were made during the last 75 years . ( Laughter ) ( Applause ) But , of course , I 'm working since 25 , doing more or less what you see here . This is Castleton China . This was an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art . This is now for sale at the Metropolitan Museum . This is still at the Metropolitan Museum now for sale . This is a portrait of my daughter and myself . ( Applause ) These were just some of the things I 've made . I made hundreds of them for the last 75 years . I call myself a maker of things . I do n't call myself an industrial designer because I 'm other things . Industrial designers want to make novel things . Novelty is a concept of commerce , not an aesthetic concept . The industrial design magazine , I believe , is called " Innovation . " Innovation is not part of the aim of my work . Well , makers of things : they make things more beautiful , more elegant , more comfortable than just the craftsmen do . I have so much to say . I have to think what I am going to say . Well , to describe our profession otherwise , we are actually concerned with the playful search for beauty . That means the playful search for beauty was called the first activity of Man . Sarah Smith , who was a mathematics professor at MIT , wrote , " The playful search for beauty was Man 's first activity -- that all useful qualities and all material qualities were developed from the playful search for beauty . " These are tiles . The word , " playful " is a necessary aspect of our work because , actually , one of our problems is that we have to make produce lovely things throughout all of life , and this for me is now 75 years . So how can you , without drying up , make things with the same pleasure , as a gift to others , for so long ? The playful is therefore an important part of our quality as designer . Let me tell you some about my life . As I said , I started to do these things 75 years ago . My first exhibition in the United States was at the Sesquicentennial exhibition in 1926 -- that the Hungarian government sent one of my hand-drawn pieces as part of the exhibit . My work actually took me through many countries , and showed me a great part of the world . This is not that they took me -- the work did n't take me -- I made the things particularly because I wanted to use them to see the world . I was incredibly curious to see the world , and I made all these things , which then finally did take me to see many countries and many cultures . I started as an apprentice to a Hungarian craftsman , and this taught me what the guild system was in Middle Ages . The guild system : that means when I was an apprentice , I had to apprentice myself in order to become a pottery master . In my shop where I studied , or learned , there was a traditional hierarchy of master , journeyman and learned worker , and apprentice , and I worked as the apprentice . The work as an apprentice was very primitive . That means I had to actually learn every aspect of making pottery by hand . We mashed the clay with our feet when it came from the hillside . After that , it had to be kneaded . It had to then go in , kind of , a mangle . And then finally it was prepared for the throwing . And there I really worked as an apprentice . My master took me to set ovens because this was part of oven-making , oven-setting , in the time . And finally , I had received a document that I had accomplished my apprenticeship successfully , that I had behaved morally , and this document was given to me by the Guild of Roof-Coverers , Rail-Diggers , Oven-Setters , Chimney Sweeps and Potters . ( Laughter ) I also got at the time a workbook which explained my rights and my working conditions , and I still have that workbook . First I set up a shop in my own garden , and made pottery which I sold on the marketplace in Budapest . And there I was sitting , and my then-boyfriend -- I did n't mean it was a boyfriend like it is meant today -- but my boyfriend and I sat at the market and sold the pots . My mother thought that this was not very proper , so she sat with us to add propriety to this activity . ( Laughter ) However , after a while there was a new factory being built in Budapest , a pottery factory , a large one . And I visited it with several ladies , and asked all sorts of questions of the director . Then the director asked me , why do you ask all these questions ? I said , I also have a pottery . So he asked me , could he please visit me , and then finally he did , and explained to me that what I did now in my shop was an anachronism , that the industrial revolution had broken out , and that I rather should join the factory . There he made an art department for me where I worked for several months . However , everybody in the factory spent his time at the art department . The director there said there were several women casting and producing my designs now in molds , and this was sold also to America . I remember that it was quite successful . However , the director , the chemist , model maker -- everybody -- concerned himself much more with the art department -- that means , with my work -- than making toilets , so finally they got a letter from the center , from the bank who owned the factory , saying , make toilet-setting behind the art department , and that was my end . So this gave me the possibility because now I was a journeyman , and journeymen also take their satchel and go to see the world . So as a journeyman , I put an ad into the paper that I had studied , that I was a down-to-earth potter 's journeyman and I was looking for a job as a journeyman . And I got several answers , and I accepted the one which was farthest from home and practically , I thought , halfway to America . And that was in Hamburg . Then I first took this job in Hamburg , at an art pottery where everything was done on the wheel , and so I worked in a shop where there were several potters . And the first day , I was coming to take my place at the turntable -- there were three or four turntables -- and one of them , behind where I was sitting , was a hunchback , a deaf-mute hunchback , who smelled very bad . So I doused him in cologne every day , which he thought was very nice , and therefore he brought bread and butter every day , which I had to eat out of courtesy . The first day I came to work in this shop there was on my wheel a surprise for me . My colleagues had thoughtfully put on the wheel where I was supposed to work a very nicely modeled natural man 's organs . ( Laughter ) After I brushed them off with a hand motion , they were very -- I finally was now accepted , and worked there for some six months . This was my first job . If I go on like this , you will be here till midnight . ( Laughter ) ( Applause ) So I will try speed it up a little ( Laughter ) Moderator : Eva , we have about five minutes . ( Laughter ) Eva Zeisel : Are you sure ? Moderator : Yes , I am sure . EZ : Well , if you are sure , I have to tell you that within five minutes I will talk very fast . And actually , my work took me to many countries because I used my work to fill my curiosity . And among other things , other countries I worked , was in the Soviet Union , where I worked from '32 to '37 -- actually , to '36 . I was finally there , although I had nothing to do -- I was a foreign expert . I became art director of the china and glass industry , and eventually under Stalin 's purges -- at the beginning of Stalin 's purges , I did n't know that hundreds of thousands of innocent people were arrested . So I was arrested quite early in Stalin 's purges , and spent 16 months in a Russian prison . The accusation was that I had successfully prepared an attentate on Stalin 's life . This was a very dangerous accusation . And if this is the end of my five minutes , I want to tell you that I actually did survive , which was a surprise . But since I survived and I 'm here , and since this is the end of the five minutes , I will -- Moderator : Tell me when your last trip to Russia was . Were n't you there recently ? EZ : Oh , this summer , in fact , the Lomonosov factory was bought by an American company , invited me . They found out that I had worked in '33 at this factory , and they came to my studio in Rockland County , and brought the 15 of their artists to visit me here . And they invited myself to come to the Russian factory last summer , in July , to make some dishes , design some dishes . And since I do n't like to travel alone , they also invited my daughter , son-in-law and granddaughter , so we had a lovely trip to see Russia today , which is not a very pleasant and happy view . Here I am now , if this is the end ? Thank you . ( Applause ) |