The tagline came from observation, not marketing. In the early years of the studio, Chive began noticing that handmade ceramic wall flowers we had made were appearing on products from other companies. The specific angles of a petal. The particular relationship between a stem and a base worked out over months of prototyping. Glaze combinations developed in our studio. These things were appearing elsewhere, on objects that had not existed before we made ours.
We did not respond with legal action, which would have been expensive and probably inconclusive, or with outrage, which would have been exhausting. We responded by making better things. This approach has been working for twenty-five years. We intend to continue.
What does "always original, often copied" mean? It is the Chive Studio tagline and a factual description. Chive has been making handmade ceramic wall flowers in Toronto since 1999. Designs that Chive created have appeared on products from other companies. The tagline is not a complaint. It is an observation about being the original in a category that now has many participants.
The Names, the History, and Why Originality Has a Cost
Chive names its products after real things and real people. The Pooley is a vase named after Todd's dog. They loved that dog. The Virago is a ceramic plant pot named for a strong brave woman — it has sold over 250,000 units and has been in continuous production for decades. The Lilo and the Dojo are named for exactly what you think they are named for. Paul, Joe, and Topper are named for the people who shaped them first. The Svek and the Stagma are named for things that Todd finds amusing and declines to explain further.
The products have names because they are designed objects, not units. A designed object has a name. A unit has a SKU. Chive has both, but the name comes first.
The copies exist because the original was good enough to copy. This is a form of endorsement we did not ask for and which carries no royalties. We find it mildly irritating and entirely predictable. We responded by making better things. — Chive Studio
Originality has a cost. It requires spending time on things that do not guarantee a commercial result — months on a glaze combination that may not work, on a petal form that may not be right, on a product name that makes sense only to the people who made it. The English Garden ceramic flower collection took years to reach its current form. The Japan Collection followed a similar path. Neither was designed by committee. Both have ended up in museum gift shops, which is the external validation we consider most reliable.
25 Years of Not Selling to Big-Box Retailers
Chive has never sold to big-box retailers. This is a choice that has cost revenue and preserved the ability to make things at the standard the studio cares about. Big-box retail changes what a studio makes and how it makes it — the price point requirements, the volume requirements, the margin requirements all push in the same direction, and that direction is not toward better. Chive went the other direction.
The result is a distribution network of independent retailers, galleries, museum gift shops, and botanical garden shops that stock Chive because they selected it, not because a buyer hit a spend target. The Getty Museum. SFMOMA. The Art Gallery of Ontario, which is approximately three hundred metres from our Toronto studio. The birth flower ceramic collection — twelve flowers for twelve months — available in all of them and directly at chive.com.
Lindsay Lohan made the opening video for the Chive plant shop at 702 Queen West in Toronto. Don Johnson also made a promotional video for the same occasion. Lance Bass has appeared in Chive content. We are still not entirely sure how all of this happened. We are glad it did. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show has awarded Chive the 5-star booth rating — the highest given — for thirteen consecutive years. The Philadelphia Flower Show. Ambiente Frankfurt. Maison et Objet Paris.
Twenty-five years of choosing the harder thing
- Never used molds — hand-shaped every piece since 1999 when molds would have been faster and cheaper
- Never sold to big-box retailers — independent stockists only, always
- Never outsourced production — the Toronto studio makes everything Chive sells
- Never licensed designs to third parties — every authentic Chive piece has the Chive Studio mark
- Never changed the standard — the same quality that earned the Getty in 2003 is the quality that ships today
The curated ceramic flower sets are the most recent example of this. Pre-selected arrangements, all decisions already made, available directly to people who want the result without the curation process. Ceramic plant pots with drainage from the same studio. Shido Seeds — vacuum-sealed at peak freshness, in 1920s Japanese woodblock print packaging, because the packaging is part of the object. Always original. Often copied. Not interested in the copy.
