History
Farzaneh Art Studio is a handmade pottery business created by a wife, Leila Farzaneh, and husband, Hossein Memarpour, team. Leila runs the creative side and Hossein the business side. Leila became a potter after dabbling into many art forms while at university but was looking for a long lasting form usable in daily life through which to represent her artistic expression. She began creating everyday dishes with the longitude of her art in mind. Eventually, she found that in making handmade tiles, since tiles can last up to centuries in any given structure. This was her evolutionary point of departure. The traditional Persian tile-making method which has been around for centuries and famous for its beauty, uses only seven colors, and at the time, the modern tile making was in denial of traditions altogether. Leila daringly chose to bend both sides of the spectrum by using as many colors as she wanted and yet based her designs in Persian traditions. She believes that sticking to strictly traditional ideas is the major reason why tiles were no longer used in the 20th century and contemporary buildings, because the Persian tile designs had not evolved with the architectural evolutions and needs of the times. Therefore, decorative tiles in buildings were eliminated all together or imported from foreign countries. She is the revolutionary woman who changed all that and with her slow but steady success others followed! Once this new idea was established property owners, their designers and architects became loyal customers of Leila’s artwork and the need for a business side became essential. Hossein then left his other job and together they founded ‘Farzaneh Art Studio’ in 2008.