Byrdcliffe was particularly inviting to women, who found a creative freedom there unimaginable in most of America at the time. Zulma Steele, a creative polymath who mastered the skills of painting, pottery, printmaking, and furniture, collaborated with her long-term romantic partner, Edna Walker, on a ceramic line called “Zedware” (derived from their first names, just as “Byrdcliffe” was derived from its founders’ middle names). They inserted carved and painted panels into simple cabinets and chairs that Whitehead had designed—an approach similar to that used for Rookwood’s conventionally
...more
