Syracuse woman designs dinnerware

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BY KATHRYN CATES MOORE/Lincoln Journal Star

SYRACUSE — Deb Hrabik’s table is set for the holidays. The sun shines through the window, reflecting on the glasses and bouncing off the deep reds and greens in the plates on her dining room table.

The snowman smiling from the salad plate makes Hrabik smile too. It is a design she created in her basement amid the paints and papers on her desk.

Somewhere between the brush strokes in Hrabik’s lower level and a factory in China, an entire tableware design line is marketed with her name on it.

There are the snowman plates, officially called Winter Whimsy. Or Chocolate Berries, which is soon to be retired. Or the Moroccan themed Treasured Home. And the newest, Cinnabar, and Sapore, in rich, earth tones.

Designed right here in southeast Nebraska, Hrabik’s plates, soup bowls, platters and mugs are manufactured by Demdaco,  a company based in Kansas City.

Demdaco made a splash on the home gift scene with its line of Willow Tree Angels. The neutral-colored, primitive-looking angels took off with the public and the company has grown and expanded over the last five years.

Hrabik is one of Demdaco’s best-selling artists, said Anne Brown, creative product manager for the company’s home division.

“It’s the richness of her color palette,” Brown said. “The depth of her texture and her defined brush stroke.” 

Although Hrabik makes it look easy, the competition is stiff. Brown said three of the 15 lines selected for production in 2007 for tabletop are designed by Hrabik. That is a very high percentage, considering the number of artists and concept boards considered, she said. “She’s had a lot of wins,” Brown said.

And a few misses. Hrabik pulls out a set she calls “Tuxedo Punch,” which almost made it to production, until the factory had trouble with the samples of the dark black background of the plates. “It seemed good,” she said.

Hrabik got her start making primitive dolls. Taking the pattern-making skills she gained in college fashion design classes, Hrabik pieced together her own patented designs.

 A regular on the craft show circuit, Hrabik soon got a jigsaw and began cutting and painting wood items. Then she began painting furniture.

Her creativity was channeled in a variety of different outlets. Perfect for the mom who preferred staying at home, raising kids and making her products.

As her reputation as an artist grew, so did her clientele. The owner of an Omaha store where she sold her items suggested she meet with the owners of Demdaco.

Taking her sketches and examples of her painted furniture to Kansas City, she met with Demdaco co-owners David and Demi Kiersznowski. Hrabik was ready to take the next step. One big question she was asked: “Can you do flat art?”

Hrabik believes in herself and knew designing a tabletop line would stretch her. “I have a can-do attitude,” she said. But she had never done anything like this.

“They give me lots of liberties,” she said.

Twice a year, she submits several concept boards of her ideas for new lines of stoneware or photo frames or her latest — small “treasure” boxes.

From those ideas, with suggestions from Demdaco representatives, she refines the ones they select. Then the final specs are resubmitted for production.

January is her deadline, and Hrabik’s basement is busy with color trials and detailed drawings.

For example, she’s working on a line with a “mountain lodge” feel. The colors are rich and earth-toned, and the salad plates will have a contrasting pattern that will work with the other pieces. A velvety dark brown will anchor the plates and the accent colors will encircle it.

The specs are drawn precisely, with exact measurements and closeups of the brush strokes to be reproduced exactly.

Coordinated plates are one of Hrabik’s signatures, said Brown. She often presents a set of dishes with two or four different plate choices.

Offering options like that to consumers is great, Brown said. There are now two major markets for this kind of stoneware — couples in their 30s and baby boomers. Both are doing a lot of entertaining at home and both are using more casual dinnerware, not their best china, to set those tables.

Hrabik’s dishes are refined, Brown said. She compared them to a little black dress: “You can do so much with them, dress them up or be very casual.”

 Sitting in her basement, wearing jeans, a black turtleneck and boots, Hrabik has created a career around her busy life.

Of her three children, the youngest, 17-year-old Scott, is the only one still living at home. So, Hrabik has a little more time than in the past to work on her dish designs.

Except when she is baby-sitting her 3-year-old granddaughter.

Or following her favorite basketball team, the Syracuse Rockets, which husband Mark coaches and Scott plays on.

 Last year the Rockets won the state basketball championship in their division. When the rest of the Demdaco artists had a March gathering in Kansas City for a weekend seminar, Hrabik was warming the bleachers at the state tournament in Lincoln. “They understood,” she said. “I couldn’t miss it.”

And since her other son, M.J., plays basketball for Nebraska Wesleyan, Hrabik regularyly takes time to see him play, too.

“I squeeze my work in around the bleachers this time of year,” she said. She has already completed one group of drawings and has another almost finished. “I love it when I can get a full day in,” she said.

Sometimes working so far ahead is difficult. “I do miss the immediate feedback I would get from customers at the craft fairs,” Hrabik said.

But she doesn’t miss loading up her wares and taking them on the road. The basement, redesigned with a wall full of cabinets and a desk that basks in the sun of the walkout door, has become her workplace of choice.

“I’m living my dream life,” she said.

Reach Kathryn Cates Moore at 473-7214 or kmoore@journalstar.com.

Where to buy

Deb Hrabik-designed tabletop sets are sold nationwide under the Demdaco brand.

Check for locations at www.demdaco.com.

In Nebraska, some of the lines can be found at Nest Feathers, a home decor store in Syracuse, 315 Fifth St., and in Omaha at the House of J, 122nd and Center streets.