Paul Weller’s works aren’t your grandmother’s chipped porcelain teapots, destined to rest on top of the kitchen cupboards. These aren’t for backyard tea parties with your stuffed bear, either.
Weller’s teapots are functional pieces of art constructed of stainless steel and adorned with swatches from menswear. The Melbourne, Australia-born metalsmith arrived in Asheville 12 years ago. Today, he makes a living selling teapots and other items as Aeropablo Designs.
“Over the years, my work has changed from a much stronger architectural feel to designs that are more based on ships and aircraft,” says Weller, in an accent more recognizable as Crocodile Dundee than Southern. “They also have got much more decorative, as with the addition of menswear materials like the pinstripe suiting. One of the major changes and distinguishing features is the move in materials from copper, brass, and silver to stainless steel.”
Weller stands behind a counter at Ariel Gallery on Biltmore Avenue. His pots, positioned around the room, are mixed with paintings, ceramic lamps, and pieces by the other 11 co-op members. A new pot of tea, brewed in his own vessel, of course, sits near a computer with a mug beside it.
Like the other members, Weller mans the shop two to three times a week. It’s a stark contrast to his typical work area, located in an upstairs room of a building off Short Coxe Street on Asheville’s South Slope. There, he dons tattered old clothes to work with metal. Pieces, made in batches, take 10 to 15 hours to construct.
Weller’s journey to this point is a winding one that began when a friend asked him to pick up some materials for her for a college course. When he walked into the classroom, “there was a guy building an iced-tea pot,” says Weller. He gave his friend the brochures she needed — and left with some for himself. “I knew this is what I wanted to do,” says Weller, who spent five years learning the craft.
He then joined a company doing architectural sculpture in Victoria. His work for a Park Hyatt hotel involved lighting fixtures, custom handrails, decorative vent covers, and reception counters. “The Park Hyatt has my little signatures all over it,” he says. But after 10 years, he was ready for a new challenge. One of his classmates at university now lived in Asheville and offered him a job with Austin’s Creations. He moved and began working, making flatware and cutlery out of sterling silver. These were high-end pieces — but when the price of silver skyrocketed and the economy tanked, Weller looked for another option.
Someone reminded him that teapots were collectibles, and he turned back to his initial interest and discovered a niche market. Sterling silver cost too much, but stainless steel had become a look that everyone wanted in their kitchens.
“The nice thing for me, even though it’s a bit harder to make, when it’s polished I just have to clean it,” Weller said. “That’s why it’s out in the gallery — it’s very low maintenance. It’s exactly the same material your cookware is made from.”
But then aesthetic concerns came into play. “I started thinking, ‘How do I make stainless look less clinical, less industrial?’”
In his closet were several suits, mostly collecting dust. Snip, snip, snip and 10 minutes later, he had a stainless-steel teapot adorned with a decorative swatch. These fabrics, covered with an industrial coating, take his designs to a new level: clinical meets couture.
Weller now scours thrift stores for suits and fabrics. Polka dots and stripes. Wool blends and textures. Anything to jazz up his aviation-, shipping- and automobile-influenced designs.
“I’m a big petrolhead,” says Weller, who joined the Southern Highland Craft Guild in 2012 and did his first show that year. “I spent a long time looking at car interiors and realized I was sitting amongst all these amazing textures, and there’s no reason I couldn’t add it to my work. They added it to their work.”
Weller wasn’t content simply making teapots. He expanded his product line to include a sugar and creamer set, glasses, and barware. And he has an advantage when it comes to market research. He can slip a new product onto the floor and not have to be there to see if the product is picked up: fingerprints show everything.
The store isn’t the only place he sells his vessels, priced between $400 and $800. He often crams pieces into a station wagon and travels up and down the Eastern seaboard to take part in trade shows.
His mind is constantly churning out new ideas.
“I totally love the design part of it,” he said. “Twenty-four hours a day my brain is thinking about something I can do, like another product.
“There’s so much of a relief to sit down at the bench, have something patterned out. The polishing part is physically hard work, but when it’s lovely and shiny and sitting there, you can see if it works. That’s a wonderful moment, and that’s what keeps me going.”
Paul Weller’s work can be found at Ariel Gallery, 19 Biltmore Ave., Asheville, 828-236-2660, arielcraftgallery.com. Visit aeropablodesigns.com to see more of his collection.