Meet Melina Kemph | Stylist + Art Director + Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melina Kemph and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melina, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I never set out to start a ceramic business. I’ve worked in fashion in NYC for 15 years and the beginning of Covid/quarantine I was home without work and needing a creative outlet. I started Honey Lain Studios (originally B.Y.O.Napkin) as a secret instagram account for me to build my food + prop styling portfolio in hopes to get some freelance work. I took things one step further and decided I would take my first pottery class to make some plates + bowls for my new creative pursuit.

I instantly fell in love with pottery and the creative process. I realize that I have been looking for something to create and design with my hands and always thought it would be something fashion related…and I’m so happy it’s not. Once I started throwing on the wheel, I became obsessed. Another creative artist stumbled upon my then secret IG account, asked to rent some pieces for a project, and encouraged me to explore this side of my creativity. Ever since, I’ve had too many pots crowding and overtaking my living room so I had to start clearing things out and POOF! Honey Lain Studios!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Originally a journalism student with the dream of becoming a food critic, I switched my major to retail + consumer science and moved to NYC to be a sales assistant for a Women’s luxury designer, but soon found I needed a creative component to work. When I found joy in fashion styling, I found my passion for visual storytelling.

Now I proclaim, I’m a Brooklyn based creative artist who has worn many hats in both fashion & food media spaces including styling, creative + culinary production, art direction, model casting, location scouting, curating on-set talent, as well as social strategy.

My approach to every project is collaborative which is very important to me. My aesthetic is influenced + inspired by my love for menswear, collegiate sports, cultural history, art, music, and sharing a meal with my community…oftentimes served on a colorful plate or bowl thrown in my home pottery studio. I’m thankful to have a hand in a lot of different creative pots, but especially pottery! I often describe it as an ancestral connection.

Honey Lain is my creative outlet where I get to be fully, authentically, unapologetically me. I’m not answering to a client brief! I get to create without thought or expectation which has been unbelievably freeing and intimidating. My intention when I sit at the wheel is to create in full freedom of expression and creative exploration. I’m starting to see my style as reimagined and grounding, always colorful with some textural detail.

I believed for a long time that you had to pick one lane, stay in it, and never look up. In 2012 I was introduced to food styling and thought I couldn’t purse it because I lacked culinary credentials and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do just that one thing…I’m so glad I’ve let go of that old way of thinking. “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” I live in this space because I believe my interests and creativity in one area inspires and sharpens the others. I strongly believe we can all be multi-hyphenated. I gave myself permission to claim my space!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
You’re visiting me for a week?! Make sure to wear some comfortable shoes because I love to walk this city as much as possible and the itinerary always revolves around food! You’ll be rewarded for all your walking

My favorite gem for breakfast is Ban Be, a Vietnamese American bakery in Carroll Garden by Doris Ho-Kane, who does more than just breakfast! I can’t get enough of the tie dye waffles, Viet iced coffee is the caffeine kick you’ve always needed, the cassava cake brought me to tears, and I’m ready for summer and the durian ice cream. Somehow us Texas folks always find each other. When Yellow Rose opened I finally found my home for San Antonio style breakfast tacos. NY pizza is simple, if you’re dying for a slice it has to be Luigi’s in Park Slope. It’s a classic old school cash only spot that luckily is across the street from my pottery studio.

Little Grenjai has the most fun and mouth watering Thai dinner club called Tender Bits. If you can snag one of the limited seats you’ll eat well, sit next to someone you’ve never met, and most likely end the night pushing the tables and chairs back to dance cause the DJ is always that good! Casa Ora is my weakness, I went three times in one week for my birthday. Everything on the Venezuelan menu is a crowd pleaser but the Pabellon a Caballo and the quatro leches are a must! Barbes Brooklyn is one of the best spots for low key live music and a drink. Public Records in Gowanus seems more than the sum of its two rooms. You could describe it as restaurant/music venue, but it feels like a space that is cultivating community and conversation outside of food and music. Remember when I said Texas folks find our way to each out, Witching Hour is a creative bar in Buschwick Brooklyn opened by some fellow Texans. They do karaoke on Monday’s, give tarot card and crystal readings, and always have an entertaining calendar of events.

I LOVE Prospect Park. The park on Saturday morning at the farmer’s market feels like it’s own small town. If the weather is nice, EVERYONE, their kid(s) + dog(s) will be out, but that’s my favorite city energy. I’m really fond of the Brooklyn Museum. Over the last few years I find myself spending my free time there, more than other spaces. I love the classics, but I’m always looking for a reinterpreted voice. The MoMa is another go to museum that inspires me in that way, as well as Dia:Beacon in Upstate New York. And while we are upstate, I’ll most likely find a few estate sales to pass by. I have an obsession with tableware so I’m looking for ceramic inspiration, but also interesting pieces to add to my ever growing prop styling closet!

Your reward for all the city walking and prop schlepping, Bathhouse in Williamsburg. Rotating between saunas/steam rooms and taking a dip in the thermal pools is actually how I’d like to start each week. It’s also the best massage I’ve ever had (ask for Randy)!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mom gets the first nod! She is an incredible self taught artist in multiple mediums + disciplines. I’ve realized so much of my point of view is influenced by her and her own art. She paints with fabric to make upcycled quilted wall hangings + bags that have a similar energy to my pottery. We send each other images of projects we’re working on and 9 times out of 10 there’s a similar vibration to our pieces.

Jillian Knox is an incredibly talented multi hyphenated artist out of San Francisco who found my secret instagram account in the fall of 2020 and asked if she could rent my pieces for the now James Beard Nominated Black Food Cookbook. I couldn’t understand why she would want these pieces because they were from my class decorated with chips, cracks, and what I believed to be flaws and imperfections. Jillian’s response, that’s exactly why I want to use them!”

We have since become soul sisters, co-creators and collaborators; but she was the first to see my art and encourage me to go for it AND see myself as more than just a fashion stylist! To also see myself as an artist!

Om Boogie! My life coach + mentor. I’m a new artist and person because of our work!

Website: https://honeylainstudios.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeylainstudios/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melina-kemph-a099b4a/

Image Credits
Pink vase w. stripe table: Photographer Frank Frances, Prop Stylist Victoria Maiolo Stripe Mug with Red Rim: Photographer Katrina Arambulo