Lifestyle
Showing Courage in Ukraine With Handfuls of Clay
This article is part of our Design special section about the reverence for handmade objects.
In late August 2020, eight humanoid statues appeared in a quiet corner of the Saint-Sophia of Kyiv conservation area, a 12-acre museum complex that is centered on the thousand-year-old Saint-Sophia Cathedral. Called “Shadows,” the clay-and-copper sculptures — each faceless and ghostly, with a torsolike form planted on a cylindrical base — had been made by Yuriy Myrko, a co-founder of GORN Ceramics in Kyiv for the annual Bouquet Kyiv Stage Festival.
“The people who keep the cathedral decided they liked the sculptures and proposed to keep them there.” said Bogdan Kryvosheya, 30, who founded GORN with Mr. Myrko, 41, and is the studio’s creative director. “The exhibition was only for a week or so, but the sculptures stayed there for almost three years.”
“Shadows” marked a turning point for GORN, which until then had mostly produced utilitarian items like vases and bowls. The figures reflected ideas about human relationships, death and spirituality. Since they appeared, GORN has continued to produce emotional art pieces alongside its more practical offerings. Intensified by the war with Russia and the unpredictability of the future, the studio’s output is a testament to creative freedom and resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship.
Mr. Kryvosheya and Mr. Myrko met in 2017, and with a third partner, Sasha Mychak, established GORN the following year to produce ceramic tableware that they and other artists designed.
Two years after the company started, the Covid-19 pandemic hit; then, two years after that Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Despite the challenges resulting from the invasion — limited access to resources, an unstable electricity supply, impediments to shipping and travel and the looming risk of conscription — GORN is thriving. This is thanks in part to its low-energy means of production — human hands shaping local clay, which is baked in wood-fired kilns — and in part to an international market.
It is also helped by its collective operation. Working with Mr. Kryvosheya and Mr. Myrko (Mr. Mychak is no longer with the studio), three artists make pieces under the GORN label while also practicing independently: Yaroslav Honchar created GORN’s East Wind group — minimal, juglike vessels in olive-green hues.
Yuriy Sulikovsky contributed to the Flame vases, which are wood-fired at hyper-scalding temperatures for so many hours that smoke and ash interact with the clay, producing streaks and dapples. Dmytro Yakub works as Mr. Myrko’s apprentice, assisting in daily operations and contributing to several different collections.
“Nothing is impossible in ceramics thanks to GORN’s skill and technical capabilities,” said Sana Moreau, an art dealer who sells the studio’s pieces in her Ukrainian-themed design shop in Paris. (Prices range from $45 for a bowl to $12,000 for sculptures.)
Ms. Moreau, who emigrated from Ukraine to France in 2021, said she works with more than two dozen Ukrainian designers and studios. GORN, she said, “can implement even the most complex and unusual ideas for modern interiors. One of their strengths is ceramic sculptures that touch on complex philosophical topics.”
Like many producers of household goods globally, Mr. Kryvosheya said that the pandemic was a boon to his company. People who were stuck indoors throughout government-mandated lockdowns became eager to improve their homes.
Perhaps less predictable was that the months after Russia attacked were also profitable. In addition to Ms. Moreau, GORN was represented by several international galleries and design retailers before the world’s eyes turned sympathetically to Ukraine.
“When the full-scale invasion happened, that was one of the triggers for them to get our pieces,” Mr. Kryvosheya said, adding that GORN had a 30 percent increase in sales in the year following the invasion.
Nor has the spotlight on Ukrainian design dimmed. Ms. Moreau estimated that Ukrainian design exports have grown at least threefold for most of her clients since February 2022.
“Things were not purchased out of pity, but simply because they are more visible,” she said. Designers who refused to let fear impede their lives were pouring their hearts into their art. “For the first time we really had something to offer the European and American markets.”
An outgrowth of dire conditions is that GORN is looking beyond its own commercial interests to nurture a local arts community. “Our goals have deepened, moving beyond a general desire to create unique pieces to a broader mission of fostering creative and cultural growth,” Mr. Kryvosheya said.
Last year, it opened a school that teaches every aspect of ceramics, including how clay can serve as an expressive medium, or as an escape from daily life in wartime.
About 40 students have enrolled in the workshops. Many are “older people” with successful careers in technology and business, Mr. Kryvosheya said. “They finally want to do something for their soul.”
He is optimistic about what he described as life challenges. “You have nothing if you just keep sitting at home and crying all the time,” he said. “The chances of us dying are higher than before, but what can we do? Nothing, but just move forward.”
Lifestyle
‘Wait Wait’ for February 28. 2026: Live in Bloomington with Lilly King!
An underwater view shows US’ Lilly King competing in a heat of the women’s 200m breaststroke swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on July 31, 2024. (Photo by François-Xavier MARIT / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP via Getty Images)
François-Xavier Marit/Getty Images
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François-Xavier Marit/Getty Images
This week’s show was recorded in Bloomington, Indiana with host Peter Sagal, judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis, Not My Job guest Lilly King and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Josh Gondelman, and Faith Salie. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
Who’s Bill This Time
State of the Union is Hot; The Tribal Council Convenes Again; A Glow Up In the Doll Aisle
Panel Questions
The Toot Tracker
Bluff The Listener
Our panelists tell three stories about a travel hack in the news, only one of which is true.
Not My Job: Olympic Swimmer Lilly King answers our questions about Lil’ Kings
Olympic Swimmer Lilly King plays our game called, “Lilly King meet these Lil’ Kings” Three questions about short kings.
Panel Questions
Cleaning Out The Cabinet; Bedtime Stacking
Limericks
Bill Kurtis reads three news-related limericks: Getting Cozy With Cross Country Skiing; Pickleball’s New Competition; Bees Get Freaky
Lightning Fill In The Blank
All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else
Predictions
Our panelists predict, after American Girls, what’ll be the next toy to get an update.
Lifestyle
Zendaya and Tom Holland Are Married, Her Longtime Stylist Claims
Law Roach
Zendaya and Tom’s Wedding Already Happened …
Y’all Missed It!!!
Published
Zendaya and Tom Holland are married … so claims her longtime stylist, Law Roach.
Here’s the deal … the celebrity stylist — who started styling Zendaya way back in 2011 — spoke to Access Hollywood on the Actors Awards red carpet where he sang out “The wedding has already happened, you missed it.”
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The AH reporter asks in shock if that’s true … and, Law responds by saying it’s “very true” before walking off.
This isn’t the first time Tom and Zendaya’s relationship status has made headlines on a red carpet … remember at the Golden Globes in 2025, Zendaya had a ring on that finger — and, the next day, we found out the two were engaged.
TMZ.com
Zendaya and Tom met on the set of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in 2016, started dating a couple years later and went public with their relationship in 2021.
We’ve reached out to Tom and Zendaya’s teams … so far, no word back.
Lifestyle
Bet on Anything, Everywhere, All at Once : Up First from NPR
Online prediction market platforms allow people to place bets on wide-ranging subjects such as sports, finance, politics and currents events.
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Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images
The rise of prediction markets means you can now bet on just about anything, right from your phone. Apps like Kalshi and Polymarket have grown exponentially in President Trump’s second term, as his administration has rolled back regulations designed to keep the industry in check. Billions of dollars have flooded in, and users are placing bets on everything from whether it will rain in Seattle today to whether the US will take over control of Greenland. Who’s winning big on these apps? And who is losing? NPR correspondent Bobby Allyn joins The Sunday Story to explain how these markets came to be and where they are going.
This episode was produced by Andrew Mambo. It was edited by Liana Simstrom and Brett Neely. Fact-checking by Barclay Walsh and Susie Cummings. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez.
We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at TheSundayStory@npr.org.
Listen to Up First on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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