Julie Keane, owner of Ivy Café in Clayton, bakes the restaurant’s signature sourdough bread. She writes the menu, curates the wine list, waits on the occasional table, and throws the clay for the plates, too. A longtime supporter of the arts, Keane took up pottery a decade ago. She found so much solace in the work that it became her escape. Much like the bread she bakes and the food she whips up, Keane enjoys making tangible objects with her hands that people appreciate. And because the plates occasionally chip and break, she makes a twice-a-month pilgrimage to Craft Alliance to create more. Her first plate was designed to fit the café’s signature tartine, but as the menu expanded, so did the need for different kinds and shapes of service ware. The dishes at Ivy Café are now presented on oval, round, and oblong plates in a palette of muted colors. Keane uses an underglaze pencil to write a saying onto many of her designs. “I thought that adding a few inspirational words would be an unexpected little surprise,” she says. This fall, Ivy Café is serving an herb-roasted, double-baked acorn squash filled with a combination of fall flavors, including cranberries and sausage, and finished with a warm spice drizzle. The entrée arrives on a plate that is, by design, not perfect. “I don’t aim for perfection,” Keane says. “I could teach a class on that.”