my mama's table: 2014

annual (unripe) green fig preserving

Last year, after I had just moved into my new home, I found that I owned a Black Jack fig tree. With a lot of figs that will never ripen in New England climate. To my surprise, it survived one of the worse winters ever (I wrapped it in burlap), to produce even more fruit than last year. I think it likes me.

Four times as much fruit, to be precise.
So I tackled boiling the figs, three times for fifteen minutes each...

Then simmered them in sugary water (2.5 cups of sugar to 5 cups of water) until syrupy, and canned them!

After about a week, the figs become more flavorful, you can eat them whole on top of yogurt or vanilla ice cream. I blended them to use as a spread.

Delicious on top of pumpkin seed bread from Seven Stars. Served on a gleena plate, of course. Yum! For a more formal recipe follow this link to NY Times.

busy busy october

October is the month of many deadlines. It is when stores would like their orders shipped to begin their holiday season sales. All stores. Of course it is impossible to accommodate all requests, so I try to be very honest with myself, as well as my clients. I can only produce so much, fit so much in the kilns. Looking back, though, I moved a lot of work through my studio in the past thirty days, no wonder I’m wiped out, and my hands are dry and wrinkled:

400 Lil Bub wee teas, 120 tumblers for RISD, 30 dinner plates for RISD’s President’s house, and many more bowls, plates, serving pieces for some great stores across the country. Whew.

sea urchin wees available on gleena.com

Each porcelain dot is hand applied, creating a sea urchin effect. The texture adds a level of insulation from a hot beverage, and gives a nice massage as you hold the cup. Click here for more details.

new things for the risd alumni sale, october 11th,
on benefit street in providence

I had a lot of fun planting gleena vases and wee cups with succulents. All will be available for sale at the RISD Alumni Sale on October 11th.

I will also have a few air plants, in special gleena air plant pots.

So many cuties:

Hope to see you!

growing things

This summer has been amazing. The weather reminded me of summers spent at the family dacha, and working in my garden felt like I was channeling my mother's, grandmother's, and great grandmother's gardening magic. Seriously, I never really dug in the dirt. And had no idea what I was doing. But things grew, and grew tasty, and I even had some awe-inspiring critter visitors.

German striped heirloom tomato.

Hibiscus flower.

Hydrangea, Russian sage, nasturtium, hollyhock leaves, dill flowers.

Emerald dragonfly in the cucumber vine.

Black jack fig.

Nasturtium leaf.

Basil flowers.

Berrie hiding in the hostas. She thinks she’s camouflaged, funny girl.

Cucumbers, oh so many: for cucumber salad, soup, cocktails, pickles, and snacks.

Calendula flowers in the small vase, hollyhock leaves in the tall vase.

Praying mantis on the hibiscus leaf. Had not seen this color combo before.

color, texture, expression: the paintings of Hilde Wilms

view more of Hilde Wilms’ work on her website: hildewilms.com

things are growing in my garden

this is the first summer in my garden. i am completely new to gardening, so everything that comes up and lives is very exciting to me. i hope i keep that novice excitement forever, in all parts of my life, actually...

thai basil flowers, smell and taste incredible and exotic

baby cucumber

full grown cucumber, in less than a week after the baby stage

perfect lettuce

lovely pale pink roses

big thank you to lil bub fans

full disclosure: i am the big sister of lil bub’s dude. if you don't know who lil bub is, i recommend doing an image search on google.

for lil bub’s third b-day, dude wanted to raise $50,000 for lil bub’s big fund for the ASPCA. to help him reach his goal, we came up with a limited edition set of two lil bub wee tea cups, with all proceeds from the sale going to the fund.

to my very big surprise all the sets sold in less than 24 hours, and we raised $6100 for the fund. i want to thank all the lil bub fans who purchased a set. you are amazing.

the wee teas are being hand poured, hand stamped, dipped in glaze, typography and lil bub images applied, kiln fired (3 times). it will just take me a little while to complete.

i have to say, it feels incredible to support such a good cause with just my two hands. thank you for giving me the opportunity.