Grace Your Home With Beautiful Art Made In America
I make these bowls by hand from over 35 different types of fresh fruits and vegetables. The vegetables are cured for several days and then pressed, dried, and aged into translucent vessels. Each bowl is hand shaped and formed, and each is unique.
I call this Vegetable Parchment because the texture and translucency calls to mind the skin parchments of medieval Europe. Like their fresh counterparts, the bowls vary with the seasons - rhubarb in the spring, watermelon and cantaloupe in the summer, pumpkin and persimmon in the fall, pear and citrus in the winter.
The process of making these parchments is entirely "green" - most of the produce I use is grown here in California and I work with local farms and farmer`s markets as much as possible. All fruit and vegetables not made into bowls, garlands, and bracelets are either composted or donated to the local Zoo. No toxics of any kind is ever used in any of my work. I was proud to be one of the designers profiled in the book Green Design.
What delights me about creating these vegetable parchment bowls, is the process of turning what is seen as ordinary and commonplace into something of beauty. When I work with the fruit and vegetables, I feel I am not creating something new but instead, uncovering what was always there to see.
Turning Leaf Handmade
- Margaret Dorfman
