A Wonderful Collaboration!!

I have a weakness for hand painted ceramics done in true Italian style....
Gina of Art and Alfalfa is my weekly "fix"for photos of beautiful painted ceramics! She is a gifted artist that lives in the middle of an alfalfa field in Utah.

Gina creates beautiful ceramics and conducts workshops for students wanting to learn the ancient craft. She recently had some of her work displayed at the Springville Museum of Art! I was immediately drawn to the large platter she did. Gina sells her work through etsy and I signed up for a platter to be painted.

A design was chosen for inspiration. Several things were" tweeked", a reference to the Medici family, my family initial and some "artistic interpretation".

My armorial  plate was painted, fired and re-fired  again with gold and sent to me! What to put on it? What about my marzipan fruit from Bologna, Italy that was brought back so carefully?

Or maybe some salted caramel cookies with sugared fruit jellies?  What? Did your eagle eye spot some differences in the two photos? There was a flaw from the firing of the first plate, so, I ended up with TWO! How lucky am I?

How does my new Italian serving set look with them? Pretty fantastic, I think! I picked them up at an estate sale this week!

I just love that each time I received a plate, it came with a lovely letter from Gina on her custom stationary!

These plates are the perfect size for entertaining or displaying on a shelf.

And her colophon on the back makes them very special to me! Thank you so much Gina!