Tala is a young woman from Gaza, who reached out to me in 2024 for support for herself and her family.

Though I’m old enough to be her mom, we became friends, talking for hours about our days, our dreams, our frustrations.

One of hers was having to ask strangers for money. She wished she would have been able to finish school so she could work and earn for her family. She was 16 when the bombs started dropping, and life, as she knew it stopped.

She loved drawing fashion designs and would do so by candlelight while we chatted. I told her we could use them in my ceramics and sell the pieces to make her some income.

She doubted me, which, if you know me, this only made me more determined to prove her wrong.

The idea clicked one night as I looked up at a metal sculpture my friend Tanya had made.

Tanya’s a metal artist who’d followed me for my pots a couple years ago. Through my constant posts about Palestine, she learned, organized, and started speaking out herself.
(Yes, this is your reminder that talking about politics online does make a difference.)

I reached out Tanya with my half-baked idea, and we got to work.

She bent, shaped, and welded metal around my porcelain to mirror Tala’s drawings. Then did it again because I’d made them a little off.

We sent Tala photos as it came together, and she finally saw the vision.

We finished this piece for her birthday, and by her request, sold it and sent the money from that sale to her for a new tent and education.