Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

On breakfast and dinner tables across Los Angeles, the dishes used to

serve a meal are increasingly becoming as important as the food they con-

tain.

In the move toward incorporating sustainability practices in everyday

life, brands are offering up statement bowls — for both serving and eating

from — made from mango wood, corn or bamboo. Produced in a way that

doesn’t harm the environment, the table-top pieces serve another pur-

pose: In many cases, buying them helps artisan communities and fair-

trade practices around the world.

“You don’t have to sacrifice style when it comes to eco-entertaining,”

said Maria Casey, founder of BUHO (shopbuho.co), a Los Angeles-based

e-commerce platform that launched in June and that focuses on sustain-

able home and fashion items. “Also, most of these items are handcrafted,

which means no two products look exactly the same, so your tablescape

won’t look like any other.”

Casey suggested that in seeking out eco-conscious products, consider

labels that use terms like “handmade,” “ethical,” “vintage” and “locally

made.”

Here are a few that recently caught our eye.

BROWSING

Eco-friendly

for the table

By Kavita Daswani

A COLORFUL VEHICLE for a salad or bowl of quinoa is the 9.4-inch-diameter bowl from

Dutch brand Zuperzozial. From the brand’s Raw Earth Collection, the bowl is fashioned from

corn and bamboo and reinforced with melamine. It’s fully biodegradable and comes in colors

including orange, blue and willow green. $28 at uniekliving.com

CEREAL BOWLS by designer Xenia Taler accented with fun and lively colors are made from bamboo discarded by industrial manufacturers. “Excess scraps

are gathered from bamboo furniture or chopstick manufacturers and ground into a powder,” said Taler. The powder is mixed with cornstarch and a food-

grade melamine binder to mold into tableware. They are free of BPA, PVC and phthalates. $40 for a set of four at ofakind.com

Of a Kind

Uniek Living

MADE

FROM

wood of the

mango tree

and a white

enamel interi-

or, this medium-

size bowl is from

Be Home, a Northern California-based

company that works with craftsmen in

Thailand, Bolivia and Indonesia to create

sustainably produced home products.

$24 at shopbuho.co

WITH A SKY-BLUE exterior and white interior, this

fruit or bread bowl was made using 100% recycled tex-

tiles, hand-fashioned by a designer named Norma in her

home studio in Porto, Portugal. A nontoxic water-based

varnish adds a bit of luster. $49 at seven-smith.com

Seven-Smith

MBARE,an Athens, Ga.-based e-commerce

site, provides financial support to more than

2,000 artisans in Africa by showcasing their

offerings. From a South African designer

known as Julia K comes a series of bowls in

ceramic, painted with the acacia tree. Each

one is handmade, so no two are alike. $38 to

$78 at mbare.com

Mbare

Buho

HAND-

MADEin

small

batches ac-

cording to

fair trade

practices in

Luxor, Egypt, this

Meritaten alabaster

bowl from Baladi Home has natural

marbling. $42 at shop.donegood.com

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