AT THYME

Caryn Hibbert and Deborah Brett connected over a mutual love of table dressing, where setting and decorating the table for a family supper or feast with friends is elevated to an art form. Complementing Caryn's hand-painted foliage and stem stripe designs, Deborah has produced a collection of free form stoneware bowls, platters and porcelain serviette rings. All the pieces are intricately hand-painted, inside and out, in rich tones of red and green and edged with 24k gold. Each piece goes through a lengthy, handmade process and requires three fires in the kiln.

Not only is Deborah a talented potter, a fashion figure, and a mother of three but she has a creative eye that knows how to dress a table! Deborah shares a slice of her style inspiration and top tips for a well-dressed table.

**What do you love about pottery?**
So many things! The ability to make something, anything that can be useful as well as just beautiful. The process; which is long and teaches patience and acceptance of failure. The fact that making doesn’t allow me to multi task ( my actual super power) thereby forcing me to take time to do one process at a time - it’s the best meditation. Plus your hands are so dirty there’s no time for phone action which is even better! Can you tell I’m obsessed?

**Where do you take your inspiration from?**

Like many potters I’m influenced by the nature around me and this often is the landscape around our home in Ibiza. The rugged landscape, textures and colours as well as the sea and its movement.

**You split your time between the UK and Ibiza. If forced to pick, where’s your favourite lunch and dinner spot?**

In ibiza I’d have to say lunch at our local beach Cala Carbo at Balneario where you can sit with your toes in the sand while eating a fresh grilled fish or paella. For dinner our local Tapas Bar, Destino in San Josep is consistently delicious.

*Deborah Brett ceramics on Bertioli’s Chicory table linen*

Now onto food. Is there a favourite dish in the family?

My kids had to learn a meal to make during the first lockdown and a firm favourite became steamed salmon with a miso coconut broth, julienne vegetables and egg noodles. It’s a one pot recipe and with a prep time of 15 minutes and a cooking time of five, it’s quick, tasty and nutritious.

Have you tried any new recipes recently?
One of my favourite cooks is Deb Perlman from The Smitten Kitchen. We are obsessed with her broccoli slaw but we recently branched out with her sweet potato rub with green beans in a miso dressing. All three of mine lick the bowl clean with that recipe.

In your eyes, what’s the most important element of a well-dressed table?

A well dressed table should be a feast for the eyes. I’m definitely a ‘more is more’ kind of decorator and I love adding different touches to create individuality. Swapping out different elements can totally change the look of your table. I love mixing up different patterns on the table cloth and napkins but sticking to one or two colours. Using anything from twine with herbs, velvet ribbon or my ceramics for napkin rings and I love creating a long centre piece down the middle of a table. Whether it’s loads of different candle sticks of different heights or lots of different bud vases, fresh fruit and chocolates spilling out of bowls or spray painting pomegranates, pumpkins or pine cones for added sparkle.

What is your favourite…

**Ingredient:** Butter. Everything tastes better with butter.

**Appetiser:** Home made chicken soup with lots of ginger and tiny star noodles.
**Breakfast drink:** Celery juice every morning followed by a vat of black coffee

**Evening drink:** My German grandmother always made her own schnapps from wild cherries, so I love post dinner drinks in winter with a carafe of Kirsch as it reminds me of her.
**Pudding:** We are pavlova mad but I like to make mine with dollops of lemon curd and passion fruit and oven roasted plums for a tangy kick.
Around Christmas time, I also love decorating gingerbread biscuits for a Christmas table setting. They look so pretty paired with the thyme stem stripe linen snd my matching ceramics.

What’s the most beloved thing in your kitchen?

The plates I made by hand that we eat off. There’s something so satisfying about needing something, making it and then using them daily.

Where and how will you be hibernating during the winter months?

If I could just live on top of the mountain in the village I grew up in in Switzerland I would. But kids schooling means it will be in London. The upside is my home ceramic studio will be finished and I will be happily hibernating there making more pots!

What are your three favourite pieces in the Thyme Shop?

I’m obsessed with ferns and have them both in my garden and decorating the walls and on fabrics in my living room. Plus they go so well with my striped ceramics.

My green bowl with lustres of gold.

Always a fan of a soak in a longer hot bath. Just add these bath salts for good measure.