Serendipity, Matchas, and a Very Beautiful "Oopsie"

About nine or ten years ago, the search was on for a truly unique ceramicist. A "potter" feels way too general for what we were after; we wanted an artist. That search led straight to Kala Stein.

The cool part? At the time, she was working right across the plaza at the community art center as the director of Ceramics. The goal back then was simple: we wanted to create custom plates, dishes, and cups for the Caffe. Kala whipped up a few samples, and they were incredibly cool. But, for one reason or another, the timing wasn't right, and it just didn’t work out.

Life moved on.

Cut to a few months ago. Mila buys this matcha bowl. It’s super cute, shaped like a heart, and it completely seals the deal for her. She went hook, line, and sinker for the world of matcha. We’re talking the whole nine yards—foamed almond milk, stevia, the ritual, all of it. Naturally, this sent us on a hunt for the absolute ideal matcha powder, which was actually found right here locally (but that’s a story for another day).

Seeing how much she loved the ritual, Mila had a bright idea: Why don't we create custom matcha bundles for Valentine’s Day, built around a heart-shaped bowl?

After hitting a total dead end trying to track down the maker of her original bowl, the lightbulb went off—why not just make our own? And naturally, the mind went straight back to Kala.

Well, Kala has come a long way since the community center days. She’s now directly across the plaza in the La Haye Art Center, her tableware and art installations are featured in Chateau Sonoma, Opus Winery, Darling Wined and Rosewood Palo Alto just to name a few…and her pieces are just stunning, incredibly elegant and very "of the area."

An email was shot off, half-expecting her to be way too busy or successful to bother with a café collaboration. But it was the most pleasant surprise. She replied almost instantly, we caught up, and the second she heard Mila's vision, she was totally on board.

Which brings us to the whole point of this post: **Serendipity. And a faux pas.**

When you’re making custom ceramics, it’s a rigorous process. Somewhere along the line of bringing the vision to life, Kala skipped a step. A literal technical "oopsie" in the studio.

Now, the flawless, finished heart bowls did eventually arrive, and they made it to the shelves just in the nick of time for Valentine’s Day. Kala and Mila were incredibly proud of them. But while everything was being finalized, a bunch of the prototype variations came home with us to live with for a bit. Among them was the "mistake."

Here’s the thing about this faux pas: it resulted in something lovely. Rustic. Dare we say, divine.

Months went by, and at home, the eyes kept gravitating back to this happy little accident. It just had so much soul. We decided we loved it so much that our guests might, too.

This was too good not to share.

We convinced her. We chatted, decided to embrace the imperfection, put a few finishing touches on them, and now this limited batch of "happy mistakes" has been added to the collection at the Sunflower.

It’s funny how a missed step a few months ago turns into the exact thing you want to hold in your hands today. You can check out the whole story, the gallery, and the flawless final pieces on our *Sunflower x Kala Stein Collaboration Page

Swing by the Caffe, feel the texture of these rustic anomalies for yourself, and see why we all fell in love with a mistake.