Meet the Palestinian Artist Making Keffiyeh-Inspired Ceramics for Bay Area Restaurants

Even while she dreamed of numbers at her job in corporate tech, Nadia Elgan would fawn over elegant hand-poured ceramics. On her honeymoon in Cuba, she made her husband take her to all the local pottery studios they passed. And after her daughter was born, something in her succumbed to that desire to make something with her hands. Her first time at the wheel while on a ceramics studio date night sealed the deal: It was love at first touch.

Now throwing at her own studio, Habibi Ceramics, the Campbell-based Palestinian Filipina ceramicist — “Pali-Pina” as she describes herself — has designed cups and plates for popular Bay Area restaurants and cafes like Reem’s and the Caffè by Mr. Espresso.

Lately, Elgan’s art has turned toward Gaza.

In June, she released her Falastin series at West Coast Craft’s summer crafts market. The cups and plates are polka-dotted in a black-and-white pattern reminiscent of a keffiyeh scarf, one of the most visible displays of Palestinian resistance. In an era dominated by mass production, she throws each piece by hand, imbuing it with a sense of place and purpose.

The keffiyeh-inspired Falastin collection is now available for purchase via Habibi Ceramics’ website and at superstar chef Reem Assil’s two San Francisco restaurants, on Mission Street and in the Ferry Building, with proceeds going toward the Middle East Children’s Alliance’s Gaza relief fund. In addition, Elgan will soon kick off a new series of Palestine-focused collaborations with Arab American chefs and artists, who will sell those pieces exclusively through their own storefronts. The initial set of cups for Assil, for instance, will display a Tatreez pattern, a kind of Palestinian embroidery. That collection will be available later this fall at both Reem’s outposts. It will also include plates and a mezze bowl for zeit and zataar — a smaller version of a prior Habibi dish that caught Assil’s eye.

Elgan’s fall collection — which she’s calling the Habibi Passion Drops — will be co-curated by Antonio Diaz, the editor of Life & Thyme magazine, who helped connect the ceramicist with interested chefs. She’s also planning to include collaborations with coffee wizard Mokhtar Alkhanshali (of Port of Mokha) and chef Fadi Kattan, who wrote Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food.

Since its June 8 release, the Falastin collection has already raised $29,000, via the fundraising platform Still We Rise, to benefit organizations directly helping families in Palestine. Beyond that, Elgan’s biggest hope is for the Palestinian-inspired ceramics to inspire solidarity in joy, resistance in color, and celebration. “That’s really the heart of the collection,” she says. “To celebrate those traditions and create those connections.”

The timing of these releases is not lost on anyone who has watched the ongoing crisis in Palestine unfold. As the Israeli military offensive in the region continues, spreading into Lebanon and Jordan, the Palestinian death toll has reached nearly 40,000 with at least 15,000 children dead, according to Gazan health officials. That impact has been felt hard by the Bay’s diasporic Arabic communities.

Elgan herself grew up in Amman, Jordan; her family is from Jenin, in the West Bank. For her, these ceramics have been the way she’s found to express her sense of solidarity — and to share a side of Palestinian culture that’s too often overlooked.

“My art is my highest form of expression,” Elgan says. “I really want to highlight the joy Palestinians have when they host family and friends and connect around food.”

She understands that joy and has built a life around sharing it. Born in Southern California, she moved back to Los Angeles from Jordan when she was 13 years old. Eventually, she got a degree in international development from UC Berkeley before working at nonprofits and tech companies. In 2018, she took that first ceramics class and, shortly after, made a deal with Los Gatos’s Blossom Hill Crafts to do side work in exchange for free studio time. It would be two or three in the morning when she’d finally leave the ceramics studio each night, losing track of time as she learned about glazing, throwing and the intricacies of wabi-sabi — the Japanese philosophy celebrating the beauty of imperfections.

Then, during the pandemic, her restaurant collabs went major. The team at Campbell’s upscale Orchard City Kitchen had gorgeous cocktails that inspired Elgan; she pitched the team on cups that would represent the cocktails themselves. Their love of her designs gave her a surge of energy and inspiration. She’s since placed work at Berkeley’s Elaichi Co., Oaxaca’s El Parian Atelier and many more, with North Beach’s Cassava soon to join the ranks. Even Madewell and Anthropologie are customers.

Mokhtar’s Alkhanshali says there’s no one like Elgan in the scene. “Nadia’s work not only honors the past but also pushes the boundaries of traditional pottery, making her a standout in her field,” he says.

The ongoing hardships for her community haven’t daunted Elgan’s success, nor her optimism. When she was growing up in Jordan, her sitti (grandmother) would look out the window and call for her home in Palestine. This vivid memory of her family looking so happy, so at peace, continues to guide her work.

“To be Palestinian means to be in a constant state of grief,” Elgan says. “It’s not just about property and land. Palestine is a part of our soul. The events since October 7 have been shattering. There’s a responsibility to preserve our culture and share our story.”

Customers can order pieces from the Falastin collection directly through the Habibi Ceramics website or at participating restaurants.