The Sweets of Araby just published in paperback! Sawaya artwork praised by WSJ & Boston Globe!

The Sweets of Araby pastry cookbook which i illustrated and did cover design as well has just been published in a paperback edition. Countrymen Press, the publisher recently commissioned me to revise the cover for the paperback book! it has just been published in the early part of December, 2013, perfect timing for holiday gift giving!

one of the delightful things about the paperback edition is two of the three endorsements of the book praise my artwork…the Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe!

“Never before has so much oil, sugar, starch and spice been squeezed between two covers. Better to consume this whimsical, beautifully illustrated book one chapter at a time.”—Wall Street Journal

“The eye-catching colors of Linda Dalal Sawaya’s charming illustrations make this book one to savor in or out of the kitchen.”—Boston Globe

jewelry making using one of mama's porcelain roses

in the spring i treated myself to a jewelry workshop to learn how to do "cold connections". in other words, how to put things together with yes, cold connections. we did do some flaming (annealing) of  metal, melting wire to make beads like the ones at the top of the piece above, which is my first piece using a porcelain rose that my beloved mother alice made. there were instances were it was necessary to solder, and mostly it was great to learn how to rivet, wire, and drill holes.

we experimented with etching metal, lamination, and rolling patterns into metal, such as the square and circle in my piece which i'm inspired to call homage to alice.

here are two views of altoid tins that were annealed to remove the paint. the first one blistered so beautifully, i saved it and will varnish to maintain the pattern instead of washing it off.