I thought you all should know more about kice kice, one of the new collections that I have here at nonchalant mom! Kice Kice is a partnership between twin sisters, lesley nishigawara and karen kice. lesley nishigawara, a textile artist, started making children’s clothing after the birth of her daughter. Naturally, Karen, also an artist, began helping lesley; the two found their combination of skills and implicit understanding of each other to be the perfect creative partnership. karen tells stories of the crazy twin situations..when they were small children at preschool they used the term "we" instead of "I". one night while at art school they both did drawings of hedgehogs, same time, same night, while living in different buildings! ...talking to them about being twins makes me want to be one!
when lesley became pregnant, she moved to california and karen came out for the birth of her second daughter. while she was out, they started getting their business together and drove to downtown LA in a large cargo van to buy industrial sewing machines four days after lesley's due date. she was having mild contractions while they drove through los angeles traffic on their way to buy their machines. they arrived at the store, paid for the machines and the man walked towards the back to get them ready for us - he turned around and said "You girls know how to sew, right?." karen said, "I don't, but she does," and pointed to lesley who was pregnant, days overdue. karen followed her out to california later that fall. so, as karen put's it, "although we are doing 'everything' together - we have our own skills that complement each other, but a very similar aesthetic."
each item Lesley and Karen make is regarded as a piece of artwork. They take the same care and attention to detail while designing and creating Kice Kice items as they do in their own artwork: each dress celebrates the beauty of childhood....I couldn't have said it better myself!
a favorite recipe that karen makes for lesley's kids:
Eggplant and Mochi
1-2 purple or chinese eggplants, cut into small cubes
1-2 large bunches of fresh basil, chopped
2-3 T of tamari
2-3 T of brown rice vinegar
2-3 T of sesame seed oil
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
1-3 cloves of minced fresh garlic
brown rice mochi, cut into 2" squares and scored on top with a bit of tamari brushed on top
1 clove of garlic
Place brown rice mochi squares in oven at 350 degrees until it puffs up (usually about 10 mins) Roast the clove of garlic in the oven at the same time.
Saute eggplant in a small amount of olive oil with all the ingredients until cooked (eggplant will be a little mushy). Break the mochi in half (like a sandwich) and spread roasted garlic on the mochi. Place a scoop or two of the eggplant on the mochi and serve warm.
(this is also great served with marinated, baked tofu - which can be baked at the same time as the mochi)
shop nonchalant mom here to purchase.
