Hand-built & hand-painted in New Zealand

Ru’s Jungle Story

Planter sets built by hand from concrete, carved while the surface is still damp, then painted one animal at a time. Each design is made once.

See the four collections A planter with your dog on it

A wide carved bowl planter and a taller cylinder pot, painted with a monkey and a banana palm, planted up on a linen tablecloth in afternoon light

Made by hand,
one at a time

Every set starts as soft concrete pressed into shape, which is why the bowl and the pot always lean a little differently. The wavy lines are cut into the surface while it is still damp — one pass of the tool, no going back over it.

Then the painting, freehand, in thin layers: a monkey mid-swing, a lemur with its tail curled up, a toucan on a branch. Because of all that, no two sets leave the studio the same, and most designs are made once and never repeated.

Close-up of the carved wavy sgraffito texture on a bowl planter, with a painted ring-tailed lemur and a trailing vine — Carved while the clay is damp

Close-up of a hand-painted monkey swinging along a vine on the side of a carved bowl planter — Painted in one sitting, freehand

Four collections

Every set is a bowl and a pot

Carved bowl planter painted with a monkey and a ring-tailed lemur beside a cylinder pot painted with a banana palm

Jungle Story

The curious guardian watches over the jungle, reminding every traveler that courage and kindness open every hidden path.

Ask about a Jungle Story set

Bowl and pot carved with leaf and frond patterns in sage green over white

Botanical

Fronds cut into wet clay and washed in sage, a green that asks nothing of the room it sits in.

Ask about a Botanical set

Bowl and pot washed in soft watercolour green with tiny grazing sheep painted along the base

Meadow

A soft hillside, a handful of sheep, and the long slow light of an evening at the far end of the year.

Ask about a Meadow set

Planter set hand-painted with a black and tan dachshund reaching for a clover, on a wooden shelf

Pet Portraits

Painted from your own photograph, so the one who followed you from room to room keeps watching over something growing.

Start a pet portrait

A planter set painted with a black and tan dachshund reaching for a clover, planted with begonias on a woven mat

Made to order

Your dog, painted onto the set

Send a photo — the one where the light is on their face and you can see how they hold their ears. That’s the one to paint from. The dog goes on both pieces, small clovers scattered around them, and their name on the underside if you’d like it there.

Ru takes a few of these at a time so each one gets a full afternoon. Around three to four weeks from the first message to the wrapping.

How a piece is made

Four stages, in the order they actually happen. Nothing here can be hurried.

One
Hand-built
Concrete is mixed and pressed by hand into a low wide bowl and a taller cylinder. The two dry together so they stay a pair.
Two
Carved
While the surface is still damp, the wavy sgraffito lines are cut in — one continuous pass at a time, following the curve of the wall.
Three
Painted
Monkeys, lemurs, toucans, banana palms, or your own dog, painted freehand in thin layers and left to settle between coats.
Four
Sealed
A matte sealer goes on last so the piece can hold a plant, take a watering, and still be picked up and turned over.

A planter wrapped in eucalyptus-print paper, tied with twine and tagged with a hand-written Ru's Jungle Story tag, held against a linen shirt

If it’s a gift

Wrapped before it leaves

Sets going out as gifts are wrapped in eucalyptus paper, tied with twine, and tagged by hand. Tell her who it’s for and she’ll write the note in the tag rather than putting a card in the box.

Ask about gift wrapping