Master the art of the hostess/host gift with these clever ideas. Opt for the practical in the form of screen-printed kitchen towels or a Waco-made apron, or tend toward the unexpected by encasing that bottle of wine in a caramel leather wrap or bringing your food offering in a ceramic speckle hot dish and leaving it behind—on purpose, of course.

Our Made in Texas Gift Guide appeared in the December 2017 issue of Texas Monthly.

Margarita Glass

Salado Glassworks • $30 each
Gift a set of these glasses to the margarita or Topo Chico devotee in your life. Stop by the studio in Salado to watch the art of glassblowing, or make reservations to work with a glassblower to create your own mug, Pilsner glass, or tumbler. Buy Now.

Cutting Board

Petrified Design • $65
Choose from an array of colorful handles and wood types for these cutting or cheese boards made by Petrified Design. The Austin-based duo, Tyson Pendergrass and Gable Bostic, make other wood and steel home accessories and furniture, like the stylish mid-century Nodo Chair.

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Royal Speckle Hot Dish

Settle Ceramics • $108
Samantha Heligman remembers her grandmother’s stockpot—navy with white speckles—because the sight of it meant “something comforting and tasty was coming.” The Austin ceramicist’s speckle
collection pays homage to that pot. Buy Now.

Artist Smock

Gather • $90
Joanna Gaines’s favorite potter, Jonathan Martin, recently opened a Waco store and home-goods workshop called Gather along with his wife, Sara Martin. This linen apron was made in collaboration with local apparel line Mary Claret. Buy Now.

Wine Decanter and Glasses

Brad Pearce Glass • Decanter, $150; cups, $35 each
Corpus Christi glass artist Brad Pearce returned to his hometown to open his downtown studio after studying the craft at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Wine Wrap

Stash Co. • $20
Take your holiday wine or spirits gifting up a notch by encasing the bottle in a Stash Co. wrap. Handmade in Sealy, the wraps come in a variety of hides, from rich caramel hues to midnight black. Distressed leather or hair hide wraps are also available. Buy Now.

Otoko Knife

Weige Knives • $950
For the aspiring chef in your life, this high-performance knife is a collaboration between knife maker Travis Weige and Yoshi Okai and the other chefs at Otoko, the twelve-seat Japanese omakase restaurant nestled at the top of a hidden set of stairs in Austin’s South Congress Hotel. The spalted maple burl handle is paired with a S30V American super steel blade. Buy Now.

Elizabeth Street Café Cookbook

McGuire Moorman Hospitality • $39.95
The prettiest little French-Vietnamese café and bakery in Austin, Elizabeth Street, is the subject of McGuire Moorman Hospitality’s first cookbook, released this fall by Phaidon. With recipes for everything from their highly Instagrammed macarons to the scrumptious sticky rice in lotus leaves, the 200-plus page book is an ode to this gem founded by restaurateurs Tom Moorman and Larry McGuire in a colorful bungalow on South First Street in 2011. Buy Now.

Round Serving Tray

Eliana Bernard • $160
The 27-year-old Amarillo native fell in love with ceramics as a junior at the University of Texas in Austin and found her signature marbled style while experimenting with a slip cast in the studio. Her first marbled piece was a pair of earrings, which evolved into the inspiration for an entire dinnerware collection that includes pieces like glitzy gold-rimmed glossy mugs and serving tray. The pattern on each striking piece is completely unique from the one that came out of the kiln before it. Buy Now.

Steps Cutting Board

Trinity River Wood Studio • $199
Through his Fort Worth outfit, Trinity River Wood Studio, Brian McCreary beautifully brings a variety of woods together for this series of cutting boards. Cherry, black walnut, and hard maple are joined together in striking patterns and shapes and sanded down to an elegant finish. Buy Now.

Jackalope Tea Towel

Kimball Prints • $18
Austin artist Carolyn Kimball paints nature-inspired watercolors and screen-prints them onto flour-sack cotton towels. Choose from palms, cacti, wildflowers, longhorns, and mythical wildlife. Buy Now.

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Totally Texan Letterpress Calendar

Color Box Letterpress • $55
Boots, Big Tex, and bluebonnets—this pretty, hand-drawn letterpress calendar features an iconic Texas essential for each month of the year and comes with an acrylic stand for resting it on your desk or the kitchen counter. Buy Now.

Chef’s Knife

Serenity Knives • $850
Houstonian Russell Montgomery’s knives are so striking that you can safely forget the superstition that it’s bad luck to gift a blade. The wood-handled Japanese-style knives are favorites of many chefs. Buy Now.

Want more? Candles or chocolates are classic hostess/host gifts. See For the Discerning Woman as well as For the Man of Style. Or take another look at our other categories.