Tea & Tonic Matakana

12/08/2026

Vicki describes glass as a seductive medium, contradictory in the way she loves working with it: where clay is forgiving and grounded, glass holds tension and surprise in the same breath. Her days start with a pour of moulds for Frolicware, though no two days look quite the same after that.

She calls opening the kiln a bit like Christmas morning, sometimes wonderful, sometimes a little disappointing, and admits the weeding gets missed on the hard days. Her favourite piece is the Large Jug, good for watering both humans and flowers.

Vicki has been slowly returning to her contemporary glass practice, evolving Frolic to work with an ageing body while still creating pieces built to be lived with. This is a beautiful reflection of life and how we are always evolving and changing depending of what we need and where we are at each present moment. We completely support a slower pace and one that supports looking after oneself. Thank you Vicki for having us be apart of your beautiful journey.

Shop Frolic Ceramics, link in bio 🌿

11/08/2026

We’re giving away one Large Frolic Jug to celebrate your support of us and Frolic Ceramics over the years🖤

Handmade by Vicki Fanning in her Matakana studio, this jug is soft, organic and just as happy pouring water as it is holding a loose gathering of stems. No two Frolic pieces are ever quite the same, which is exactly what makes them worth having.

To enter, follow Tea & Tonic and vicki fanning, like this post, and tag a friend who’d love it too.

Good luck 🤍

08/08/2026

Vicki has been part of the Tea & Tonic story since the very beginning, one of our founding suppliers and a ceramicist and glass artist of genuine standing. She grew up between Kaipara Flats, Warkworth and Scott’s Landing, before settling in Matakana, where she and her partner Mike restored a beautiful 1860s cottage to create her studio.

She trained first in craft design, then later in glass in Whanganui, learning glassblowing, casting and architectural glass before teaching herself flameworking, work that has since been exhibited at galleries across Aotearoa including the Sarjeant Gallery and New Zealand Glassworks. Frolic itself began when her son Sam was a baby, something she could pick up and put down between naps, with a much quicker turnaround than her labour-intensive glass practice.

Every Frolic piece is slip cast or press moulded from plaster masters Vicki makes herself, which is why no two are ever quite the same. You’ll find her jugs, mugs and soap dishes on our back bench, made for quiet moments of comfort.

Read the full studio visit, link in bio 🌿

05/08/2026

The Suitor Chain Necklace is available in sterling silver and gold vermeil. Can be worn longer or secured as a choker. It’s a functional and cool must have piece.

12/07/2026

**✦ MATARIKI GIVEAWAY ✦**

To celebrate Matariki, and to say thank you to this beautiful community, I’m gifting one A3 fine-art print of my latest work, Ngā Maunga Tupuna, to one of you.

To enter:
1. Follow Tea & Tonic and Monique Anastasia Jansen
2. Like this post
3. Tag someone in the comments who deserves a moment of beauty in their life

Drawn on Sunday the 19th of July

A little story as to why these three Maunga are so special…

**Ngā Maunga Tupuna**
Original fine-line artwork

Ruapehu, Ngāuruhoe and Tongariro, rising from the central plateau in the quiet, considered way.

For Ngāti Tūwharetoa, these maunga are not simply mountains. They are ancestors, carrying whakapapa and a relationship with the land that stretches back across generations.

In 1887, paramount chief Horonuku Te Heuheu Tūkino IV gifted the peaks to the people of New Zealand, an act of kaitiakitanga that created Tongariro National Park, the first in Aotearoa and the fourth in the world. In 1993, it became the first place on earth to hold dual UNESCO World Heritage status, recognised for its landscape and its cultural significance both. A reminder that land and the people connected to it cannot truly be separated.

Made using natural plant pigments and Indian ink.

11/07/2026

We have a beautiful new selection of Monarc Jewels in store. If you are around this weekend pop in and say hello, we have a hot cuppa waiting for you ✨🫶✨

03/07/2026

🤍 Gift away 🤍

Dear friends, we’re offering a sweet Matariki giveaway that includes an Amber, a return to the sacred. To love, inspire & protect. honey chai, a Wild & Indigo organic cotton hair scrunchie & a beautiful rose quartz crystal.

To enter:
Tag a friend & follow:

Amber, a return to the sacred. To love, inspire & protect.
Wild & Indigo
Tea & Tonic

We will pick a winner on July 11.

Arohanui.

🤍🤍

09/06/2026

10/05/2026

And still, this day is not easy for everyone.

For some, it carries more than celebration.

For those who have lost their mothers.
For those who have lost a child.
For those who long to be mothers.
For those navigating absence, distance, or complicated relationships.

This is real.
And it deserves to be acknowledged.

But acknowledging pain does not require the removal of meaning.

It does not require us to step back from celebration altogether.

Because if we begin to remove every moment that holds difficulty, we risk losing what is real.

Life is layered.
It holds joy and grief at the same time.

And the work is not to erase one in favour of the other.
It is to make space for both.

Mother’s Day is not something to be taken off the table.
If anything, it is something to be held more deeply.

To celebrate motherhood not as a narrow definition, but as a powerful, expansive force in the world.

To honour the women who have given life.
To honour those who have nurtured life in other ways.
To honour the people who have stepped into that role when it was needed.

The world can be heavy.
But there is also beauty.
Connection.
Care.
The quiet everyday acts of love that hold everything together.

And those things deserve to be acknowledged.
They deserve to be named.
They deserve to be celebrated.

Not less.
More.

Today, we honour mothers.

In all the ways that word exists.
Held with honesty.
Held with care.
Held in its full, complex, and deeply human truth.

10/05/2026

Motherhood is not a simple word.
And it has never been just one thing.

It is not one shape, one role or one experience.

The word mother comes from ancient roots, from the Indo-European méh₂tēr — a word that has always held more than biology.

It speaks to origin.
To source.
To the one who nurtures, who holds, who sustains life.

To mother is to care.
To protect.
To guide.
To create safety and continuity.

It is a role, yes.
But it is also a quality.
A way of being in the world.

And it has never belonged to only one kind of person.

This Mother’s Day we honour mothers in all the ways that word exists.

Women who have carried and given birth.
Women who are raising children.
Women who are shaping lives through presence, patience and care.

We honour those who nurture others without having children of their own.
Those who hold space for friends, for community, for healing.
Those who care for animals, for land, and for the world around them with deep responsibility and love.

Mothering lives in many places.

It is not defined only by biology.
It is defined by care.