This seal was born from an afternoon in Charleston, at a tea tasting led by Lorna Reeves of Tea Time Magazine and Darren Hartford, founder of Oliver Pluff & Co. We tasted Bohea, one of the earliest teas consumed in the American colonies, smoky and elemental, the kind of tea that feels as though it has crossed an ocean. That afternoon lingered. So did the ship.

I designed this ship initially just for Oliver Pluff & Co, but Darren generously let us add it to the Hastings Collection.

The name “Pluff” refers to the tidal marsh soil of the Carolina coast, soft and patient, shaped by water and time. It felt fitting that a ship would carry that name. Historically, ship seals date back at least two thousand years. Seventeenth century engravings often depicted vessels under full sail, emblems of safe passage and steady command. By the nineteenth century, they bore inscriptions such as “Such is life,” drawing a plain parallel between human fate and the sea. We move between calm and gale. We endure.

The Oliver Pluff Ship joins that lineage. Each seal is signed by Kathryn Hastings and inscribed with the ship’s name, “Oliver Pluff,” marking it as both historical homage and contemporary heirloom.

There is also a fun play on language. I am drawn to the suffix that turns a word into a vessel: stewardship, craftsmanship, friendship, authorship, kinship.