008

This smaller piece is part of the Modern Ancestors project, a series of handmade sculptural vessels all featuring an ultramarine blue lava glaze, which reveals small spots of gold where the glaze breaks to reveal the clay body underneath.

I have made various iterations of this form, but each remains unique as I allow the making of it to define the outcome, and do not produce it to exact specifications, as is true for many of my pieces apart from the limited editions.

The pieces are built using a mixture of traditional wheel-work and hand building techniques, with extruded handles that have been modified and specially selected for this design, creating a one-off piece. The project is an ongoing research into shapes as well as the variations of the blue glaze, which behaves differently depending on its thickness and method of application.

The pieces can look particularly striking as a family when multiple sizes are combined.

Not suitable for food or drinks.

The Modern Ancestors series started with two years’ worth of testing clays and glazes to get to the resulting sizes and shapes.

Depending on its application, the blue glaze either pillows up densely or creates a rough lava texture with tiny craters, which makes each vase unique in its colour density and pattern.