Every now and then, maybe once or twice a year, a piece comes out of the kiln that I just have to keep for myself. Sometimes I'll keep the piece because it is representative of a certain style I've been working on. Sometimes I think that some future member of my family might be interested in seeing what kind of work great-great-great grandpa had done. Sometimes I just fall in love with the pot when it comes out of the kiln. This round vase falls into the third category.

The glaze on this vase is a chun type that has a slight bluish tinge. It gives a varied response in the presence of copper. A single copper brush stroke on the glaze can change colour from black to green, purple, red and pink depending on the thickness of the pigment. It has been quite a while since I last used this glaze, and I misjudged the thickness of the application when the vase was dipped into the glaze. The glaze went on much thicker than I intended, and started to crack like mud in a river bed as it started to dry. Disappointed, I was about to wash the too thick glaze off and start over, when I decided to leave it, and take a chance to see what would happen. The thick glaze could flow off the pot and ruin a kiln shelf, or, if I were lucky, it could bead up in an interesting pattern, stay on the pot, and make a unique piece.

I gave the vase a copper brush stroke on either side, and put it in the kiln not knowing what to expect. It was exciting taking the vase out of the kiln two days later and seeing that it had actually turned out better than I had hoped! The glaze had beaded up nicely on the shoulder of the piece, and the copper brush stroke had seeped into some of the cracks in the raw glaze, and had picked up some of the pattern once the glaze had started to fuse. I usually trim a foot on my vases, and the bottom photograph shows the glaze beading inside the foot.

The finished pot stands 24.5 cm tall. I think a vase like this will look good with cherry or apple branches that have been brought inside in the winter, and have come into blossom from the warmth.