Ash Vessel No. 4

Plate I

This shape came out of a mistake. I pulled the wall too thin at the shoulder and the pot leaned, so I threw the next four with that lean on purpose and kept the one that leaned least apologetically. It is thrown in a single piece, then paddled while it is still soft to flatten two opposite sides, which is why it reads as a vessel rather than a vase.

The glaze is beech ash from the stove in the studio, sieved through a kitchen strainer and mixed with feldspar and a little iron. Where it sits thick it goes olive-grey; where it thins over the throwing rings it breaks to a dry orange, and you can follow every one of them with a fingertip.

It went into the kiln at the front, next to the elements, and came out hot: the glaze crawled slightly on the left shoulder and left a patch of bare clay about the size of a thumbnail. I photographed it rather than hiding it, and dropped the price by sixty euros for it.

There is no basket on this page because there is only one of these. Write to me and I will hold it for three days while we sort out postage. If it has already gone, I will tell you within the day and we can talk about a version of it — same glaze, your size, six to nine weeks.

Enquiries answered Tuesday and Friday Studio visits by appointment · a piece is held for three days once we have spoken