Red Bowl
Comments: 6
Every once in a while you stumble upon a perfect thing. There’s a wonderful shop on the way to the station which sells pottery and lacquerware and in it I found this bowl.
I’ve been trying to think of how to describe the qualities of this simple thing; the shape, the weight, the quiet lustre of its finish, the way it sits in your hands, its heft. But I’m stumped. Gestalts of perfection are beyond me.
There were probably half a dozen ways the artist could have screwed it up, but he or she did not succumb to a single one of them. The result is an object that is so much itself as to make you realise that it could not have been any other way.
•••
Posted to The Good • 2002.02.02 (Sat) • 23:30
Comments
Posted by Mary Beth 2002.02.04, 00:16
Beautiful. Makes me feel good just to imagine my hands wrapped around it.
Posted by red 2002.02.04, 12:29
that’s a beautiful shot of that bowl. but i’m haunted by the absence of an equally beautiful tinge of yellow on that mat. i can almost picture an entire photo gallery dedicated to this bowl. :)
Posted by liz 2002.02.06, 21:46
aaawh..that was one pretty red bowl u have there. it seems to be very immaculate..its sharp color just makes you feel something..if not think..nice picture :)
Posted by jh 2002.02.07, 00:29
Mary Beth - the picture makes it look smaller than it is. It wouldn’t be an ideal fit for someone with normal-sized hands ;-). I just discovered that if I tuck a ruler in the crook of my wrist as I bend my hand up, it’s over 19.6 cm to the end of my middle finger. This bowl was definitely made for someone with long, bony scarecrow hands like me.
Red - sorry about the desaturated tatami. It’s an accident, sort of. I was mucking around in Photoshop and found that the tatami contained only yellow, and that one slider was all it took to remove everything but red in the Hue/Saturation panel.
But, hey, you want tatami? I got tatami. I’ll post some more pics soon.
Liz - you sound nutty (and I mean that in a nice way). Thanks for stopping by. The colour in the photo is too orange; the real deal is a beautiful lustrous red that looks like it’s made of quite a few layers of lacquer (I guess it probably is).
Like I say, there’s just no way to convery what it is about this thing that makes it work.
Posted by jackbox 2002.02.07, 10:57
A very pleasing vessel. The lip is subtle but sensuous, the color is rich although not gaudy. The cup is womblike and very comforting. The only drawback is the too-pronounced foot. It gives the entire vessel a certain ‘rubber plunger’ look. Otherwise, a worthy breed.
Posted by jh 2002.02.09, 16:25
It’s deceptive, that rubber plunger aspect. It actually provides a really comfortable way to hold the thing when you’re eating breakfast in front of the computer (something I do way too often).
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
