Vase 1948

This vase was made by Harding Black, we don’t know when, and it’s made of stoneware. Look closely at the surface – it's like a painting, not just in colour, but in texture. There's a real sense of the hand here, the fingerprints of the artist all over the making process. I find myself drawn to the way the dark red bleeds into the white, creating these sort of marbled, organic shapes. It's like looking at a microscopic landscape. The glaze pools and drips, thick in some areas, thin in others, and it’s got this incredible depth. You can almost feel the heat of the kiln, the alchemy of the firing process. The piece reminds me of Lucie Rie's work, that same attention to surface and form. It's about the magic of transformation, the way that simple materials can be turned into something beautiful and strange. It’s more than just a vase; it’s a record of a process, a moment frozen in time.