At Peace In The Moment

I found this dynamic salt-glazed cup by Kyle Carpenter on Etsy. The attractive surface design caught my attention. Kyle used a flashing slip to paint wind-blown grass on a shino background. The cup has a lot of elements that work together to give a sense of movement.

The thrown form grows from a narrower base into a full, gentle curve. It swells as if the fullness of the cup is stretching the form from within. The leafy decoration fits the form very well, lifting, opening up and curving across the swell.

The smooth lip makes a visually light and clean top line. The rolled edge of the trimmed foot captures a thin dark line of salt glaze that anchors the decoration to the bottom of the cup, just above the shadow line.

There are faint lines in the background shino that suggest to me that Kyle brushed shino glaze diagonally onto the cup. The shino trapped peppery particles in the glaze while the slip decoration attracted salt glaze formation. This subtle dark-in-light and light-on-dark speckling assures that there is something happening everywhere on the surface.

I find Kyle's cup to be the right fit for when I want to relax while I sit and sip. I can turn the cup in my hands and feel drawn into a grassy dune landscape with a moist offshore breeze. Or maybe it's a warm current wafting strands of sea kelp. I can lose myself in the sublet differences and overall sameness all at once and feel at peace in the moment. All the little details add to the experience and increase my enjoyment.

Kyle's distinctive cup works as a stand-alone piece in my collection of cups. It doesn't get lost in the crowd. However, if your tastes lean to sprucing up the dining room table, there are many companion pieces in Kyle's Etsy store that would look marvelous grouped together serving a meal.