Utensil Holder - Salvaged from a Failed Vase

Many potters say that making pottery is a humbling experience. I 100% agree. Problems and uncertainties always arise during the process. Anything that I try for the first time, I hold in my heart a 50% success rate. Until you open the cooled-down kiln and hold your work up-close for an examination, you can’t be sure what you are getting. Things can go wrong in each of the many steps leading to the end.

I just finished this kitchen utensil holder. It’s highly functional, just the right size for my small kitchen counter. Now I put all my frequently used but irregular items in it, like frying chopsticks, measuring spoons, reusable straws, small tube cleaning brushes.

The idea came from a failed cylinder vase I pulled. I was practicing pulling higher vases and the form got twisted. That day, I had done three high cylinders successfully before this final one. Maybe my arms and hands were tired (I still need to remind myself not to get too tense during the pulling). I didn’t want to throw it away, so decided to keep it and punched holes after trimming. Of course I learned some new techniques after punching more than 20 holes. Each failed piece is an opportunity to re-work it into something else, and gain knowledge during the salvaging process. I used to feel defeated when I couldn’t pull what I aimed to do, but now, I have learned to keep an open mind and accept that the process may lead to a different path on its own in pottery.

Another thing I learned is that the over laid glaze layers of Mid-night Blue and Almond White (glaze offered in my rented studio) is not ideal for this holed texture. The white speckles, which I like the most about this combined glazes are lost along the wavy curvatures of the texture (see 2nd photo). The starry speckles turned into streaks of running glaze. These two glazes work the best on flat surfaces or simply curved forms, like plates or moon jars..