ugly vases
We just got some photos back, and among them is one taken of my ugly vase collection.
The seminal piece is the torturous shape third from the right on the top shelf (it may appear to be the second if the small greenish crumpled one on the far right doesn't show up well). I found it at a garage sale; cost me 20c. I couldn't leave it behind. The poor thing was SO ugly, only a mother could love it, and I couldn't be sure some other "mother" would appear for it...
My other favourites are the third from the left on the second shelf. It's a gorgeous (but don't tell anyone that - they're UGLY vases, remember) Raku-fired piece. The photo doesn't show its textural and tonal complexity.
And just to the right and slightly forward of that, there's a small one that was an even better "had to take it home because no-one else could love it" piece. It's a coil pot, heart-shaped, with the top coil partially broken off. My daughter pointed it out to me in an Op Shop, and I was turning it over in my hands, considering the purchase. I'm not indiscriminate in my collecting. Run-of-the-mill pottery class rejects don't make the grade, and this one was about to go back on the shelf when I noticed its maker's initials scratched inside - MT. A broken heart I could have resisted... but (I don't have to spell it out, do I?)