Isabel Halley Ceramics Handmade Porcelain Pinch Pot: Clear Glaze

Why We Love This

This tiny, impossibly thin bowl is as delicate as it is it functional. The clear glaze, on the inside only, creates a multi-textured look. We love that the bowl can sit on an altar or dresser, safeguarding rings or crystals, or can be used for spices, salts or chopped herbs in the kitchen or on a table.

Story

Hand-pinched from the center out to the rim, the maker carefully sculpts the porcelain clay as far as it will stretch. That makes for a very organic form, giving each bowl different waves, grooves, shape and personalityóno two works are exactly alike. Fired at 2,232 degrees Fahrenheit, then hand-glazed, the maker finishes the unique work off with a thin, hand-painted, 22-karat-gold rim.

About the Maker

Isabel Halley’s slightly rustic, shimmering, heirloom-quality pottery is, in part, inspired by her Louisiana grandmother’s formal gold-rimmed china. The artist, who grew up in New York, has a fascination with early 20^th Century English porcelain, but modernizes that look with her own pinch process. The master ceramicist started sculpting items in kindergartenówith Silly Putty and other types of kids’ clayóbut after ceramics classes and a degree in visual arts, she switched to more adult materials, like porcelain, to craft a line of pearly pieces. Like the human spirit, her art is imperfect and perfect all at once.