Usually, by the time a product reaches our shelves it has drifted quite a long way from where it began. But every now and then, it's perfect first time.
This was one of those times.
The inspiration for this vase came from two places: Dutch Old Masters and the streets of Burma. A curious combination.
But isn't that life? Random threads often combining in delightful ways.
Specifiacally, I'd been thinking about domestic scenes in Dutch Old Masters. They intentionally elevate "ordinary" scenes to something worthy of a museum wall. Often these lovely scenes involve beautifully shaped vessels involved in everyday things: washing clothes, arranging flowers, pouring milk. Simple things treated like royalty by the painter.
Have a look at Vermeer's The Milkmaid.
It's a celebration of the ordinary. A jug, a bowl, a milkmaid, painted using expensive lapiz with the care and attention that would typically have been given to painting kings at the time. Look at the light bouncing off the copper pail hanging off the wall at the back, the way he has painted the different types of fabrics, the woven basket. You know exactly how each texture feels, and the satisfying precision of the jug's pour.
I've borrowed the shape of the jug, the texture of the pail, and the elevation of something so simple into something glorious.
The other inspiration comes from another world entirely: the streets of Yangon.
There are pots positioned around town, always with neat little cups nearby, for anybody to drink from. Somebody takes care of them and keeps them topped up.
I love the generosity of the concept, the simplicity of the form, the care. Something so ordinary yet quite extraordinary.
Somehow these two concepts collided in our new vase. A simple shape with noble purpose. A shape which has delighted for centuries for its calm proportions. A shape which I kept coming back to in my mind.
This is why our new vase is exactly that shape. Perfectly proportioned, not too big, but big enough for an inexpensive bunch of flowers, or a posy from the garden. Simple, but extremely beautiful.
The warm hammered brass takes me to Yangon at golden hour, when the afternoon sun bounces off the golden pagodas and everything glows, where offerings in vases sit beneath shrines.
It is a delight when it's full of flowers, but also very pretty on its own, catching the light on a shelf.
