Ceremonial Vase
I've been interested in the craft of friendship bracelets for a while. I had quite the bracelet-making phase during my sophomore year of high school after I had worked at a summer camp and was reintroduced to the practice. All summer, I had multiple bracelets in progress looped around a carabiner on the lid of my water bottle. I would pinch the water bottle in between my knees and pull the embroidery thread taught, then start knotting the threads in various patterns. I became so well-practiced at it that I could create basic designs without even looking, producing two or three a day while working. The girls in my camper group, who were 4 or 5 at the time, were so excited when it was their turn to pick out colors and a pattern for their own bracelets. They knew they were about to receive something handmade just for them, and that was really special. I also noticed how the older campers, ages 11 and 12, would make bracelets for themselves and their friends. The girls would sit together on top of a shaded picnic table, water bottles between their knees, and just talk while making bracelets. Talk about a ceremony!
When tasked with creating a ceremonial vessel, I only had vague ideas of carving or drawing on the surface of the vessel, depicting some sort of "ceremony." I then remembered my obsession with friendship bracelets and the interactions that often come with the craft.* I imagined a type of water bottle constructed with the social practice of bracelet making in mind. The water bottle, though not at all waterproof given the porous nature of unglazed clay, allows up to four people to sit around the vessel and make bracelets.
The vessel has an organic and handmade quality, with marks from my fingers left visible on its body and neck, and the rim of the spout left uneven like the edge of a flower petal. At the base of the neck sit three clay bangles, carved and under-glazed to resemble popular friendship bracelet patterns. At the spout of the bottle are four small holes where one can loop embroidery thread and make a friendship bracelet, just as one would loop thread around the handle of a water bottle. The turquoise glaze used in the holes is an homage to my own water bottle, a narrow metallic turquoise vessel I used religiously from 7th through 12th grade.
*A question for you: What came first? The friendship or the bracelet?