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Large Studio Pottery Vase with Horse-Hair Raku Neck - $225 (Covington, LA)
condition:
excellent
size / dimensions:
13 inches high
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Standing 13 inches tall, this vase presents a striking contrast between its glazed collar and unglazed body. The wide, bulbous form tapers from a broad shoulder down to a narrower footed base, finished in an earthy, matte bronze-brown clay body with subtle metallic and iridescent flashing across the surface — characteristic of raku firing, where the unglazed clay picks up smoke and carbon effects during the reduction process.
The neck and flared collar stand in sharp contrast to the body, dressed in a soft sage/celadon green crackle glaze. Fine, dense webs of dark crackle lines run through the glaze — this is the horse-hair motif, created by laying strands of horse hair (or similar organic fiber) onto the hot, freshly-fired piece straight out of the kiln. The hair instantly singes and burns into the surface, leaving behind delicate, smoke-black filament trails that scorch into the glaze and clay, producing the spontaneous, feathery line work visible across the collar's crackled surface. Where the glaze meets the raw clay body near the shoulder, there's a mottled, oxidized dark green-black transition zone, typical of the unpredictable color shifts that occur at glaze boundaries during raku firing.
The collar itself is distinct — a stepped, tiered rim structure with multiple ridged bands flaring outward before narrowing into the wide-mouthed opening, giving it a strong sculptural silhouette that draws the eye upward against the smooth, rounded body below.
This piece is a hand-thrown studio raku vase, prized for the one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable surface effects — no two horse-hair raku pieces are ever exactly alike, since the placement and burn pattern of the hair is unique to that firing.