Can anything beautiful come out of brokenness? Does being shattered have to mean the end of hope, or can our fragments be repurposed, offering a chance of new life? In spring 2022 I held in my hands the jagged fragments of a Japanese bowl I’d rescued decades earlier when a shelf of dishes unexpectedly crashed. […]

Have you ever thought about just how many uses there are for a jar? A jar can be used to store food, liquid or solid. It can be used to transport items from one place to another. Jars can be decorations or drinking cups. They can be vessels for candles or to grow plants in. […]

I live in a land where broken pottery abounds. Shards strewn about with the dust and the rocks, the former as commonplace as the latter. When I first came here, then as a simple tourist, I remember excitedly finding a small, broken earthenware piece that could fit in my palm. “Can I keep it?” I […]

I’ll never forget the painting class I took earlier this year. Dozens of women were all sitting around blank canvases, brushes in hand, when the teacher challenged us: “Imagine what type of vessel you are.” I froze. I imagined my fellow artists had images pop into their minds: “A sturdy, useful mug” or “A delicate […]