I picked one of my favorite bowls today to heat some leftover pho… and figured it’s a good time for another installment of Pots and Life. (A series name that is descriptive, if not imaginative.) This is one of my favorite bowls, the one I sometimes force myself not to use, in the interests of giving somebody else (another bowl, that is) a turn.

A couple quick photos later: I wanted to show you the bowl so I took a photo of the bowl. But when I got over to my desk, I realized that I spend most of my time looking at the bowl like this, and that I quite like the view.

To state that it’s a favorite begs the question, why? Here are a couple of observations; by no means a complete explanation. It holds a lot, and the walls are steep enough that it won’t slosh as I carry it from kitchen to wherever I eat. This is convenient. At 6.25″ x 6″ x 4″h. it’s pretty big, but not too big. It can be carried with fingers under the foot and thumb on the rim, full of hot liquid, without burning oneself. This is also convenient. The wall isn’t quite vertical: the bowl opens slightly. I like this. It’s not round. It is convenient that it’s not round. I can drink from a smaller-radiused part. In short, the object has many conveniences from a utilitarian standpoint, and it also very nice to look at.

I surely didn’t buy it for any of these reasons, and I expect that the design was mostly concerned with the visual qualities. I picked it in late 2007 at an Empty Bowls event, as an object that attracted me, and probably because it felt good cradled in two hands. (If you are wondering, this bowl is made by Jay Strommen.)

More general observations: the more I eat from handmade work, the more I think of the food as completing the composition. It’s an interactive installation art, as the food disappears and is rearranged… don’t tell me I’m the only one who unconsciously moves and reorganizes food as she eats? (Okay, soup does not count: I did not arrange the soup.)

…funny how the photographs we take of vessels utterly fail to convey the experience of using them!