Window Bench Vignette: the Ceramic Vase

I love creating little vignettes around my home.  Preferably ones that can easily be changed around since I am constantly redecorating.  One of my greatest pleasures is what I like to call ‘Nesting’.  A term people generally use when expecting a child, but to me it just feels like the perfect term for everyday decorating in your own home.

When I came across this beautiful ceramic vase created by the Garcia Ochoa Family, my heart instantly began to beat.  My love of the moon and all things earthy are wrapped up into this stunning piece of art.  I simply adore the combination of colors.  The technique they have used, known as barro bruñido, or burnished clay, makes it look like an old, very loved vase.  This is one of my favorite elements of it.  I’m not one for bright shiny new things.  I love age, history and character.  Although this piece may not have the age, it has a story.  This particular vase is called ‘1001 Nights’.  I am also in love with their moon-shaped incense holder.

I feel such a relation to artists who work as a family, since that is how I started myself as an artist.  I worked for 8 years with my parents’ jewelry business and it was a huge team effort.  I love knowing that the mother of the Garcia Ochoa family is the one who designs most of the pieces, since my mother was in the same position with her art.  Reading about the process of the burnished clay is fascinating.  Each piece takes several hours to create and the colors all come from different earth oxides.  It is a true handmade piece of art created with natural materials.

I tend to change up the decorations on my window bench quite often.  Lately I have been using this area to sit and listen to vinyls on the floor, so it’s nice to have decor that is low to the ground to admire.  I have a feeling I will be moving the ceramic vase soon, though, to create a vignette on a little table.  I think it would be so pretty on one like this.  I also love to group vases together.  Like the little vintage one I paired next to it.  On my fireplace mantel I have about ten different vases that my dad made, all clustered together.  I love the way the different textures, shapes and color all look together.

Since this vase is decorative only and cannot hold water, I chose to put some dried onion flowers from my mother’s garden in it.  My mom has been gone for over six years now and I have been holding onto them just waiting for the perfect place to keep them.  I think this beautiful earthy moon vessel is just the place.