Trees Embraced Ceramic Vase and Lantern
Trees Embraced is a one-of-a-kind sculptural ceramic vase and lantern by April Dupuis of The Potter’s Hands Studio in Oxford, Mississippi. The piece depicts a stand of trees with interlocked branches — trunks rendered in dark earthen clay with pierced openings between them, rising into a ruffled canopy hand-painted in velvet underglazes in cobalt, ember red, and gold. Lit from within, the piercings throw a pattern of trunk-and-branch shadow across the surrounding surface. It measures [H]” tall by [W]” wide and is signed on the base.
Description
What is Trees Embraced?
Trees Embraced is a hand-built sculptural ceramic vessel — an art object first, functional second. The lower form is textured to read as bark and pierced with openings that create the negative space between standing trunks. Above it, the rim breaks into an irregular ruffled canopy painted stroke by stroke in velvet underglaze.
The title refers to trees whose branches have grown together — separate trunks, one canopy. It’s the same image Isaiah uses when the trees of the field clap their hands: individual things that become one motion.
About the surface
The canopy color is hand-painted in velvet underglazes, applied brush-loaded in layered directional strokes and then glazed and fired. Velvet underglazes hold their edge — the color goes exactly where the brush puts it and stays there through the firing. Every sweep of cobalt, red, and gold across the canopy is a placed mark rather than a poured or flowed effect, which is why the movement reads as wind through leaves rather than a random bloom. It also means the surface cannot be repeated. A second piece would be a different painting.
Three ways to use it
As sculpture. Empty on a mantel, console, or entry table, it stands on its own.
As a vase. The pierced walls mean this piece holds dry arrangements — branches, wheat, dried hydrangea, eucalyptus, cotton stalks, pampas. The open canopy suits tall stems with room to spread. For fresh flowers, set a slim glass cylinder or florist tube inside the form; the insert stays hidden below the canopy line.
As a lantern. With an LED pillar or a votive in a glass cup placed inside, light escapes through the pierced trunk openings and casts branching shadow onto the wall and table around it. The effect is strongest in a dim room against a light-colored surface.
How was it made?
The piece was hand-built rather than wheel-thrown, allowing the asymmetrical canopy and the pierced trunk openings. The bark texture is worked directly into the clay body. The canopy is then hand-painted in velvet underglaze, glazed, and fired. Each stage is done by hand by April Dupuis in her Oxford, Mississippi studio.
Details
| Weight | 2.5 lbs |
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