Spiral Crown

The spiral is one of the oldest marks a hand can press into clay. It appears on Neolithic pottery, on Persian tilework, on the columns of ancient temples, and on the unfurling frond of a fern. In this tray, the motif is not decorative ornament added to a surface; the spirals are the structure itself, coiled and pressed into a continuous crown around the rim. Shirin built each coil separately before joining them, a process more akin to weaving than to throwing. The fired body carries the memory of that slow, meditative assembly: no two spirals are identical, and the slight irregularities let the turquoise glaze settle differently in each hollow, so the color shifts from pale celadon to deep verdigris depending on where you look. The interior floor repeats the motif at a smaller scale, a field of incised spirals that reads almost like a textile pattern or an aerial view of a restless sea. Set on a windowsill, the tray holds rings, a stick of incense, the small objects of a day. Set on a shelf, it holds only light.