The Extremes of Motherhood

Becoming a mother is a series of beautiful, jarring contradictions. It is the moment you realize you no longer own your body, your time, or your freedom—yet you’ve never felt more purposeful. It’s the exhaustion of wanting just two hours of solitude, battling the fierce, protective instinct that refuses to trust anyone else with your heart outside your chest.

In the early days, I found myself suspended between extremes. I was terrified of "messing up," hovering over a sleeping baby while desperately needing sleep myself. I swung between peaks of immense joy and the quiet, heavy depths of postpartum depression. I tried to control every variable, only to eventually realize that motherhood is the ultimate lesson in letting go.

This limited series of sculptural square bottles serves as a visceral exploration of that duality. To translate these complexities into form, I harmonized two opposing ceramic techniques together: The Slab -Built Body these represent the "planned" side of us. The rigid, structured, and protective walls we build to keep everything safe and in order; The Wheel-Thrown Neck -this represents the "feel." It is fluid, organic, and circular—a nod to the intuition we have to lean into when the plans fall apart.

These contemporary stoneware pieces are not "perfect," because none of us are. These collectible art pieces transform depending on your perspectiveI and marks of the process were left behind intentionally. The glaze application was entirely intuitive, mirroring the way I’ve had to navigate this new life—sometimes messy, always unfolding, and often surprising.

Just like a mother, these bottles change depending on how you look at them. From one side, they appear sturdy and stoic; from another, soft and vulnerable. My hope is that you can see the beauty in every angle, recognizing that the tension between the rigid and the fluid is exactly where the art of living happens.