Studio journal: Remembering my grandmother’s kashk-sab
A ceramic vessel returns to memories of my grandmother preparing kashk in the courtyard.
When I thought about what I could make in ceramics that would bring me back to my grandparents' home, I remembered my grandmother's kashk-sab: the vessel she used to grind kashk.
I remember her sitting in the courtyard, holding the vessel between her legs and working the kashk with wooden implements. The memory is of an object, but also of a repeated action and the place around it. As children, we would taste the small remaining pieces. That ordinary moment has stayed with me.
Making a ceramic vessel became a way to return to that memory through my hands. The process photographs show the brown form while it was being made; the finished photographs show its blue and earthy glazed surface, its handle, and the marks inside. I applied two coats of glaze, looking for a colour close to what I remembered.
The ceramic vessel is one stage of the work. I plan to make the accompanying wooden implements by woodturning. They are still to come, so this journal records the finished ceramic component alongside the work in progress.
Like the cypress, this piece belongs to my ongoing exploration of Carried Home. I am learning what ceramics can hold of an experience: the shape of a household object, the memory of a gesture, and a connection to a place.
View Kashk-sab: vessel of memory · Read the ceramic cypress studio note · Carried Home exhibition archive
The vessel during making.
The finished ceramic interior.