Heart-shaped vessel

This porcelain piece is a classical, heart-shaped vase. It is such an old and universal form with examples in museums around the world. Tom Kemp has 'written' a set of interconnecting strokes with black underglaze in the form of a pencil. Each stroke involves modulation of pressure so that it is more dense in the middle, tailing off at the end. It is a 'text' without language in which the more-or-less vertical strokes interfere with the horizontal throwing rings of the vessel.