Powder-blue Glaze Meiping Vase

The meiping — literally “prunus vase” — is one of the most enduring vessel forms in Chinese ceramic history: a high shoulder tapering to a narrow neck, and a base that draws the eye downward in a single unbroken line. Blue Fir's rendering keeps that lineage intact while paring the silhouette back to its essentials — compact, upright, and without ornament beyond the glaze itself.

The powder-blue glaze is the piece's defining character. Known in Chinese as 洒蓝 (sǎlán) — “scattered” or “powder” blue — the technique involves blowing atomised cobalt through gauze onto the unfired body before a clear glaze is applied over it. The result is a soft, granular depth rather than a flat wash of colour — the surface reads as atmosphere more than pigment, shifting gently with the light.

Each vase is made at Hetianyu Kiln in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi — the city that has shaped Chinese porcelain production for over a thousand years. The studio's hand-finishing keeps the vase's proportions slightly irregular in the way thrown porcelain should be, and the result is an object built for quiet presence — as suited to a single stem as to standing on its own.

Compact and high-shouldered, the vase holds a single stem or branch with ease, or stands alone as a quiet object of contemplation. The powder-blue glaze deepens in low light and lightens in direct sun, so its presence shifts through the day.

Hand-thrown and finished at Hetianyu Kiln in Jingdezhen. Cobalt is blown through gauze onto the raw body before a clear glaze is applied over it, then the piece is high-fired — the traditional sǎlán (powder-blue) technique.