Studio Pottery Vase by Carolyn Holt, Glazed Stoneware

Carolyn Holt threw pots in her Olympia studio from 1968 until she moved to New Mexico in 1982, and her work shows up periodically at Northwest estate sales in the hands of people who bought directly from her during those years and kept the pieces simply because they liked them. This vase is dated 1974 on the base, a tall cylinder with a flared lip and a glaze that moves from deep teal at the foot to a mottled grey-green at the shoulder — the sort of effect that happens when two glazes meet in the kiln and decide to have a conversation. Simone found it wrapped in a dish towel at the back of a kitchen cabinet, which is either bad stewardship or the best possible protection.