Candlestick by A. Hodgson

bottom ø 4" x 3" h x top ø 1 3/4" Black Clay ENGLAND I met Anna one night at a bar, not any bar but our favorite bar in London, 40 Maltby Street; she runs the show there, as far as I see it. I had been going for some time, given that it was and is our favorite place in town, and although we had never met she and I were familiar in that semi-regular, stopper-inner/over way, with polite and familiar hellos from us both. At the end of a long evening of much debauchery, yes I can debauch on occasion, Anna mentioned or somehow it came up, that she and Harry were off to Marseille. We were living there at the time but our flat at the Cité Radieuse was often empty. One thing to know about me is I love offering our flats for free but I hate renting them out. I immediately offered our flat for them to stay in (albeit in exchange for a graphic as she and Harry are an uber talented duo) and she immediately said yes. We have been fast friends since, never going back to simply polite and familiar. In fact, we spent our last pre-Covid meal together by candlelight (we both swear this original candlestick was on the table) and I will never forget that evening: Simon Hopkinson roast chicken and rice pudding, I still can't make it as well as Harry, damn him. Time passes and friendships develop. Anna makes things in clay; we are over at her house. Checking out the studio on the way to the garden, I spot this candlestick, I love it, I want some for KIOSK, she tells me she's not quite sure how she made it, it's been about 10 years, she describes it as a "doodle" with a leftover piece of clay. Impulsive, scrap, sincere, all those things we love at KIOSK. Time passes, she has solved it, the object is made one by one with the thumb while turning, taking away from the mass, it makes sense as the form is based on a traditional wood turned candlestick. I ask if she would make us a bunch and she does, everyone of them unique and different. She loves repetition, the feel of the "grogged" clay, which means it has a super rough texture. The glaze has a lot of iron in it, giving the clay an almost metallic sheen. Anna made a point to me that it should be paired with a tapered candle. And that the candlestick is better coated in built-up wax as the wax becomes a layer on the piece, another part of history, documentation of a night or a meal. It  is contrary to my OCD nature to let the wax build up but I roll with this, it's a practice.