Xuan Ceramic Kensui Vessel - Aether

Handcrafted by Dong Dan, CH, c. 2025

This kensui vessel features a meticulously controlled glaze pattern: geometric white dots rendered in vertical alignment, shifting rhythmically from large to small and back again across the curvature of the form. Such repetition requires exceptional steadiness and refined skill, accentuating the vessel’s quiet complexity. It can function as a kensui bowl in tea rituals or as a sculptural floral base.

Named for Xuan, a classical Chinese term signifying the profound, the unknowable, and the darkly luminous, the piece reflects Dong Dan’s interest in quiet spatial tension and subtle contrasts. A practitioner of Jizhou kiln techniques and glaze experimentation, he reinterprets Song Dynasty traditions through pared-back silhouettes and visual rhythm.

Sold individually.

• Dishwasher safe

“They come from my purest focus — a perfect roundness, a profound black, serene as a monument.”

Dong Dan’s ceramics are a testament to precision and serenity. Each piece is shaped by hand, achieving a flawless roundness, while the deep black glaze—crafted from Sichuan clay and straw ash—strikes a delicate balance between gloss and matte. Inspired by the ancient Jizhou kiln patterns, his designs feature intricate dots and circles that seem to expand and multiply, evoking the infinite cycles of nature.

For Dong Dan, creating ceramics is a disciplined practice. Every vessel undergoes a meticulous process of shaping, firing, and glazing, where even the smallest error can mean starting over. Yet, it is through this exacting process that his work achieves its quiet elegance—a reflection of life’s fragile balance, timeless in its simplicity and profound in its beauty.