While studying fine art, I had chosen “texture as a language” for my advanced research project in the ceramic studio and had my musings tuned into what that could look like translated into clay. It was through listening to my friend, Grace, tell of her own experience with learning and teaching braille that the inspiration for braille coding onto clay was born.

 

Initially my desire was to teach myself braille, slowly, by marking my own secret messages on vessels. Most braille bowl messages hold short poems and hopeful offerings; words of life, light, and victory. These vessels are meant to be shared.

  

I wanted to encourage people to feel things differently, to slow down and take time for a new perspective, to consider what it might be like to see and read through their touch. My intention is to provide an opportunity for the beholder to practice developing their curiosity and press in a little closer to find the poetry in their own hands.