The Tree House

This piece started as a class assignment where we had to make an object that could hold something. I turned that prompt into a ceramic incense holder shaped like a treehouse, with the inside based on my mom’s living room. That room is where we would sit, talk, burn incense, and work through real life stuff, so I wanted the sculpture to connect back to that space in a personal way.

The treehouse idea came from the way her home is surrounded by trees, and from that childhood feeling of having a small place of your own. I built the piece with hand-rolled slabs that were slipped, scored, and attached together. The tree trunks are hollow, so when incense burns inside the base, the smoke can move through the sculpture and come out through the openings in the branches.

The small interior details, like the couch, fireplace, wall art, and objects on the mantle, are based on things from her living room. I also included small references to artists she introduced me to, like Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt. This piece let me combine sculpture, function, and personal reference while pushing how far I could take slab-built ceramics.