The Juvel is a geometric vase that exists because someone in this building proposed we try to out-Ikea Ikea, and instead of shutting that down the way a functioning workplace might, we held a competition. The Juvel vase won. I never learned what lost, or whether the losers have forgiven it. What survived judging is a faceted ceramic vase, four inches across and three inches tall, its planes cut sharp enough to look machined until you get close and notice the hand in them. It comes glazed in dusk, green, or moss — colors chosen by people who clearly own the same three sweaters — and the wide mouth takes a full fistful of garden stems without any fuss. Designed in 2016, it would sit comfortably beside a nineteen-dollar lamp named after a fjord, which was, embarrassingly, the entire point. Shaped by hand at Chive Ceramics Studio under close and largely unnecessary supervision.
