Heart Hands Vase

Two hands meeting to frame a heart, thumbs below and fingers arching over, is a gesture that has travelled from photographs to tattoos to home decor, and it works especially well as a vessel because cupped palms already suggest something gathered inside them. As decoration it lands somewhere between sentimental and sculptural. On a dressing table or a mantelpiece it carries an obvious message; filled with dried grasses, pampas or preserved stems it stops reading as a novelty and becomes a proper part of the room. That makes it a straightforward present for an anniversary, a wedding, a housewarming, or a friend who likes things unashamedly soppy. The subject is expressive enough to reward a careful finish and simple enough in outline to still read clearly from the other side of a room.