Christopher Youngblood creates intricately carved vessels that reflect a perfect balance of matte and polished surfaces with intricately carved designs. This is one of his more classic pieces with deeply carved straight melon ribs.  There are 16 ribs that are VERY deeply carved into the clay.  Each rib has an “S” swirl as it goes from the rim to the shoulder and then curves back one more time before the base!  The “S” Swirl ribs are time-consuming and difficult to carve and polish. They always look so striking when they are carved as deeply as Chris has carved on this bowl.  Chris said of his melon rib pieces:

“They are hard to carve and get each rib symmetrical.  The polishing is the key.  I will polish three ribs at a time, the leave a space.  In the end, I’ll go back and polish the single ribs.  This is the greatest chance for error as you can mess up the surrounding ribs that are already finished.  I think the melon rib pieces appear very modern. I design them thinking about how the light will reflect across the surface.  The best part of the melon, when done correctly, is you get a reflection from every angle across the surface.”

Think that each rib is polished on both sides, so even a small bowl has twice the polished area!  The piece is fired a glassy black coloration. It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Chris Youngblood”.