Stepping Into Her Strength

Female Form Vase with Flowers – Stepping Into Her Strength

This piece began as a gift for a friend’s 40th birthday and evolved into a celebration of the female form, strength, and the quiet confidence that comes from owning your story—and choosing where it goes next.

I wanted her strength to be visible, but not the only thing you see. It’s there in the muscles of her shoulders and arms, the line of her back, and the grounding of her stance. There’s softness, too—something that is just as true to who she is. She moves through the world with genuine compassion and an openness toward others. I wanted the piece to hold both: strength that doesn’t need to harden, and softness that is its own kind of strength.

Rather than simply attaching the figure to the vase, I wanted her to interact with it. As the piece took shape, that interaction became a kind of stepping in—one arm reaching across the rim as her body follows its curve. Depending on the angle, different parts of her emerge—the shape of her back, the muscles in her shoulders and arms, the curve of a leg, or her face peeking around the other side.

That idea of stepping in became one of my favorite parts of the piece. There’s something about turning 40 that feels less like arriving at a milestone and more like coming fully into yourself—embracing your strength, your experience, and the person you’ve become.

The vase itself has a subtle tulip shape at the base, giving the form a gentle sense of opening and growth. I kept the rest understated, allowing the woman and the vessel to become a single form.

In the end, the clay took me somewhere beyond the birthday gift I originally imagined. Somewhere between my heart, my hands, and the clay, it became a reflection of my friend—and of the woman she has become at 40.

And that felt exactly right.

💛 Carolyn Sunseri