Laika the Astronaut Ceramic Vase

The Laika vase is an astronaut dog vase, made because once you have honored the cat who reached orbit first, you cannot in good conscience skip the first dog. The alternative was a slow ceramic feud between cat people and dog people, and nobody here had the stamina for it. So the Laika vase exists: glazed ceramic in two sizes, the large eight inches tall and the medium six, with a mouth that takes a proper handful of stems rather than a lonely one. Laika flew in 1957 and did not come home, which is not a fact I intend to make funny. The vase is not a joke either; it is a space dog vase with real presence, drawn in 2024 with more tenderness than this series usually allows itself. Put something alive in it. That felt, to everyone here, like the whole assignment. Shaped by hand at Chive Ceramics Studio before the glaze ever goes on.