Baobab Ceramic Cat Cave

Baobab takes the fat, tapering trunk of the tree it is named for and turns it into a shelter, a rounded stoneware volume a cat steps into and vanishes. A window cut into the back lets daylight through and keeps the inside from going stuffy, so the cave stays a place a cat wants to return to.

In a satin white glaze it reads as a sculpture first, the kind of object that sits with the furniture rather than apologizing for being pet gear.

Each cave is made to order. There is no shelf of finished pieces, yours is modeled and fired for you, glazed inside and out and put through the kiln several times before it is ready. That is what gives it the weight and the surface, and why no two are ever quite alike.

Specifications

• Material: Hand-modeled high-fired stoneware, satin white glaze, with dyed sisal cord detailing
• Dimensions: 19.7 x 18.9 x 19.7 in (50 x 48 x 50 cm), approx. 33 lb (15 kg)
• Made in: Spain, by hand

Made by hand, one piece at a time

Sara Monge is a ceramic artist working in Spain, and every piece here leaves her studio by her own hands. The clay is modeled, then fired at high temperature more than once, until stoneware reaches the hardness and stability it needs to live in a home for years. Because each piece is made individually, small variations from one to the next are part of the work, not a flaw in it.

Function that becomes form

These are objects to be used and to be looked at. A cave is a real shelter a cat disappears into and a sculpture that holds its own beside the furniture. A bowl lifts a meal off the floor and reads as a considered object on the counter. The standard is the same throughout, cat pieces made to the level of studio ceramics.