Toshiko Takaezu is best known for her “closed forms”: wheel-thrown oblong-shaped vessels with hollow interiors and tiny openings at the top. Instead of painting on a canvas, Takaezu found challenge and inspiration glazing the exteriors of these forms: “I didn’t want a flat surface to work on but a three-dimensional one.” The deep blue and brown of this work echos the ocean shore, where the waves meet the sand. She referred to the blue glaze as “Makaha Blue,” after a beach in Hawaii.