The Search for the Perfect Soup Bowl

  Today as I discovered that the water pipes in both the workshop and the house had frozen, I was happy to take comfort from a bowl of butternut squash and carrot soup which I had made earlier when the water was still running.  Nothing is as restorative in these cold winter days as a lunchtime bowl of soup with some home made bread and cheese.

Over the years I have tried several different shapes for soup bowls.  I think that the inspiration for this shape comes from French soup bowls and has evolved along the way.  This shape seems to hug the soup to keep it warm.  The handles add a tactile something and are satisfying to make.
The handles are made from a ball of clay, flattened into a disc, cut in half and then impressed with a flat, round-ended wooden tool, fanning out from the centre.  The slip pools in the cracks, emphasising the design, and I rub back the slip to show the clay which gives it extra depth.  The rich green copper glaze teams up easily with most soups in terms of colour.


When I trained at Dartington, we made 'GP' bowls - that is 'general purpose', soup/cereal bowls.  My current GP bowl is also good for soup.  This is it with the soup I had today.  I will post the recipe soon, when I have written it down and tested it again.

I also make a soup bowl with little rolled textured handles.  Because of their shape, the portions tend to look smaller, though they hold as much as the GP bowl.  They are also good for serving individual gratins and starters.

At the other end of the scale, I make soup/pasta bowls with wide rims, which although the capacity is not that much bigger, have a much more generous feel. They are the kind of bowl to use if you are serving soup as the main part of a lunch, giving the feeling that you are having a 'proper meal'.

As they say on The Apprentice, the search............. continues.