Michael hung his mother's wedding dress in his studio for inspiration.

ransplanted Asheville, North Carolina artist Michael Hofman's parents' 50th wedding anniversary was coming up and he realized the idea for the perfect present was at his fingertips. Michael works in clay, making beautiful objects—vases, platters, bowls—with subtle lace patterns imprinted in the clay.

Michael works in porcelain, a special type of clay, to craft pieces that are elegant, light and thin yet strong.

Since Michael uses actual lace textiles to embellish his one-of-a-kind pieces, why not use lace from his mother's circa 1957 wedding gown on a surprise gift? Without revealing details, Michael asked his mother to ship him her wedding gown and it arrived still in its original box from Selman's of Louisville, Kentucky.

"I had an idea what he was up to," Mrs. Hofman said when I phoned her in South Bend, Indiana, "and it was something I wanted him to do! Michael's work makes such lovely gifts of remembrance, so when I saw how beautiful the vase was that he made for us, I was delighted!"

The Hofman's commemorative vase in their home in South Bend, Indiana.

Michael also used hand croqueted lace from a tablecloth made by his father's stepmother to decorate a platter for his parents, as well as for his brothers, to commemorate the anniversary. The wonderful bit of serendipity was that his grandmother was from Belgium and had made the tablecloth for Michael's parents' wedding present.

"By using porcelain, which is a special type of clay, I am able to craft pieces with a defined elegance of thinness and lightness but still have a profound structural integrity," Michael explained about his work.

Although Joan Hofman's wedding gown had been preserved for 50 years, textiles don't tend to last forever and you can't keep a wedding gown on the shelf to admire! But a lovingly crafted piece of porcelain imprinted with its textured remembrance is another story.