Longing ~ The Simplicity of Life

The wilderness warms the heart
The painting depicts the beauty of creatures Porcelain and artistry combine to capture the essence of nature

While enjoying a cup of hot coffee, Franz designer G.G. Santiago browsed through an antholog y of poetr y by William Butler Yeats. “A Prayer for My Daughter”inspired her to create the “Longing”pandas vase, which heralds good tidings.

The foremost Irish poet of the 20th century, William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. He married late and wrote this poem at the age of 54 when his daughter, Anne, was born in 1919.

May She Live Like Some Green Laurel, Rooted in One Dear Perpetual Place

In“A Prayer for My Daughter”, Yeats links a storm with the potential hardships a girl may face in life by describing a howling storm and his newborn daughter, sleeping "half hid" in her cradle. The poet prays in fear of the “roof-levelling wind”, also asking God to grant Anne “beauty and yet not beauty to make a stranger，s eye distraught”, so that she may not lose “natural kindness”.

He hopes that Anne can learn to be humble and turn her charm into wisdom and a “glad kindness”, and prays that she may “live like some green laurel, rooted in one dear perpetual place”.

Connecting Nature and Parent-Child Bonding

Designed by G.G. Santiago, the “Longing” porcelain vase depicts parent-child bonding in a natural setting to show the deep affections that exist between living creatures. The piece features two vividly sculptured pandas who sit on a solid branch and embrace each other like entwined flowers, symbolizing the beauty of connections between family members.