Vintage Heart-Shaped Cheese Mould

"I used to make a lot of my own cheese — this piece was used for draining heart-shaped cheese," Patricia explains, and it's easy to imagine it doing exactly that in the farmhouse kitchen at Chanteduc, Patricia and Walter's home in Vaison-la-Romaine. Found at a flea market, this small heart-shaped tin mould is the kind of object that moves naturally from the functional to the decorative without losing any of its character along the way.

Made from a single piece of thin tin with a simple rolled rim, the mould is pierced across its base and sides with rows of evenly spaced holes — the practical logic of cheesemaking rendered as an unexpectedly pleasing pattern.

On a kitchen shelf or windowsill, grouped with other small vintage pieces, it reads as a record of domestic craft. It would also work beautifully as a small planter for a succulent or a holder for a votive candle.