Another Teapot…
The teapot above is a little more sophisticated than the first teapot that I ever made, though it has its fatal flaws too. Namely, I glazed the sieve holes shut and it will never function as a proper teapot. It sits on a shelf in my kitchen; and since I’m not a tea person myself we’re very happy together.
I’m not quite sure why pottery and tea go together like honey and bees but it does. There’s a long tradition of making teapots by pottery and ceramic artists dating back to ancient China. I had the good fortune to watch a demonstration of a group of Chinese potters craft Yixing Teapots when I was in school at the University of Southern Maine. My professor, Ray Chen, brought the traveling artists to campus for a workshop that was just fascinating. The teapots are gorgeous, simple vessels that are hand built – no pottery wheel is used, only a paddle to shape it.
In addition to the teapot demo, they also crafted handmade tools and brushes. The tools were cool, and suffice it to say that the brushes involved stopping for road kill. It might work in the country, but not in Denver proper. I’m not about to go pluck my dog bald either…. Mile Hi Ceramics does carry a range of real animal hair brushes, but they’re rather pricey. I think I’ll stick to my bamboo and hake brushes.
Every so often, I attempt making a teapot if purely for the challenge. Maybe it’s about time I try again. Or, maybe I should try making a coffee carafe?
Happy Tuesday,
~Cynthia
My First Tea Pot
I belong to the Etsy Mud Team, a group of artists and crafts people who love working with clay. It’s a fairly diverse group who make anything from ceramic jewelry, functional pottery, to sculptural ceramic objects. We all employ different techniques, materials and processes down to a personal preference for various clay bodies. We are also at varying levels of accomplishment in our clay careers – which is good since ceramic artists are normally very generous with their clay knowledge. The Mud Team is currently working on a teapot “challenge” and entries are due next week. I’ve opted out of the challenge, but decided to look at some of the teapots that I have made since I first touched clay.
In January 2002, I enrolled in my first ceramics class at the University of Southern Maine, after taking a leave of absence from my job at United Airlines and the events of 9/11. I knew that I would love working with clay and it was indeed love at first touch. My very first project was a mask made from stoneware clay – which I have displayed in my bathroom (a post for another day). My class ended up working without much instruction the first month, because my professor’s mother was ill and he flew back to Taiwan to be with her during her last few days.
I was so eager to try making things out of clay and ended up checking out a gazillion books from the library during my prof’s absence. The teapot above is the result of my early experimentation. I was so pleased with myself and have displayed it proudly in my dining room ever since it came out of the kiln, despite the fact that the glaze never fully melted, the lid is ill fitted and it’s heavy enough to kill someone!
Making a teapot isn’t all that complicated once one knows the rules… One being to make the spout higher or at least level with the body so that one can fill the teapot full of liquid. Make it too short, and you’ll only be able to fill the body of the teapot half way, or risk spilling tea everywhere. There are more guidelines that Clay Times has outlined nicely in this article.
Meanwhile, I’ve been substitute teaching every week since August 20th in a K-5 Denver Public School. Guess what? I really like teaching and being in a classroom. I’m even contemplating getting a “real” teaching license which would require a return to school for me to become licensed. One of my goals in life is to leave this world a better place and my job at United didn’t fulfill that desire need nor does working solo in my studio producing work. I think teaching might be a good match and something that I can think about this school year. One of the teachers with whom I was sharing a classroom last week, told me that she thought “I had the gift of teaching.” I was so flattered, but didn’t confess that I was thinking of pursuing teaching as a career.
I’ll be subbing 2 days this week, but have reserved Monday, Wednesday and Friday as full on studio days! I’m ready to get a little muddy again…
Have a good week everyone,
~Cynthia
Share a photo and try as I may….
Last week, I was pleased to receive an email and photograph from Dinahmow, aka, Idle Thought of an Idle Woman blog author. Last April, she won my blogaverary give-away and promised me a photograph. Months later with cobwebs filling my brain, I was surprised and delighted to hear from her and to place a face to her “name”. She gave me permission to share her photograph provided I keep her true identity a secret!
Meanwhile I was looking forward to having a day in the studio, but was instead enveloped with Steele Elementary School Auction Planning meetings and misc. time fillers. I’ve been a little out of sorts today, and then realized what was bothering me late into the day.
Today is the anniversary of the horrific events of 9/11/01. I didn’t realize it until I clicked on the TV and saw an Oprah special. It may not be popular, but I had recently decided to act as if today is normal. Sometimes, I think the best tribute is to carry on with a sort of joie de vivre; a je ne sais quoi life goes on kind of attitude. But… a part of me knows inherently that 6 years ago today, my life changed irrevocably for the better and worse. Better, because I am doing something new, exciting a fulfilling – worse because so many people died a senseless death. If that day hadn’t happened, I might still be asking you what you wanted to drink on some airplane bound for God knows where and telling you buh-bye as you stepped off at your destination.
I’ll simply reference my post from last year if you care to read about it.
~Cynthia
I can see clearly now…
Whew… the West Wash Park Home Tour ended at 4:00 pm yesterday and after a couple of much needed beers, I promptly fell blissfully asleep by 8pm. Saturday is normally movie night in our household, and I didn’t even pretend to try to keep my eyes open. Could it be because I have basically been cleaning, landscaping, painting, sewing, staining, etc. etc. projects around the house up until 9 am the morning of the event?
I’m very glad we participated in the tour for a number of reasons – some selfish and some community oriented. We can now sit back and really enjoy our house because it feels finished, or at least until I decide that I no longer like orange paint or some other benign decorating nuance. Weekends will no longer find us deciding which home project to tackle; rather now I can decide to spend hours in my studio guilt-free or maybe take a family hike or museum visit. The home tour also benefited our community; it rasied money for the West Wash Park Neighborhood Association, Lincoln Elementary School and the Wash Park Community Center.
On a side note, I can’t keep my mouth shut and may have found myself on the planning committee for next year’s home tour. Count on me to be full of ideas – 1st meeting is in October! Fund raising seems to be something I’m good at, however, and it’s for a good cause….
When I began planning for the home tour in earnest, I thought maybe I should edit our belongings to make them more “friendly”. I opted against doing the self edit, because truth be told, our family photos and objects d’art are what make our home ours. Who wants a sterile living environment, and isn’t being a bit of a voyeur part of the fun when going on home tours? So, if you look closely, you’ll see Larry sitting on the mantel. People are either inherently repulsed or attracted to him – there seems to be no middle ground.
We opted to leave the house to the volunteers and left around 10 am with our dog for calmer pastures. After dropping our dog off at my SIL’s house, we went on the tour ourselves and decided – WOW 8 beautiful homes, but we loved our home best! Speaking of sterile, there was an incredible home on the tour with super high end finishes that looked like it belonged in a decorating magazine, but alas there was no personality – nary a hint of color, photographs or interesting art. The couple is still working on their home, so in their defense, it might not be finished yet. Although, I suppose some people do like a calm home devoid of color and noise if their lives are otherwise busy or stressful.
I do wish we could have been a fly on the wall in our home; because good, bad or neutral, I would have liked to hear people’s comments when they toured our home. Although, at 4pm, we relieved the volunteers and we let a few stragglers view our home even though the tour was officially over. One of the people asked if either my husband or I was an artist – or were we just avid collectors. This thrilled me to no end to hear that! I explained that some of the art in our home was indeed mine, but I do buy art and trade with other artists. She asked if I was represented in Denver at any galleries and if I had a business card available. Doh, why didn’t I leave some cards available for people to take??? Missed opportunity.
See my laptop sitting on the counter? This is my office area – where all blog posts, images and other computer related business takes place. I only venture into the real office when I need to print or scan something. Actually, with wireless, you can find me anywhere in and around the house, even the backyard. I don’t think I’ll ever buy a desk top computer again.
I love our orange kitchen! Actually I like every room in our home. It’s a small home and I’ve decided I like it that way – we use every single room in the house including the dining room and living room, rooms that often go unused in many American homes. I’m a big fan of architect Sarah Susanka and her Not So Big House projects. She advocates building and designing homes that use good quality construction and materials but on a smaller scale for how people actually live. Do we really need a living room and a family room? Eat in kitchen and dining room that only gets used for holidays? Yes, you’ll notice in the above photographs that we have an eat in kitchen and dining room…. I tried to convince my husband to convert the dining room to a library area – with 2 overstuffed chairs and floor to ceiling book shelves, but he isn’t keen on the idea.
Meanwhile, I can see clearly now the home tour preparations have passed and I feel like I can get back to my regularly scheduled life. I’m planning on a few hours in my clay studio this afternoon (what else do I have to do?), followed by studio time on Monday and Tuesday. I agreed to substitute teach on Wednesday – Friday of this week, but told the school no for Mon. and Tues. I need to get some clay work in! Saying no is hard for me to do, but I had to let the administrators know that I only want to sub occasionally – that I actually have another life and business to attend to.
I was tagged with a meme last week which I hope to get to this week. I also hope to share fresh clay work with you in my next post – it will be about time, don’t you think?
~Cynthia
