Embedded Files
Administrator's Garden, Suzhou, China
Chang'E Teapots
The design of these teapots is inspired by an image associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, a major holiday in the Chinese culture celebrating the harvest moon. Associated with this holiday is the story about the Goddess Chang'E who lives on the moon with her pet rabbit. She is often depicted in a long loose dress, with ribbons floating all around her. She is often seen in front of a full moon. Her image often adorns the boxes used to hold mooncakes, a dessert eaten on this holiday. I designed these teapots so that this image is distilled to its essence: her ribbons and the moon.
Although the ribbon handles on these teapots look delicate, they are made from porcelain, which is a very strong and hard material. The handles can carry weight far exceeding that of a full pot. They are made to be used every day. Although these teapots can be machine washed, I hand wash mine to minimize potential damage due to bumping into other dishes in the dishwasher machine.
Chang'E Teapot in Green Celadon
On the day this was pulled out of the kiln, another potter remarked, out of the blue, "This teapot reminds me of Mulan somehow." I couldn't be more pleased. The top of the spout is actually cut with a slit so you can see the tea as it flows through the spout to the cup. This little visual of a babbling brook, I feel, adds to the meditative state that I sometimes go into when I have tea. Notice the clay underneath the glaze. It is not white porcelain but a darker type of clay. The interplay between the clay and the glaze ultimately produces the dark green-olive color that you see. If the clay had been porcelain, the green color would have been much lighter. The speckles you see on this teapot gives it a rustic feel even though the curves of the pot is rather refined. The speckles come from the mineral deposits in the clay.
This teapot is perfect for 2 people using traditional Chinese tea cups. The celadon green glaze is exactly the same one used in the teapot above but the clay is different. The clay body is called soldate, a clay that is darker than pure white porcelain but much lighter than the one used for the teapot above. It produced an entirely different effect when glazed with green celadon. Notice that the green is lighter in shade and it lacks the mineral speckling. It also has this beautiful crackle pattern.
In Private Collection
Pumpkin
This teapot was inspired by ancient Chinese and Korean celadons which uses the shape of gourds or pumpkins to inspire the design of teapots and lidded jars. This teapot was made with the whitest porcelain and blue celadon glaze. Pumpkin is currently in a private collection.
Google Sites
Report abuse