Teapot’s and their purpose

I use a lot of Teapots and repurpose them in a different fashion. However you can obtain a Teapot on this handmadeartists.com website for it’s original purpose and they are beautimus.

Here is a bit of information about the origin of the Teapot and its uses and rituals. After over 1000 years of tea drinking in East Asia and at least 500 years in the West, the teapot is instilled with a great deal of aesthetic and utilitarian baggage.  It communicates the qualities of shared use, personal or group piece form, the teapot offers special challenges and possibilities for the sculptural manipulation of form in a functional vessel.  Contemporary craft artists often carry this to extremes, creating teapots that are marginally functional or purely non-functional; sculptural objects referring to the teapot.  A person once purchased a Dick Marquis glass teapot covered with hundreds of t come off. Now that’s kinda interesting She had intended to brew tea in a $5000 art glass teapot.

Consider that a good teapot sitting on a shelf or counter offers a series of invitations.  A repurposed teapot, now a lovely center piece…..

The complex aesthetic qualities invite you to come closer.  The handle invites you to pick it up.  The lid invites you to fill it with hot water and leaf tee.  The spout invites you to enjoy a cup of tea.  That is a neat concept, but to what degree does each teapot present these invitations visually, and just as important, to what degree does it fulfill your hopes or expectations when you follow through?  Is the handle comfortable to pick up and hold? Is the lid easily removed and the teapot easily filled?  Does it pour without dribbling tea all over?

The user can be somewhat forgiving in the first two cases, because the quality of ritual often involves elaborate routine.  If a person loves the appearance of a teapot, they are inclined to be forgiving if it is slightly awkward to pick it up or to remove and replace the lid. But a teapot that dribbles and drools is simply evidence of poor design and craftsmanship.  Too often, such a teapot is relegated to the shelf as a decorative object, forever branded with the memory of flawed function.

“I love that teapot, but it just doesn’t pour worth a darn.”

Basic things to consider when approaching Teapot Design always consider the essential triad of the teapot – handle, rim/lid, and spout.  How do they balance one another, and how do they work with the body of the teapot? The spout should be the primary focal point, but in a successful teapot, the handle and lid will balance the spout aesthetically. The tip of the spout must be level with or higher than the lid, or tea will slosh out as you move the teapot. The lid should feature either a locking device, or a lowered center of gravity, so that it doesn’t fall out when you pour tea. The end of the spout should have a fairly sharp edge at the pouring point, in order to break the surface tension, so that the tea does not  follow the curvature of the tip and dribble all over. Teapots come in many sizes, just have a look here on handmadeartists.com.

These are just hints and tips on how to look at a teapot when you are inclined to purchase. I found that very interesting.

Myeuropeantouch

Tags: Handmade, Handmade Artists, handmade teapot, jewelry, pottery, teapot

Posted in Handmade