Thinking About Tea Pots

Thinking of my time in SLV. So I bring you what I learned in my work study... I am unsure if this is the Irish method as well, but it was how I was to serve tea 5 days a week at 3pm.

Instructions for a proper cup of tea:

1
Clean your teapot and tea kettle. If the last time you made tea was weeks ago, chances are your teapot and kettle could have accumulated dust or mold.

2 
Fill your tea kettle, yes a kettle, with cold water. Fresh cold water, maybe even filtered. Set the kettle on the stove and turn on "high." Or you can use an electric one as well.

3
 When water is near boiling, pour a small amount into your teapot, put on the lid. Swirl the water around and then pour it out completely. This warms your pot proper like. Put kettle back on stove. Bring to boil.

4
 Place your loose leaf tea in the teapot. If you must, use tea bags. but know your tea service is judging you. and really why have a tea caddy if you have no leaves? Generally you can estimate 1 tsp. per person, plus 1 tsp. for the pot. Account for approximately 10 oz. of water per person when deciding on the size of teapot.

5 
Pour the boiling water into your teapot. Yes in asian it is said the water should not be boiling, but they are not using dried tea leaves after all. Let steep for t
four to five minutes.

6 
Pour the tea, through tea strainer, into each cup. You pour your own cup first ti insure the color is correct. Try to make sure each of your guests has an equal amount of tea.

7
 Serve with milk, sugar, and lemon as desired. Yes the tea goes in first. If there is tea left in the pot, place a tea cosy on the pot to keep it warm on a cold day.

Now you bloody heathens, buy a damn kettle and tea pot. Or better buy one from me!

It's something...

So something different. Sounds like I will be co-teaching middle school kids pottery. We will see how this goes.  IDK. I tried to not say yes impulsively.


Different things going on... what you see is the start of the workbench.

Last first friday...

Just a quick look at last first friday.  Raku as usual.  Hopefully this pulled some sales in for the gallery or people wanting to do classes.

movement....

Never confuse movement with progress.....
movements can go round and round....
In my personal life I really cant's say things are worse. They are what they have been. It's the same exact dance it has been for a while.
 This is true for a variety of spots in my personal life...
There are seasons, and like every other year they come and come and come.  True Change is elusive, and noted change is a trick, a job.  It lulls me into thinking it is real... but it is not.

So it seems the cooperative studio (Cup & Bowl), is not in a great place financially.  Nicely it needs less than $2000 steady a month to function. But with the small cut they take off the gallery I would need to sell like 500 bowls to cover the cost.  Not that I have to cover the cost but just to get a sense of it all...

However there are multiple ways the organization can make money. Classes, Gallery Sales, Membership and finally renting out the backyard.  Hopefully this comes together, I know there are many of us that have full time jobs and really can't take on too much more. For us, creating art is under this additional constraint.

Constraints..
Joel Cherrico (http://www.cherricopottery.com) wrote a great article talking about the constraints created when making functional work.  I think (and shared this with him) that this is similar to the constraints folk artist experience. There are set moves, forms that must be respected and ones movement within this is the creation and experience of creativity. Sure there are artists doing abstract ceramics and calling them vessels, but if they are unusable they are not "functional" and therefore by definition not functional ware. This is art as well, but it is not within the contraints. Contrary to what some artists seem to think (seems to be a painter thing especially) breaking with tradition simply to be novel doesn't make you art or original.  Novelty for novelties sake has a specific word... "fad"  ;-)

And, like is usually found with fads, it really isn't original. It is derivative. Why? because EVERYTHING is.  "there is nothing new under the sun." Not ones ideas, thoughts, art or pain, nothing is new or special or original.  Accepting this can create better acceptance of the constraints.

Constraints, self imposed, create what we call.... "style".  It is how you recognize someones work. It has the typical restraints they have adopted for themselves. At this point, I think I really can pick out one of my pots more often than not based on this. It is not just the form, but I tend towards typical ways of dealing with design in glaze and slip.  Even when soda glazed my work seemed familiar if not more so...

One constraint I have is this one of time. As mentioned I have a job.  I also have varying levels of energy to deal with the world. Sometimes my personal life helps with this, other times it drains my energy seemingly to challenge my ability to function. The ebb and flow of energy then dictates, to some degree, if I can create.

Bits & Pieces....

Behold the Progress....

For the workshop part of the Studio:
Space
Kickwheel
Slab Roller
Pugg Mill
Assorted Throwing Tools
Piles of Reclaim Clay
Wood Burning Stove
Motivated Friend that has an Idea as to what this should look like!

Need:
Shelves
Work Table
Intall Pugg Mill

For the Outside of the Studio:
Kiln Shelves
Thermocupler
welding glasses
welding gloves
Old Electric Kiln
Single Venturi burner
Venturi Burners for Soda Kiln
Ferric
Raku Tongs
Kiln Engineer (lol)

Need:
Bricks
metal buckets
possible need for saws?  IDK

GOAL:
WorkSpace that has the major tools I need in a space that makes them usable (Kickwheel, Pugg Mill, Slab Roller)
A Soda Kiln
A Raku Kiln

sadly....

So the last mask posted, with the open mouth.. it fell apart as the parts came off...

I knew the clay was on the dry side, but the rest of the masks I used ZERO water and was able to sculpt it into place. This was just too dry and frankly I knew better....

Sad still.. I really liked the eyes on this one....

Masks...

While I wait for the studio to be finished up... I am waiting on a pugmill install and then a workbench.  If I am lucky it will be a workbench, wedging table and some shelves but we will see.

And I am waiting on everything to come in for the kiln as well... so while I wait I am making masks at home. Three in three days, all very different.