Tea Bowls 2

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a batch of teabowls that I have recently completed. This week I'll introduce you to the first group.

This pieces were all fired in a standard electric kiln.  To glaze the exteriors, I combined two different colors: Spod White, and a deep warm brown called Freckles. I coated the interior of each piece with a different brown glaze called Ohata.

When I moved to New Mexico in 2013, I brought a bag of shells with me to remind me of the beaches I love to traverse back in Maine (though these shells admittedly do not come from New England mollusks). I keep them scattered on a shelf in my entry, where I walk by them every day. Before heading down to the clay studio, I took a handful, and pressed them into the walls of this bowl while it was still wet to make some great textures. Personally they remind me of fossils, especially with the brown color of the glaze.


I used a sponge tied onto a stick with a rubber band to press of the walls of this cup, creating this curvy, bulbous form. I drew in the lines using a needle tool. The dark brown spot is my thumbprint, as I held the piece upside-down on the rim in order to dip it in the glaze. Instead of covering it up, I decided to emphasize it by painting it in with the dark brown glaze.

I added the dots on this piece with a pipette tool. I had to go over each dot about three times to make sure it would achieve enough height to be noticeable.

The shape of this bowl reminds me of the blossoms on tulip trees, which I used to encounter during my undergraduate days at Lake Forest. To coat the interior of this cup I swirled the glaze around in different directions, creating hill-like shapes. It also turned out looking more green than the other cups, reminding me of the terrain of the San Patricio area. 

A very curvy little tea bowl. I wanted to see how many curves I could make with the sponge on a stick without having the cup topple altogether.

This bowl isn't as exaggerated with its curves, but has plenty of lines.

Overall I was pleased with how these turned out, but they're only half the group. Tune in next week to see the other group, which was fired through a different process.


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