Friday, June 17, 2011

My Latest Tea Bowl Form

     After a long time away from them, I decided to take up the tea bowl form again. I had struggled in the past to develop a form that expressed how I felt about clay and the wood-fire aesthetic. Yesterday I spent some time playing while waiting for the pug mill to mix clay for the upcoming wood-fire and kiln building workshops. I decided to approach the form as though I were making a small sculpture and hollow out the bowl afterward. I made two of them, was pleased with the results, and decided to take some clay home. I set up a table in the backyard near the bird bath and feeders. As the goldfinches whistled and the pine-siskins buzzed I set to work. About an hour later I had the third and most successful tea bowl of the day. I'm hoping the form will continue to develop into a staple of my works in clay. If nothing else, it was a very tranquil time in the outdoors and I plan to do it as often as possible. The workshops kick off in a little more than a week and I hope to sneak these into the kiln.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sitting here reveling in a half liter cup of fresh brewed Tikuayan Oolong. I'd gladly trade my favorite mug at this moment for the pleasure of drinking from the functional art of that tea bowl sculpture.

-g

Eugene Brosseau said...

Thanks for the kind words, my friend. You may yet have that pleasure if it survives the firing. ;)

cory said...

beautiful forms.

can you please describe how u make them ?

cool !