Friday, April 11, 2014

T&A

Illustrated is a T&A (thrown and altered) ishime style teapot with my "landscapeman" design incised and inlaid around the piece. The pot started life as a simple cylinder that was then altered by making it oval, darting the clay and reassembling the form as it appears. Once assembled, I put it on the wheel and created the mouth and short neck to accept a thrown lid. The spout, lid, foot and handle have all been glazed in a shiny transparent black glaze to add contrast to the piece and the interior has a clear liner glaze as well. I would love to claim this was entirely my idea, but it actually stems from a TV show I saw while in Japan. On the show, a woman took a sheet of paper, made it into a cylinder and then made a few cuts and a few moments later, there was a ball. It only seemed natural that you could take the original idea and adapt it to clay, just waiting to be turned into a teapot.