TIME TO MAKE THE TEABOWLS

One can debate the merits of the teabowl in the West where they have many uses from function to simply decorative but rarely is it used in traditional Japanese tea ceremony. I have been fortunate and have had a number of my teabowls go to tea practitioners across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and even Japan but the bulk of teabowls I actually make are bowls that have a murky basis on the chawan and are simply bowls of a certain scale that are intended to be used how ever the owner sees fit. Toward the end of the summer and early fall, it is usually time to make the teabowls for upcoming holiday shows, gallery orders and for consignments to other venues. Illustrated is the first batch of terra cotta teabowls out of the first two glaze firings, the size and shape of the bowls makes for excellent space fillers around plates, bowls and covered pieces making for a well packed kiln. Over the years I have settled on a number of user friendly forms being careful to stay within the realm of reason in regards to size as I am a bit too fond of teabowls that end up super sized. This particular group is made up of my abstrakt resist, "falling leaves" and midnight plum blossoms while the next group to be fired is mostly composed of tebori carved pieces.

"Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill, keep sharpening your knife and it will be blunt." Lao Tzu