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
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