Final

For this project, the assignment was to make a teapot set with a teapot and cups and any additional items that you thought would go with the set. I made the teapot, two cups and a sugar bowl with a spoon. I made this work using the coil technique for the teapot and the two cups and the pinch technique for the sugar bowl. I made a coil for the pot and then attached all the coils together. I then cut out another coil and hollowed it with a pencil through it. Then for the handle on the pot, I made a coil and flattened it out. Lastly for the top of the teapot, I made a separate coil to make it so the top could separate for the rest of the pot. For the cups, I used the same method and once it was in the form of a cup, I flattened a coil for the handle. Then, to mimic the style of the top of the teapot, I made a base of four balls of clay for the cups. I pinched the sugar pot and as a result, it came out thicker and less in cup shape. I flattened a coil and carved out a spoon shape for the spoon and once it dried, I carved out the dip in the spoon. For the glazes, I used HF-167 clementine for the teapot and PC-59 deep firebrick red for the sugar cup and spoon. The spoon however, could not have the red glaze on the bottom of it in the kiln as it would stick, so I used a V-361 jet black underglaze for the underside of the spoon. Lastly, for the two teacups, I used a SM-21 dark blue glaze.

The goal for this piece was to have similar patterns and styles between the different pieces in the set and I tried to do this with similar styles of the handles. The form needed to be constructed in similar ways and so I achieved this by using the same style to make the pieces (except the sugar which was meant to look a little different). This project evolved from the idea of a single teapot to an entire set. I had time on my hands and so because of this, I was able to make a set that was bigger.

The meaning behind this work was that teapots are sort of a lost art with microwaves and so this was sort of bringing them back. This relates to my life as it reminds me of the tea parties my sister and I used to put on with our tea set. This isn't quite as a big of a set, but it still brings up these memories. I struggled attaching the handles and making them work in this project and I additionally struggled with the form of the cups and the teapot, but I overcame these by trying it over and over again. I was proudest of the way the teapot turned out despite the struggles and how it can be used. I also liked how the spoon formed even after the clay had dried. I think that next time I could have taken longer with my cools and made them more consistent and in so doing, I would have had pieces that were less difficult to form. However, it worked in the end.