Tea Set

For this project, we were assigned to make a teapot with matching teacups. I began by making the teapot. I started by using the slab roller to make a slab. I then used a large cup to make a round base for the teapot. Next, I used the coil method to build up the teapot. As it got taller, I started to make the coils smaller so that I could close it up. Then, I make another slab using the slab roller and cut out another circle to use for the lid. I made a small clay ball as well to use to lift my lid. Next, I made the spout. I started by making a solid spout, then let it dry for a day. Then, I cut the spout in half and hollowed out the inside. Finally, I slipped and scored it back together so that it was a spout the the one I had before, but now liquid could be poured out of it, it wasn't just a solid chunk of clay. Next, I used the pulling method to make a handle. I originally pulled handle that was way too big and thick, so I redid it and make it smaller and thinner. Mr. A reassured me that the handle I replaced my original handle with would be able to hold up my teapot. Then, I slipped and scored both my spout and handle onto the teapot. Next, I made some teacups. While building the teapot, Robbie gave me the idea to make my tea set bumblebee themed. I decided that I wanted to make my teacups hexagon shaped to make it look like a honeycomb. To do this, I rolled out a big slab and first cut out a base. I made the base a hexagon by using a ruler. Then, I used the rest of the slab to make the walls of the cup. At first I had used a big slab and tried to shape it into a hexagon, but it didn't work very well. After I was done making the 2 cups, everything was bisque fired. After it was bisque fired, I glazed the teapot and teacups with satin-matte yellow. After I did 3 good coats of yellow, I mixed yellow and orange together to make a darker yellow color. Then, I painted the tip of the spout, the round part of the lid, and the tops of the teacups with this color. Then, it was glaze fired. When it came out of the kiln, I really liked how the colors came out. Overall, it didn't match the bumblebee theme that I was hoping for, mostly because the colors weren't spot on, but I still liked the way it came out.