Eccentric Teapot

Artist's Statement:

The assignment was to create an eccentric teapot, that was some other form than a teapot. I chose to make a monkey, because I have always associated tea with zen. I chose to make the arms the spout, the tail the handle, and the head the lid. I wanted to make almost like the monkey was offering up tea to you. For the finishing touches I used ironstone glaze, with clear glaze on the inside, and on the bird, breaking it a little more to give it a lighter color.

I wanted all my shapes to be really curved, and bulbous, almost like those happy buddhas that you see sometimes. I wanted to also have it be well balanced and proportional, which was tricky since I also wanted to make it functional. Lastly, I wanted it to actually hold a lot of tea, and have a good pour. 

This project has evolved a bit since the initial sketches. At first I thought that I would make the spout out of the mouth, and that the arms would be purely decorative. then when I was constructing this didn't pan out, so I made it just out of the hands. I also thought that at first I would make it a circus monkey, and give it a little vest and a cap that would be the lid. However, this also proved to be difficult, so I gave the monkey a 'lobotomy' and made the top of the head the lid. However, I did make the cut so that it would have little ears.