Eccentric Teapot

I loved this project. It was very enjoyable and the final product made me happy. For this project I made a teapot with a theme. The theme I chose was mushrooms. So, I made my teapot into a little mushroom with a spout and a handle. It is very small. I didn't really think about size when I was creating it so it turned out only about three inches tall. When I was looking at other people's teapot I got kind of concerned because everyone else's was much bigger. However, I think its tiny size gives it character.

I started off my little teapot by making its body out of a pinch pot. That took me forever to get the shape correct because I hadn't made a pinch pot in years. I then added a tiny spout that I made by poking a hole through a little cylinder of clay with a needle tool. I tried my hardest to line up the hole in the pot with the one in the spout but I'm still not certain its functional. The handle and lid came next. Those were pretty easy to make. But, after I was done with all of that I felt like it was missing something. So I added some very delicate frills to the body by rolling out thin pieces of clay and attaching as well as ruffling them along the top. However, it was still too plain so I decided to add 3D spots to the top and I made them very organic because I was going for a more realistic aesthetic.

Glazing this tiny pot has so far taken me about ten hours. It started off simple. I decided to use underglaze on this because I would have much more control over it and I didn't want to mess it up or I would be devastated. But, after I put red glaze around all of the spots on the lid I decided it needed a little extra so I added a gradient around the edges. And then the body looked to plain so I added a gradient on the underside and ends of the frills. I think that all of the work I put into it was worth it though.