“Garden Tea Set”
Glazed stoneware clay
Final Project for Clay: Wheel-Thrown Forms, Fall 2024
I started planning this 16-piece tea set in my sketchbook, coming up with shapes and design elements to keep consistent throughout the set. I chose to execute a “garden” theme consisting of glazing the set with earth tone colors and keeping some sections unglazed to feature a carved leaf motif. First I did all of the throwing necessary for the set: the tea pot, spout, creamer pitcher, sugar jar, cups, saucers, the bowl of the spoon, and lids for the pot and jar. When leather-hard, I turned and trimmed the bottoms of the lids, spoon, and saucers. When work at the wheel was finished, I focused on attachments such as the tea pot’s spout, the spoon’s handle, leaf-shaped knobs on the two lids, and handles on the pot, cups, and pitcher. My last task in the wet-clay stage was to clean and smooth everything and to carve the leaf motif into every piece (except the saucers).
When the set reached bone dry, it was bisque-fired. After the firing, I painted all no-glaze sections of the set with wax resist and then glazed the pieces. I first put tenmoku (dark brown) glaze on the inside sections that I wanted to be darker, then dipped the pieces completely in celadon (light blue-green) glaze. While I hoped this method would create dark green insides after firing in the gas kiln, the insides remained a dark brown color. I also had interesting firing results in that some of the cups ended up as different shades of green due to being at different spots in the kiln during firing. Otherwise, the firing was successful and I finished with a beautiful tea set that I have loved getting to use and show to family and friends.