The potter Petr Novak has been making teaware for a while now, and offering them to us who are interested in something a little different. A while back, I bought a shiboridashi, which is a style of Japanese kyusu that looks a bit like a gaiwan with a spout, from him, intending it to be a gift. I haven’t gifted it yet, and am not sure if I want to. The pains of a hoarder.
Yesterday I got the above pot in the mail, one of the last of the Yixing pots in Czech Republic series, I believe. I found the experiment fascinating, and right up my alley of the kind of things I’d like, so I asked if I can get my hands on one. Here it is.
The pot is shiny. It’s much shinier than your usual yixing pot, which in my unqualified, ignorant view of pottery is probably attributable to higher temperatures. The surface of the pot is not quite smooth – it feels slightly sticky, actually. The clay inside the pot looks visibly different from the outside, which I guess is because of the firing process and the difference in temperature, or something along those lines. The same can be said of the base of the pot, which doesn’t have the same colours or texture as the body, and is closer to what’s on the interior. The grains of the clay are larger than what you normally see on Yixing clay these days, but then again, these days they’re so fine I actually don’t like them.
I haven’t had a chance to try these yet with tea, but this should be pretty interesting!
5 responses so far ↓
discipleofthetealeaf // September 20, 2012 at 5:38 am |
What a beautiful looking pot! I look forward to future postings from you on how it contributes to your tea experience.
Phyll Sheng // September 20, 2012 at 9:15 am |
It looks pretty from the photos. Let us know how it brews and pours!
foo // September 20, 2012 at 11:19 am |
Looks nice to me. The outside vs inside … It looks like it’s some combination of over firing, and kiln atmosphere to me. Was it wood fired kiln? The clay body looks a bit reduced, also one side looks like it has flame flashing, so I think the bit of shiny might be the result of ash flying in the kiln which would explain why the inside is different. I think they used to prevent this by firing teapots in a saggar, which is basically a clay box with a lid, since reduction effects were considered flaws then, but I personally like reduction effects on pottery as they give character.
cha bing // September 21, 2012 at 8:41 pm |
That is a great looking pot. I thought it looked glazed when I saw it, especially because the bottom doesn’t look shiny. Maybe, as the other commenter suggested, it is ash from a wood fired kiln. I don’t know enough about these things. But it looks great.
Eric Scott // September 24, 2012 at 2:17 pm |
The appearance of the clay is more like Japanese wood-fired pottery than like Yixing. Very pleasing shape and texture though. I’m sure its a joy to brew with.