Sky Blue Torn Ends Square Cross-Section Reassembled Ring Teapot

This teapot was a breakthrough piece for me, which has helped me in each reassembled ring composition I have worked on since I completed this artwork in 1999. I decided to assemble a teapot without joining any of the arc sections end-to-end. Further, I decided to make it look as if I had broken the ring apart rather than cut it with a straight saw blade. I cut the ring into jagged edge sections with an exacto knife, then filled in the open ends and textured them to look like the broken ends of sticks of wood. I assembled the whole composition by joining most of the arc sections in their middles, posed the composition on three points without an added base, then added the handle and spout on either side of the cut-open trapdoor lid. I did not add a finial to the lid, as the composition was already visually complex. I glazed the "torn ends" with glossy dark blue glaze which I then sponged off so the ends were unglazed except the crevices where the dark blue glaze was caught. I glazed the whole teapot in a matt blue-gold glaze, then sponged off the torn ends again to reveal the bare clay with the glossy dark blue glaze in the crevices. This teapot composition has inspired every piece I have worked on since, as I now reassemble the arc sections every which way without limiting myself to rejoining the sections end-to-end.

This teapot is held in a private collection in New York, NY.