African Elephants Upright Ring Teapot

In my first upright ring teapots I tried to relate the teapot form to the endangered animals attached. I gouged, scraped, and scratched the surface of this ring to suggest the leaves and tree bark that are the African elephants’ main food source in their jungle habitat. To further this reference I glazed the teapot in various matt and glossy greens, purples, browns, and blacks. I had already put the ridged and double-curved “elephant-trunk” spout on the South American Jaguars Upright Ring Teapot, and I used it again on this teapot to echo the sculpted animal-figure elephant trunks. I placed the adult mother elephant figure with tusks inside the ring, and added a baby elephant on the lid facing a second baby elephant perched on the trunk-shaped spout. I was encouraged by the acceptance of this piece in the “National Teapot Show III,” held at the Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, North Carolina, July-September 1996.

This teapot is held in a private collection in West Orange, New Jersey.