Rough Rusty Clay Torn Open Upright Ring Teapot

This teapot is the companion piece to my Torn Open Rough Rusty Pillow Teapot, and much of the background of its making can be learned from reading the descriptive text on that teapot’s web page. Here I was trying to treat the ring form casually and roughly to enhance the feeling of the rough clay material, filled with rust chunks and claymixer scrapings. I was also thinking back to an earlier teapot, African Elephants Upright Ring Teapot, where I made the ring with a rough gouged and scored surface to suggest the habitat and favorite food of the African elephant, tree bark and foliage.

I squashed this ring off-center to the right, mounted the casually thrown uneven surfaced ring on an oval base, tore open the top for the lid, and added the handle and spout made from the same rough rusty clay. I glazed the teapot with a dark blue interior glaze and painted the exterior in a dark blue spiraling striped pattern, leaving most of the surface unglazed. The cone 10 reduction firing caused the many large rust chunks to burn out and run, and a large rusty area of the oval foot, visible on the bottom left base of the teapot, completely vaporized and left a void.

To complete this piece I found a brightly-colored cock’s comb lid finial I had made for an earlier teapot but discarded because it didn’t fit that teapot’s overall presence. I slid this lid finial into the torn opening on the top of the teapot ring, and it provides a bright color contrast to the dark cratered and bubbly surface of this “Rough Rusty Clay Torn Open Upright Ring Teapot.”

This teapot is for sale.
Price: $800

If you are interested in purchasing it please visit the Ordering Information section.

In addition to my unique reassembled ring teapots, my partner Susan Nykiel and I also make a wide range of functional and elegant pottery pieces. Please visit our new online store at oakbluffspottery.etsy.com to see what we have to offer! This is an excellent place to shop for beautiful handmade pottery for your own home or for your gift-giving pleasure.