“The Teapot
Family Relaxes At Home,”
a grouping of three reassembled ring teapots
11" tall x 24 " wide x 15" deep
all three teapots cone 5 oxidation firing
Also Shown: “The Teapot Family On Guard,” a differently
arranged grouping of the same three teapots
11" tall by 20" wide by 19" deep
This grouping of teapots was made over a period of 6 months. I
started with the idea that I wanted to make a composition of three
reassembled ring teapots that hopped over and snaked under each
other in some kind of interlocking way. I knew that I would
have to photograph the group, so I had to make the composition
both complex and yet decipherable. I wanted the teapots to
be similar, but able to be distinguished from each other, so that
at first what would look like a haze of color and shapes would
by careful and persistent viewing be able to be visually untangled. I
knew before I started that I was going to use yellow, pink (a pastel
of red,) and orange (the mixture of red and yellow) glazes. I
also planned that I would make one teapot from a skinny round cross-section
ring, one from a triangular, and one from a square cross-section
ring. I didn’t know exactly how I was going to put
this all together, however. First I made the yellow teapot
with the round-cross-section ring. Then I made the pink teapot
with the triangular cross-section ring, and I constructed it so
that it jumped over the right end of the yellow teapot but the
viewer could still see the handle, lid, and spout of each teapot
from the point of view I was planning to have the photo taken. The
third square cross-section ring was assembled in a lower profile
so no part of it would block the handles, lids, and spouts of the
first two teapots. I chose to put the same forward-leaning
stem finial, spout, and handle style on each teapot so that they
would look related, like members of the same family. As I
completed assembling the second and third teapots in wet clay,
they seemed too big and didn’t fit in with the size of the
already fired teapot or teapots. By some miracle, they fit
together perfectly after they were all fired, and there were no
glaze firing flaws to distract from the composition. It was
a long process, stretched over six months, but my original plan
came out even better than I had hoped when I first dreamed it up! I
called the originally–conceived arrangement “The Teapot
Family Relaxes At Home,” because the grouping seemed like
dogs or cats sitting or laying together on the living room floor
in a relaxed manner.
I was able to rearrange the three teapots into a second composition
that seems more alert and on the lookout, like dogs who perk up when
they hear a stranger at the door, and I called this grouping “The
Teapot Family On Guard.”
This teapot sculpture is held in a private collection in Aspen, Colorado.
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. |
