140ml Reduction Lizella teapot #202
This pot was fired to cone six (1200C, 2200F) in a gas reduction kiln I built for my studio this year. The clay is Lizella, dug from a creek bed in middle Georgia by the same family for decades. It is strong and stable allowing me to make surprisingly light vessels that take well to the stresses of use. As with any tea vessel over time the pot will benefit from being used only for teas with similar flavor profiles, but this clay is not very porous and can therefor be used for a variety of teas.
I love this clay. I’ve been using it since my time in college over a decade ago. After so long working with it I feel confident that I found the right processes to bring out its best qualities. The surface of the fired clay is rough, not rough as in bumpy but rough on a micro scale. The high iron content of the clay allows me to manipulate the way the crystalline structures of the clay behave and when you apply enough reduction the surface becomes a chocolate brown to burgundy color with very high surface area. This high surface area means that water and tea oils interact with the clay in beautiful and unusual ways. Water evaporates faster than expected from the surface, and the tea oils left behind can lend a metallic sheen. Because I am firing to clay at the peak of its range in order to achieve the best results for tea, from time to time surface cracking can occur where spouts and handles attach. I test each pot to be sure they function well and precisely. If you have any issues with a pot I’ll be happy to make it right.
This pot was fired to cone six (1200C, 2200F) in a gas reduction kiln I built for my studio this year. The clay is Lizella, dug from a creek bed in middle Georgia by the same family for decades. It is strong and stable allowing me to make surprisingly light vessels that take well to the stresses of use. As with any tea vessel over time the pot will benefit from being used only for teas with similar flavor profiles, but this clay is not very porous and can therefor be used for a variety of teas.
I love this clay. I’ve been using it since my time in college over a decade ago. After so long working with it I feel confident that I found the right processes to bring out its best qualities. The surface of the fired clay is rough, not rough as in bumpy but rough on a micro scale. The high iron content of the clay allows me to manipulate the way the crystalline structures of the clay behave and when you apply enough reduction the surface becomes a chocolate brown to burgundy color with very high surface area. This high surface area means that water and tea oils interact with the clay in beautiful and unusual ways. Water evaporates faster than expected from the surface, and the tea oils left behind can lend a metallic sheen. Because I am firing to clay at the peak of its range in order to achieve the best results for tea, from time to time surface cracking can occur where spouts and handles attach. I test each pot to be sure they function well and precisely. If you have any issues with a pot I’ll be happy to make it right.
This pot was fired to cone six (1200C, 2200F) in a gas reduction kiln I built for my studio this year. The clay is Lizella, dug from a creek bed in middle Georgia by the same family for decades. It is strong and stable allowing me to make surprisingly light vessels that take well to the stresses of use. As with any tea vessel over time the pot will benefit from being used only for teas with similar flavor profiles, but this clay is not very porous and can therefor be used for a variety of teas.
I love this clay. I’ve been using it since my time in college over a decade ago. After so long working with it I feel confident that I found the right processes to bring out its best qualities. The surface of the fired clay is rough, not rough as in bumpy but rough on a micro scale. The high iron content of the clay allows me to manipulate the way the crystalline structures of the clay behave and when you apply enough reduction the surface becomes a chocolate brown to burgundy color with very high surface area. This high surface area means that water and tea oils interact with the clay in beautiful and unusual ways. Water evaporates faster than expected from the surface, and the tea oils left behind can lend a metallic sheen. Because I am firing to clay at the peak of its range in order to achieve the best results for tea, from time to time surface cracking can occur where spouts and handles attach. I test each pot to be sure they function well and precisely. If you have any issues with a pot I’ll be happy to make it right.