Best for making a good cup of tea.
Teapots can be found to be made of many different materials;
bone china, porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, glass, cast iron, steel, tin, copper, brass, and
aluminium. At different times each found popularity for reasons depending on their strength,
serviceability, cheapness of manufacture, or their novelty. In days gone by a railway cafe
seemed to always have the tin teapots probably because they didn't break when dropped.
Perhaps the more traditional choice of fine ceramics, like bone china, often with delicate
decoration, has become a standard because of its refinement compared to a plain earthenware pot.
All of the higher qualities given to pottery are related to fashion, art, and marketing.
These qualities have little to do with the operation of a teapot. People would mostly choose
a teapot based on the values they see in its decoration, its appearance, its name, and its price.
I see a teapot as an instrument to brew a drink, a tea infuser to make a liquor, and this is best
achieved with a pot that keeps heat longer. With a well insulated pot, the brewing continues for
a good time, giving more body and flavour to the brew, and is still able to give a hot cup when poured. A fine
quality, thin walled teapot, and any of the glass and metal teapots, lose heat rapidly, and have no
capacity to improve the brew. A terracotta or earthenware teapot which naturally has a porous clay body, is a wonderful
insulator and has the capacity to enhance the brew. It is the glassy glaze which makes earthenware
waterproof. Rather than a teapot finely, thinly, lightly,
made, a robust earthenware teapot made to be a good insulator, is the ideal teapot.
Craft is the maker making.
Making pottery there are a lot of acquired skills and knowledge. But essentially it is the maker making pottery. To talk about a crack found after firing as a crack caused by the firing is to miss the point. No doubt the crack appeared after a firing and there may be problems in the firing technique, but it is more than likely an unnecessary search for knowledge and ability. The crack is probably the result of the making and the maker is responsible. The ability to make pottery soundly, with integrity, is not about knowledge or technique. It is a sensitivity to the material, and the subtle intelligence of making. The search for technological knowledge can be a long and wasteful effort to what may be a need for awareness, attention, sensitivity, and intelligence.
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Pottery Craft is a responsibility. Not merely the responsibility to study, to develop, to produce, to market and sell. It is the direct, immediate, awareness and attention, and a whole movement of forming the material into a true artefact. |