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  ROYAL-TEA TOTE, A CERAMIC TEAPOT

Royal Tea Tote is a teabag made primarily of stoneware with silk-screened porcelain tile Keraflex laminated on its surfaces.
  • This is a ceramic teabag (a term used to signify a teapot designed as a handbag) that is developed in response to the lessons learned in the failed experiment --- detailed in the discussion about Royal-Tea --- in which stoneware clay and the porcelain medium Keraflex are combined. To review those lessons: Delicate Keraflex cannot support the weight of stoneware clay spout and handle during kiln firing; stoneware clay needs bisque firing, but not Keraflex;; therefore, the process requires first building the entire form in stoneware for strength and stability, and then laminating Keraflex in place after three-color separation photo silk-screening and remodeling by a rewetting technique.
  • Initial work on the body of this hand-built piece involves slab construction with stoneware cone 10 clay . Body surfaces are faux quilted by press mold. Handle is a rolled out thin slab of clay; spout is wheel-thrown and altered; feet are press mold in tart shell forms.
  • Flat Keraflex tiles are photo silk-screened with the front and back images of a queen of hearts playing card. Rewetting the back of the tiles permitted them to be reshaped by greenware press mold of the teapot body to comport with the shape of the surfaces; these are then laminated in place on the front and back panels of the body.
  • Photo silk-screened Keraflex tiles are also modified by bending, folding and modeling to form the fluted lid at the top of the piece.
  • Underglazes applied to all unlaminated ares.
  • Extruded clay applied as cording to the sides of the teapot.
  • Construction sequence:
  • Displayed at Fifth Annual Big Fish, Small Pot V: Fifth International Small Teapot Competition and Show, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA, 2012; awarded Honorable Mention.
  • Date: 2012.
  • Size: 10.5" x 6.5" x 6.0".
  • Sold.

 

ENLARGED VIEWS

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CREATIVE PROCESS

 

 

Royal Tea, A Ceramic Teapot
  • This hand-built ceramic teapot is made primarily of high-range (cone 10) stoneware clay. by slab construction.
  • The surfaces of the teapot's body are patterned by the application of press mold to form the quilting.
  • Spout is wheel thrown and altered; handle is a rolled clay slab; feet are press mold tart shells; lid is fluted porcelain Keraflex tile. All are attached in place by score and slip method.
  • Keraflex tiles are photo silk-screened with images of the front and back of a queen of hearts playing card.
  • The shape of the flat tiles are modified by press mold of the teapot body so they will comport to its shape when affixed.
  • These tiles are laminated to the surfaces of the front and back panels of the teapot body.
  • Clear and colored underglazes are applied to those areas that are free of laminated tiles.

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Embellishment with silk-screened laminates, glazes and lusters.    

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 Almost completed work.

  • Cold finishes complete the work. Of special interest is the use of variegated red leaf, a form of gold leaf, to the spout and undersurface of the handle.

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Variegated red leaf brightens the decorative effect on spout and handle.

 

  • Detail of spout after application of variegated red leaf to embellish the spout and undersurface of the handle.

 

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