Notes from Qiu Shan Tang 秋山堂

When I was leaving for my first visit of Taiwan last spring, I promised myself to take many pictures, making notes and then share as much as possible here, for my curious readers. Yes, I took over thousand pictures. Yes, I put down some notes about my "pots and tea" experiences. Just that sharing part is missing. My good friend Daniel, who joined me on that trip, just posted some of his notes, memories and pictures on their blog. Thank you Dan!


Enjoy the reading here: Tea Lesson with Fang LaoShi.


I love that place and there are already some plans to go back, to meet friend over tea, to learn and go deeper. If you will find yourself in Taichung one day, you might want to make some space and stay there for a while. Be sure you are not in hurry, it is worth it.


Here are few shots from my camera...

Bowl tea after...

Thank you for reading!

Back in Clay

 

Hello everyone! It have been a while...I am back from The Taiwan trip for a bit more then week now. All experiences are still alive in my veins, but my fingernails are already clay dirty. Tonight, we close and switch on our bisque kiln. We are going to fire our woodkiln next week. The best from that firing is going to be with us "on show" in tearoom in Wroclaw, Poland, next weekend. And I would like to write here about all of it, at least a bit. But step by step...



-I still have two gems to photograph and share. Two pieces from two "before Taiwan" kilns for my gem collection. I hope to post it here in a week.


-There is also selection of "the best of" pieces for potsandtea club. I am going to take pictures and share them with members of the club in few days. Many of you are interested in being in, unfortunatelly the blogger does not work as smoothly as I thought it will be. And many of you have a trouble to open that page. I have a solution and it will change with the new post.


-Then, there are some notes and pictures from the Taiwan roads, which I would like to put it together in some kind of article or two during upcoming weeks. From refined Wistaria teahouse to Tea Sage Hut light. From fragrant cups in Taroko gorge to sweetness of tea brews in Shan Lin Shi bamboo forest. And potters, we can not forget potters out there! And people. New friendships are most precious treasures we bring from our travels. 

Leaves for Sun Moon Lake hong cha are tasty...

Organic tea bushes in Pinlin area...

Leaves for baozhong are resting, the pickers are just having lunch time...

Withering on public road of Pinlin

Bugs on tea leaves are good sign.

Kiln openning near Yingge...

- We have new ceramic stoves, braziers for heating tea water. With iron cast grate inside it is quite special. So yes, blog post about those is coming soon as well.

-And many other pots_and_tea related things to share. Teas I drink, cups I drink from. From Taiwan, I flew with Emirates airlines and they generously allow 30kg luggage + carry on. Well, I was almost 10 kg overweight. And believe me, there was not much of "not pots and tea" stuff.

Spring is always intense season, and probably not just here, in the middle of Europe. But this time, for me, there are many strong inspirational impulses. For both my work in clay and personal, everyday live. I feel gratitude. I do what I love to do. We can call it happiness. Thank you for being part of it.

Back home...

Thank you for reading!

Thank you for reading!

Barcelona Tea House

Every year, we travel a bit. Probably less then we would like to, but studio keeps us busy. Despite the fact that we call those trips Holiday it somehow usually includes ceramic or/and tea world. Last year it was Festival of Fire in France, this year we visited our friend Antonio, who runs the tearoom named  Čaj Chai Tearoom. 

But first, let make stop at empty beaches. Living in landlocked Czech Rep, enjoying sea is always more then welcome...

Our plans for (our first) Barcelona visit were quite simple: art museums, old city downtown and the tearoom. Antonio asked us to bring selection of new teaware for his customers. We have also arranged small ceramic workshop. A opportunity for those, who would like to get closer look to how we work. This Sunday workshop had two parts. First there was demonstration of "how I finish a teapot".  I showed live, how spout and handle are made - how basic body is changed to the final teapot. There was small, but very enthusiastic group of people, so it was quite easy to talk about types of clays, glazes, firings for more then two hours.

The second part of the event was focused on preparing water on charcoal. Yes, I like this topic. Mirka started to work on stoves more regularly. I create kettles. I still keep testing all of them and it helps me to get more experiences on this field. So the topic of this "charcoal workshop" was not only to show some of our stoves-kettles, but especially to share those experiences. It was fun to watch how people are fascinating by fire. We light up two stoves and tried to boil water in ceramic as well as in glass teapot. I was glad that the tearoom was just lightly scented by charcoal aroma and not smoked - the oak charcoal I brought was good quality. I prepared several infusions of young sheng. After second infusion, a participant in front of me has declared "I never liked pu-ehr. But this one is very tasty! I am going to give it another chance".

If you will be in Barcelona one day, I would recomment to stop by. Despite of the name of the tearoom Čaj Chai (chai- the Indien mixture of red tea and spices) you will find there wide selection of exellent teas. I can confirm that after seeing Juan Miró, Pablo Pissaso or Antonio Gaudi a cup of Ali Shan oolong is going to round off your day in very pleasant way.


Thank you for reading!

Terra Mano

After quite busy summer we decided to accept nice invitation from France. Terra Mano is name of festival hold every year in small town in Corréze deppartment, Meyssac. We were invited to participate on festival and also to spent few day before festival in this wonderful area. We needed vacation and it was pleasant to leave our daily routine behinde us. But I took this traveling, as I usually do, more like oportunity to learn and bring new inspirations in to my live.

Back home, I remember people and their lives more then sights. I am always more curious to see how craftsmen work then lie on the beach. Hearing story of a castle I see lives of people in the landscape around. We enjoyed stay in the area very much. It was great to watch how local potters throw on the weel. It was factinating to see how glassblower is blowing in to a pipe, creating wonderful vase. Farmers in walnut orchard are picking up this year's wealth. There are goats on slope and goats cheese on the table. Driving thru vineyard in the morning we enjoyed red wine during evening.

There are few villiges in the area called "red stone villiges" From pictures you can see why this nickname. What fascinates me as a potter was the clay used by local potters. It is stoneware with almost the same color as those sand stones houses around - iron red.

The clay is mined by Dordogne River and it was joy to try work with it there. Such joy that I asked Meyssac potter Laetitia to give me chunk of this "Dordogne treasure" to try it at home. I am looking forward to see how my hands and our kiln are going to deal with it. At the top of my head I have few tea pots named "French Autumn" (I know, not too inventive...). And the process have already started. So please, curious reader, be patience and stay tune.

Thank you for reading...