Gems twenty two and twenty three

As I have mentioned in my last post here, there are two new gems for my Gem Collection. The one piece is from end of February, second from March kiln. The kilns, which we have fired before my Taiwan trip. They were patiently waiting here for me and my camera. Actually, ceramic do not mind to wait. If it is good now, it should works even after years. Ceramic shards talk about ancient civilizations. Two months is nothing, right? But I feel, I need to apologize to you, my readers, and thank you for your patience.

As you can see bellow, both new gems are light in both color and form. Maybe it was upcoming spring, calling for something more thin and shiny.

The teapot is made of translucent porcelain. It is quite tricky to work with and much harder to fire. There are several teapots on our "pots cemetery" from this material. In high heat the porcelain is moving, warping, cracking, sticking to shelfs, glaze is running down. But when teapot like this Gem n.22 survive, I know why I am still using it. It is calling for high fragrant tea!

The bowl with the saucer is born from imperfection. It is like gaiwan but lid is missing. There is a lot of cracking on the glaze. There are "fingerprints", unglazed spots from my fingers. But there is elegance, it is graceful. The saucer is lifting up the form in both figurative and literal sense.

Before taking look at new gems, say goodbye to gems number twelve and thirteen. The small Cockerel is already in Shanghai, the Charm then will be on the road soon. I know that both customers love tea. Those pots are in good hands.

Note: Yes, both new pieces are light in color and shiny. It means that to take live, real pictures is task from mission impossible category. For sure, if the photographer is un-trained me. Anyway, here we are...

For more pictures of those new pieces please visit this page. If The Ten Gems of Ten Kilns project is new for you, then please read this post first.

Gem number twenty two: Clean Fragrance

Gem number twenty three: Touching The Moon

Thank you for the 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!