'Lessons in Tea Making'

If this post is the first you come to pleasr go to 2009 in the Blog Archive and click on it and more recent posts will come up for March 2009.


This is another idea for installing teacups/mugs with a teapot at the centre. There will bea 5th shelf above.

Set of cups on shelves

I put all the cups on the shelves for this photo. I think i am getting there.

I might have done it!

After going into ther workshop having agonised and analysed and worried about making these cups this ios what came out, I tried to repeat all the necessary moves to make the first lot , and they were so spontaneous that it was difficult to remember exactly so its been abit of a rediscovery. I think I'm getting there.

How to reproduce a good piece of work?

I made these four cups in the 2nd photo as a one off to submit to a show at the Devon Guild and they got me in ! I love these. But I sold 3 of them off etsy and no longer have them . That was strange- I put them on ETSY on the 23rd December and 3 hours later they were sold. I thought they were good. obviously the guy who bought them thought so too. They are on the blog for 9th December 2008.
Now I have to make 3 piececs for the show called CUP.
But how do you go about making something similar again? How do you capture that moment of a particular focus? How do you repeat that? I am not such an experienced thrower that it is easy to do that . I don't work in a way where I repeat the same actions everytime. I don't follow a particular process on the wheel I like trying to work as automatically as possible. I made the 2 cups in the top photo on Saturady. They are coming close, I think.

Porringer in Porcelain

Thrown porc elian trimmed on the wheel while soft, with a rudimentary handle. Microwaveable, dishwasher proff, once fored in the electric kiln with a clear leadless glaze.

My Favourite Teapot-Coalport-

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/objectid/O77960
This a permanent link into the V+A's website.

1830- Hard Paste porcelain, moulded decoration-painted with enamels and gilding, a real fantasy piece, you can just imagine the Duchess of bedford using this teapot at her invention of high tea.

Mass Production and Studio Craft Practice - definition from my dissertation-2006

Mass production is the process by which there is a division of labour where each task in the production process is specialised. For example, to produce pottery, one person designs, another makes a plaster model of the design, another a mould, another casts the ware, another fettles, maybe putting on handles, another bisque fires the ware, another decorates and another glazes and the last stage is to glaze and then ‘glost’ fire and maybe finally an emael and gilt painting and firing.The production and application of transfers was a specializsation all on its own, requiring the production of etched copper plates and printing. The effect of this is efficiency and standardisation and thousands of identical pieces can be produced in a relatively short space of time at relatively small cost, with a wide profit margin, especially when the workers are badly paid. The choice of materials has to be standardised so that the results are always the same and predictable and that losses are kept to a minimum. It is possible to draw conclusions from this that the workers, although quite often producing a well crafted object, would not express anything of themselves within these processes. Handmade tableware or studio pottery is when one person carries out all these processes, as De Waal(2003, online), defines it “..that is the making by hand in a small studio rather than a factory”. Handmade tableware, until quite recently has meant the rejection of the mass produced process. On the other hand, one of the things that craft manufacture demonstrates is the real cost or value of human labour and, as such, is humanistic in its expression, an ethical philosophy which expresses the worth and dignity of people. The practice of a craft discipline is liberating for the indididual.

Mass Production of Textiles.

Of course along side of these developments the textile industry was starting to use mills to mass produce cloth-another successful model of mass production, and opening up a mass market for cheap clothing and interior furnishings.

David + John Elers Teapot 1690.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/37883-small.jpg

Moulded teapot made in iron bearing stoneware clay from Staffs, based on the imported Yixing Teapots which had begun to be imported from c1640.

It is possible that these teapots may not have been moulded in Plaster of Paris as this material was brought to this country c1740. Hard evdidence for the use of Plaster of paris in this country does not exist prior to this date. it was used on the continent, however. Plaster of Paris moulds are needed for slip casting. It could be moulded in ceramic moulds much as the romans moulded their Samian wares. To slipcast this teapot in one piece would require a five part mould-did the technical expertise exist in 1690 to make teapots in theis way?

Mass Production Rules! and Ceramics

I am going to make a bald staement here withiut a huge ammount of evidence to back it up.It is recognised that But the first models of successful mass production were designed within the pottery workshops in Stoke on Trent in the mid 18th century.

Please look at Marek Ceculas website - fascinating.
Other thoughts on the history of mass production come from when I emailed Dr David Barker FSA, Archaeological Consultant & Ceramics Specialist.

He said that mass production doesn't begin to start .."until c. 1740 in N. Staffs when plaster of Paris is said to have been introduced to make moulding efficient and affordable. This is really odd, given that the use of plaster of Paris has a long history on the Continent & in pottery-making and other trades. Still, until we find evidence of large quantities of moulded refined earthenwares or stonewares in a securely-dated context of pre-1740 we should probably stick with that date". and
"the development of table wares in the 18th century was coincidental with the appearance of palster of Paris moulding technology in north Staffs and that the appearance of this new manufacturing technique tranasformed the products of the area - new trades/skills, new wares and, especially, standardisation across the board".