What makes a good tea cup?
I was teaching a tea class for a couple of folks as a late Christmas present yesterday and was asked: when I’m at home, what kind of cup do I […]
Jianzhan / Temmoku
Introduction:So I’ve spent another irresponsible amount of money on tea cups. This purchase will include my 4th Jianzhan aka Temmoku style cup, which I am quite excited to test out. […]
Shino and Oribe Ceramics
(Pictured Above: Shino Tea Bowl) Mino Province, the now defunct name for an area just Northeast of modern-day Nagoya constituted the lower part of Gifu Prefecture. Mino pottery was made […]
Does Teaware make better tea?
(short answer: yes, but) I want you to come to your own conclusion, and to help you do that, I’ll lay out as much relevant information as I’m able to. […]
Edible Tea Cups
I was drinking a Soufuu sencha sample yesterday, one of the many single cultivar creations by Ashikubo Tea Works that I can consider to pick up in a future order. […]
Bizenyaki Yunomi’s by Kobashi Toshimitsu
Kobashi Toshimitsu is the creator of the first tea cup I’ve ever bought. I went to visit him in 2019, and wrote a little about it. Bizen is a town […]
Where to start with tea-ware?
Let me start by saying my work life and home life are polar opposites when it comes to tea. At Q Haute we brew our tea in a wine carafe, […]
Properties of Clay
After working with my clay for a bit, there are some observations that I have made. – You can’t rush the drying process (with a hair dryer for example) without […]
Backyard clay test firings at other cones
Susan at Wildflower Arts Center did some test firings for me to see the vitrification point of my backyard clay. I really like Cone03, it’s a beautiful red, exactly what […]
Let’s make an incense burner (Kouro) 香炉 Part 2.5 ‘Test work’
I’ve made 2 small projects with clay so far, more for testing purposes than anything else. Both turned out ‘ok’ to some degree. A shitty tea cup that looks like […]
Let’s make an incense burner (Kouro) 香炉 Part 2 ‘Design’
I’ve been a fan of ‘daruma’ since the first time I went to Japan in 2007, I usually buy them as gifts for others but never for myself. Conceptually it’s […]
Let’s make an incense burner (Kouro) 香炉 Part 1 ‘Clay’
It’s been one of those [it’s 12:00pm, I have the day off and nothing to do. I am not in the mood to read or learn, everyone else is working, […]
2013 Bizenyaki
X-Post from an older blog which I cannot access anymore, but didn’t want to lose this writeup. I wanted something unique to start a collection of Japanese ceramics so I […]