Tuesday

This is teapot no. 94 of my second set of 100 teapots. Only six more to go. I remember doing my first one. Each one I do still feels like the first one. Here's my written description that accompanies my second set of teapots on flickr:

[8 December, 2006]

It's official. I have embarked on my second set of 100 teapots. I had thought to do 100 architectural structures, 100 mandalas, 100 different cactuses, or maybe 100 humans.... However, my natural inclination leads me again and again to enjoy breathing and being over a cup of tea. I enjoy the preparation of tea, the color and form of the teapots, and the tea releasing its full flavor in the proper temperature water.

If you practice anything deeply, you can know everything, touch everything. A good tea host in the Japanese tea ceremony, for example, invites the guest(s) to share a moment of peace over a bowl of freshly whisked green tea. Discussion in the tearoom may include poetic or stylistic elements of the calligraphed poem hung in the tokonoma (special tearoom altar), admiration of the seasonal chabana (floral arrangement), the glaze, shape, and style of teabowl, as well as discussion of the potter, the poet/calligrapher of the poem, and other bits of history.

A tea host must know history, poetry, brush calligraphy styles, pottery, chabana, and be fluid and fluent in the art of tea. I'm not a tea host of the type I just described, though I've had the opportunity to host Japanese tea and be an invited guest in an authentic Japanese tearoom.

I enjoy simple tea. I like taking the time to prepare my tea in small teapots: Japanese green teas, Chinese and Taiwanese oolongs, green, white, and yellow teas, pu-erhs, and Indian teas. Making tea slowly, I really taste the tea, my surroundings, my companions, and my breath.

All this to say, there are mandalas in teapots. And, some teapots are little architectural wonders. So, here is my growing second set of 100 Teapots.

See the first set here.

茶茶茶 [Cha-cha-cha]

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Will she do a third set of 100 teapots?!