mel jacobson on tue 14 dec 04
it just seems logical to me to avoid
a mass of tiny holes at the base of a teapot
spout.
they clog.
they cause the pot to pour badly.
very few folks use loose tea any longer.
they have to be cleaned with a tool after
glazing and basically no one cares if they
are present.
they take the potter gobs of extra time,
and anger and frustration when the holes clog
with glaze. bob anderson's wonderful shino teapot
(total racer) had clogged holes this fall at the farm firing.
does not pour a drop.
nice teapot for the shelf. it would have been a prize winner
at the shino show in baltimore.
quote: `gd it mel, i know better, thought i would be a smarty
pants and put in tiny holes...now it is ruined.` you don't get second
chances with salt/shino. when they are great, they are great.
don't expect it again.
so.
i cut a hole, one hole a bit smaller than my
spout. the spout has at least a six to one
ratio from opening to opening. 6-1 taper.
i cut a small sharp lip on the rim with a razor
knife. put a quarter inch hole in the lid.
pot pours well, does not drip, and i advise
folks to use a metal strainer. just like grandma used
in 1843. and, if you wait for the tea to steep for at least
7 minutes, all the tea leaves are on the bottom. if not, bounce
the pot on the table once. boom, down they go.
works like a charm.
i sold nine of those holeless teapots this weekend.
not one person said. `oh, my god, these teapots don't have
a thousand tiny holes to strain tea, i am putting this damn
thing back on the shelf.` what they do say is:
`mel, your teapots pour like a dream, no drip down the side
and onto the table cloth. i always buy them for wedding gifts`
mel
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
Liz Willoughby on tue 14 dec 04
Dear Mayor, and all clayarters who make teapots,
I have been sitting on the sidelines here for quite some time,
reading clayart and musing over people's posts.
This discussion has come up before, as have many of our discussions.
What it comes down too, is a matter of choice and a matter of how we
work, which goes a long way to describe who we are.
Interesting that this business of putting holes in a teapot can
create so many posts.
Here is my take on it.
I like to put holes in a teapot. I like to take the time to do it
right. I have always put holes in teapots.
They do not clog up if you
1.) wet the area where the holes are before glazing, using a slightly
thinner glaze on the inside than the outside.
2.) after glazing take a bamboo skewer that you bend into a right
angle, so that you can get in there and unclog any holes.
My teapots pour, and do not drip.
I also put a hole in the flange of the lid, for those that prefer a
tea-ball, this is to hook the chain on.
It is only a matter of preference. I like spending time, and
attention to detail, especially on teapots, and I like giving people
who buy my teapots the option of using it with loose tea or tea bags.
One only forgets to clean the holes out after glazing once. As
always, we learn from our mistakes more than our successes.
Meticky Liz from Grafton, Ontario, Canada
beautiful out there today, winter wonderland.
Hi Steve, glad to see you on clayart.
>it just seems logical to me to avoid
>a mass of tiny holes at the base of a teapot
>spout.
>
>they clog.
>they cause the pot to pour badly.
>very few folks use loose tea any longer.
>they have to be cleaned with a tool after
>glazing and basically no one cares if they
>are present.
>
> bob anderson's wonderful shino teapot
>(total racer) had clogged holes this fall at the farm firing.
> does not pour a drop.
Laurie Cowell on tue 14 dec 04
At Tuesday12/14/2004, you wrote:
>it just seems logical to me to avoid
>a mass of tiny holes at the base of a teapot
>spout............
>
>i cut a hole, one hole a bit smaller than my
>spout. .........mel
Mel:
Where do you position the hole in relation to the base of the spout? Does
it really matter?
With my teapots, I have cut out 1/4 inch holes solely for the purpose of
keeping the teabag from getting stuck in the spout. For loose tea I use a
"tea sock" which consists of a reuseable unbleached muslin bag mounted on a
circular wire (with handle) that rests on the rim of the teapot under the
lid. Purchased it at a local natural health product store.
Laurie Cowell
Taylor from Rockport on tue 14 dec 04
Haha Lee!
We use both loose tea and bagged tea here in the Hendrix household. I still
have tins and tins of oo long and high mountain tea from my students.
My one and only teapot had holes and all but one clogged up with glaze. Oh
brother. BUT when I do get back to throwing I will again try strainer
holes. Why? Because a bunch of potters have done it. Then I might try the
one big hole. Why? Because a bunch of potters have done it.
I miss my source of fresh sushi, Lee. Am I going to have to learn how to
make sushi, now?
Taylor, in Rockport
>I am guessing that most of the people on this good planet use loose tea
>and not Lipton or Red Rose bags. ;^) You have to search to find bag
>tea here, especially green tea (Lipton is easier.) But even back
>home, we always used loose tea: Green, Jasmine, Earl Grey or Herb
>from the Co-op. Sometimes we put the tea in bags that come from the
>Co-op. I guess it all depends on who you hang out with. Just like
>sushi, huh Taylor? ;^)
Elizabeth Priddy on tue 14 dec 04
Here's a way to turn the problem into a feature.
For every five teapots you make with just a hole, make one with strainer holes.
Label the ones without as "tea pots" and the ones with as 'loose tea pots"
and price the ones with strainers about 20% more.
It could strike up some conversation with the customers and will compensate
you for the extra time. Maybe 20% more on the cost will inspire you. Or you
might just wind up keeping the identical pot, except for the strainer, because
customers can be cheap.
Everybody wins.
A Japanese pot that I have and use has little clay "hooks" just above the one hole and
a small piece of mesh came stuck under the hooks. there are three hooks, two on top and
one on bottom, the mesh just flexes. A few leaves get through, but not enough to be
really tiresome.
Elizabeth Priddy
252-504-2622
1273 Hwy 101
Beaufort, NC 28516
http://www.elizabethpriddy.com
---------------------------------
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foxpots on wed 15 dec 04
Hi Fellow Clay Arters,
Finally, I couldn't pass on this one. I cut out a circle, the size of the
strainer holes section, of thin foam-wrap; coat one side of it with rubber
cement; take long tweezers and apply it to the strainer holes section inside
the body of the teapot. Then I take a cotton ball and dampen it and push it
into the spout. Then I dip the teapot into the glaze and let dry a bit.
Pull off the foam-wrap circle with the tweezers. Pull out the cotton ball.
No glaze. Also, to begin with I make darned sure these holes are nice and
smooth.
Regards,
Jean Wadsworth Cochran
http://www.foxhollowpottery.com
www.kycraft.ky.gov/craftcgi-bin/index.cgi?busid=186
Lee Love on wed 15 dec 04
Liz Willoughby wrote:
> 1.) wet the area where the holes are before glazing, using a slightly
> thinner glaze on the inside than the outside.
> 2.) after glazing take a bamboo skewer that you bend into a right
> angle, so that you can get in there and unclog any holes.
At my teachers workshop, my main job during glazing, was sponging all
the bisque with water before it was glazed.
I also used a brush loaded with water and painted water on the seams
where handles and spouts meet the body (helps keep bubbles from forming
there, and with the brush, I also wetted the strainer hoses. This
helped them keep from plugging up. If you have ridges on pots,
brushing the seams with water will eliminate pinholes around the ridges.
Also, tea pots are glazed on the inside first, using a funnel to get
the glaze on the inside without splashing the outside. Once the glaze
is poured inside, it is rolled around to cover the inside completely.
Then the glaze is poured out of the spout. When the glaze is out of
the spout, you blow into the spout to clear the strainer holds. This
eliminates any marking up you might do with a sharp tool.
To glaze the outside of the teapot (on small teapots) you hold your
thumb against the spout hole to keep glaze from going inside.
Then you dip the teapot in the glaze, holding it upside down, so the
trapped air inside the teapot keeps the glaze from going inside the teapot.
Larger teapots, like Dobin, have the spout plugged with a wad of clay
after the inside is glazed (instead of holding the thumb over the spout.)
I am guessing that most of the people on this good planet use loose tea
and not Lipton or Red Rose bags. ;^) You have to search to find bag
tea here, especially green tea (Lipton is easier.) But even back
home, we always used loose tea: Green, Jasmine, Earl Grey or Herb
from the Co-op. Sometimes we put the tea in bags that come from the
Co-op. I guess it all depends on who you hang out with. Just like
sushi, huh Taylor? ;^)
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/ WEB LOG
http://public.fotki.com/togeika/ Photos!
Jonathan Kirkendall on wed 15 dec 04
Hi Mel,
Maybe it's a regional thing, but I have to tell you that the stores here
in DC that stock my tea pots have all insisted that I 1) either make
strainers in the tea pots or 2) make the top so that it will hold a
strainer. Seems that most people who will pay $90 for my pots or MUCH
MUCH MORE for a Judith Weber tea pot don't use tea bags.
There are very successful tea shops in these parts that sell only loose
tea, and at my house, it's all we use.
When I glaze my teapots, I wet the strainer holes thoroughly with a
brush loaded with water. When it's soaked up the water, then I dip it
in the glaze - the water soaked clay in the strainer doesn't absorb any
glaze.
Jonathan in DC
mel jacobson wrote:
> it just seems logical to me to avoid
> a mass of tiny holes at the base of a teapot
> spout.
>
> they clog.
> they cause the pot to pour badly.
> very few folks use loose tea any longer.
> they have to be cleaned with a tool after
> glazing and basically no one cares if they
> are present.
>
> they take the potter gobs of extra time,
> and anger and frustration when the holes clog
> with glaze. bob anderson's wonderful shino teapot
> (total racer) had clogged holes this fall at the farm firing.
> does not pour a drop.
> nice teapot for the shelf. it would have been a prize winner
> at the shino show in baltimore.
> quote: `gd it mel, i know better, thought i would be a smarty
> pants and put in tiny holes...now it is ruined.` you don't get second
> chances with salt/shino. when they are great, they are great.
> don't expect it again.
>
> so.
> i cut a hole, one hole a bit smaller than my
> spout. the spout has at least a six to one
> ratio from opening to opening. 6-1 taper.
>
> i cut a small sharp lip on the rim with a razor
> knife. put a quarter inch hole in the lid.
>
> pot pours well, does not drip, and i advise
> folks to use a metal strainer. just like grandma used
> in 1843. and, if you wait for the tea to steep for at least
> 7 minutes, all the tea leaves are on the bottom. if not, bounce
> the pot on the table once. boom, down they go.
>
> works like a charm.
>
> i sold nine of those holeless teapots this weekend.
> not one person said. `oh, my god, these teapots don't have
> a thousand tiny holes to strain tea, i am putting this damn
> thing back on the shelf.` what they do say is:
> `mel, your teapots pour like a dream, no drip down the side
> and onto the table cloth. i always buy them for wedding gifts`
> mel
> From:
> Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
> web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
> or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
> new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
>
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>
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>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
Stephen on mon 20 dec 04
I have followed Michael Cardew's detailed instrucions for making teapots in
Pioneer Pottery for years (not necessarily style but technique). These work
and I do not have to fuss over a different way of glazing.What he suggests
is to cut the clay thinner where the strainer is so that it soaks up less
glaze. I cut or scrape this area with a knife before boring the holes. I
have started using a sure form lately for fascetting so I may also use this
on teapots. I cut too much too often. By the way his other suggestions also
work.
Stephen
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