steaming pot of tea

As I write

this teapot is a semi finalist in the 2011 international teapot competition Seapotsteapots in Portugal.
The teapots had to have a nautical theme ... which was no problem at all .. as I had been working on the design this spring .. perfect timing.

standing dragon teapot

I started making dragons in the 70's and  they paid the bills for a  quite a while .. dragon bookends, dragon fountains,  dragon sculptures  after a while  I put them to work as teapots.. after a decade or so ... enough with the dragons already!.... now I make a  just a few dragon teapots  each year,  to order or to suit myself .

flying saucer teapot

Now here is a ''name came before the teapot'' I like the incongruity... of course adding a spout to it makes it a bit less aerodynamic but no flying saucers have come down to complain , yet.

another spaceship teapot

Dimpled Teapot

Hey! sometimes I make teapots that look like .. er ..teapots!

dragon teapot

 I made my first dragon teapot in 1975 when I started salt firing and could build one  with  a clay body that would take the fine detail and  still perform well [like survive!] as a teapot. 

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elephant and giraffe teapots

Elephants make great teapots , they  hold lots of tea and the trunk was designed by nature to pour [ also by physics to break ....sigh! ].. My original giraffe teapot came from my search for teapot appropriate animals , like the elephant great pour ... almost too great... the tea can build up quite a lot of force by the time it  reaches the spout!   Altered slab , saltfired cone 10  with low fire lustres.

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snail teapot

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In my ongoing search for teapotable animals .. the snail ... ... for some reason when you draw a liquid from the bottom of a teapot it does not behave the same as drawing it from , say , !/2 way down ... it tends to burble ... but I am not going to re-design the snail !!!.... salt fired with slips, stains and low fire lustres..

spaceship teapot

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Extra terrestrial teapot ... and no the name did not come first... They don't hold much tea and they do not pour very well .. but what do you expect from a spaceship? I had a lot of fun making them , took me back to my youth spent emersed in science fiction.  I did find however that only men [ not the usual art buying demographic]  purchased them .