Tea (And Mixed-Media Fiber-Art) Time At LMA

Afternoon tea is taken to stylish new heights in a monthlong exhibit at Lancaster Museum of Art.

Don’t be fooled. “The Artful Teapot” shows just how cool a spot of tea can be.

Manor Township resident Amy Thorn collects high-end teapots that are as clever as they are functional. And when she speaks of the afternoon-tea tradition, it’s with the passion of a collector who relishes the mystique of tea drinking missed by many Americans.

Who knew everything and everyone of any notoriety has been turned into a functioning teapot?

“Whatever your interest is, you will find it in a teapot,” Thorn said.

This woman knows her tea. She can speak to the importance of using a proper teacup over just any old mug (the distribution of heat through the porcelain keeps the tea from cooling too quickly). She knows why those silly cozies are actually useful (they retain the heat to the last drop). And she knows proper tea accouterments are some unsavory-sounding condiments called “lemon curd” and “clotted cream.”

Whether or not you like the stuff steeped in the traditions of China, Japan, Sri Lanka and India, it’s hard not to like these teapots.

“I looked for years and years for this teapot,” Thorn said of a 1939 commemorative teapot sporting the words, “War Against Hitlerism” and the flags of several nations — but not ours. It’s not the flashiest teapot in the show, but it has an interesting historic angle — it was designed as a replacement for dutiful British citizens who relinquished their aluminum teapots to be used to make war ordnance before the United States entered the war.

The exhibit represents about a quarter of Thorn’s collection. She chose pieces for how well they represent the tradition of afternoon tea (every serious collector must have an essential cottage-shaped teapot) and their obvious crowd appeal — check out the Princess Diana bust teapot with a little spout hole right above her eyes.

“I was so lucky to get Diana because they pulled them from production,” Thorn said. “It’s Princess Diana in the pink outfit she wore right after her wedding.”

But The Artful Teapot is also about the silly. One in Thorn’s collection is a teapot shaped like a bagel that looks real enough to eat, save for the spout jutting out one side. Another is a slick Count Dracula, whose fangs are only exposed when the lid is lifted.

She grouped teapots into sections for display, including a set of animal teapots — a dog, a cat, a panda bear, an elephant and a woodpecker. Another group consists of literary characters, the most obvious being “Alice in Wonderland” figures and “Andy Capp” from the 1940s comic strip.

Thorn said she researches in books teapots she wants to acquire, then puts her international contacts on the lookout for them.

“The joy about collecting is the desire,” she said. “Then when you finally get it, every time you look at it, it makes it more special because you remember all the people who worked to help you find it and the different aspects of getting it.”

If teapots aren’t your cup of tea, the museum also is hosting the Fiber National Exhibition, an unbelievable example of what artists can do with paper, fiber and mixed media.

Art juror Gail M. Brown chose 102 works from 505 pieces submitted by 162 artists across the country. And they are incredible, encompassing everything from embroidery, tapestry, appliqué, knotting and felting to weaving, crocheting and hand and machine quilting.

Philadelphia artist Ed Bing Lee’s fiber food appears almost edible. Maine artist Katharine Cobey’s “To Shine” is a boatload of Chore Boy cleaning pads reconstructed into a giant copper-colored cape.

The annual juried exhibits are always a great way to see what artists are doing in a particular field. Some go for and find beauty (see Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo’s “Three Mongolians”); others want to inspire thought (David K. Chatt’s “108 Meditations in Saffron” is a collection of found objects encased in beads). Still others simply defy explanation (see Steve Whittlesey’s “Breastillows,” which are exactly what they sound like).

This article was taken from: Local Lancaster Onlone