Cardew Club News » 2006 » January

Teresa Chang’s 1-of-a-kind creations sell for about $600.

Knight RidderCeramicist Teresa Chang is well known for her line of handmade dinnerware. Glazed in the palest tones of pumpkin, ginger, celadon and cream, her modern designs have been featured in the pages of such magazines as O, Elle Decor, InStyle, Martha Stewart Living and Lucky.
But recently, Chang set herself a new challenge in clay: building a better teapot.

“Most teapots don’t work very well,” said Chang, 40, who works out of a studio near Philadelphia’s Chinatown and sells her pottery through her Web site, www.teresachang.com. “They dribble, or they’re hard to pick up, or the lid falls off.”

Longing for oolong? Desperate for Darjeeling? Drink in these tips on traditional teapot styles and leaves from cultures that have turned brewing into an art.

Call it the Starbucks effect.

One retailer convinced a nation that it should learn Italian traditions, spend big bucks on its brew and, for the dedicated, learn how to use home espresso makers.

Now comes tea, a drink so heating up in popularity that the Tea Association of the U.S.A. reports sales not only tripled in the past 15 years, but are expected to continue to rise.
Health seekers drink tea. Bottled ice tea sales are up. A steady increase in traditional tea drinking is going on as well, says Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Association.

Tea history lesson

In 1610, the Dutch East India Company carried the first consignment of Chinese tea to Europe. From there, tea was transported across the world before British legislation gave a tea monopoly in the American colonies to the British East India Co. when the competition’s duty regulations were “adjusted” to allow the failing companies a chance to sell its large tea surplus below prices charged by colonial competitors. Colonists opposed the act as another example of taxation without representation, and the historical 1773 Boston Tea Party incident took place. Led by Samuel Adams, American patriots dressed as Indians threw 342 chests of tea from three British ships into Boston Harbor as retaliation to the British.

A doll could be more than a doll. It might be a candy container, tea cozy, lamp cover, powder-box cover or bed pillow.

In the days before microwaves, keeping water hot for tea was a problem. The water was boiled in a metal teakettle but usually served in a ceramic pot.

In the late 19 th century, the idea of a tea cozy appeared. A china teapot was used to serve tea, then put back on the table and covered with a cozy to stay warm.

For those looking to shed a few pounds post-holidays, pre-bikini or simply making healthier lifestyle choices, the solution may be found within a daily cup of matcha green tea. A part of Zen Buddhist culture for well over 800 years, matcha is a fine tea powder that is blended and consumed in a drink rather than steeped and discarded like tea leaves.
Clinical research has shown matcha increases metabolism, offers a huge antioxidant hit and gives a gentle stimulating effect superior to steeped teas.

Weight Loss:

For those in the area, we thought it was worth letting you know about what could prove to be a very interesting talk. Louisville ceramist Fong Choo, who has a national following for his elegant and intriguing miniature teapots, will be the speaker at the Louisville Visual Art Association’s “Food for Thought” luncheon and lecture Tuesday at noon. “Elegant Shapes & Beautiful Glazes: The Master Potter’s Art” is the title of the talk to be given by Choo, adjunct professor and resident artist at Bellarmine University in Louisville.
If we can find a report on the talk he gives, or perhaps just come complimentary information on his teapots, we’ll post that next time. Equally, if any of you members actually make to this talk, please do let us know all about it, we’d love to pass the information on to everyone else on this blog.

Welcome back, we hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year, and are ready to get stuck back into the world of teapots! Here’s the first blog of the year…

The first teapot Sonny and Gloria Kamm got together was a wedding gift, and as far as they can remember it was a typical “brown betty” — the traditional glazed pot.

Today, they have more than 7,500 teapots and related items, filling shelves and closets and even a condominium they bought for storage and affectionally call “Teapot Central.”