Tea Ceremony Bowls

Here are some tea ceremony bowls that I made for the wood firing at Hambidge.  I attended a workshop with Akira Satake last year and tried to incorporate his teachings about the tea ceremony bowls into the pieces.  I think I may have succeeded with a few of them.

I'll probably end up keeping them.  It seems that I can't sell very many pieces that I feel incorporate the Japanese aesthetic.  I even made a couple of Sake bottles that have lingered in my Etsy store for some time, even after I sold the Sake cups.  At Art-B-Que a Japanese woman looked around my booth and (unsolicited) told me that I did a great job of capturing the aesthetic.  This made me feel really good but it doesn't bring me any sales.  I think maybe its just not what my typical customer wants.
In the winter I'll often have some herb tea in a tea bowl like one of these.  It's a great way to relax at the end of the day.  In the summer I'm more southern and drink sweet tea with lots of ice.
What pieces do you make just for the love of making them?


Other Stuff:

Japanese Tea Ceremony
Presentation Zen
Seven Principles of Japanese Aesthetics

Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery