I keep my eyes open all the time to gather images and ideas for possible use in my artwork. One contemporary master ceramic artist whose work I greatly admire is Taiwanese ceramicist Ah Leon. I had originally planned this Teapot to be a tall piece with the cut-apart arc sections bonded together and oriented vertically, like my Circle Line Reassembled Ring Teapot. One day while working on this project, I unwrapped it and was reminded of an unusual teapot by Ah Leon, held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and made in the Yixing tradition in the shape of a long naturalistic horizontal tree branch. Oddly enough, the spout of Ah Leon’s teapot points downward, so it looks like if you poured water into the teapot through the knothole lid opening it would just spill right out on the table! I like the bold idea of that denial of function, and like Ah Leon’s teapot example I oriented my Teapot horizontally, but oriented the spout upward to keep the tea in the pot until the user decides to pour it out—I just couldn’t follow Ah Leon’s example all the way! I traced a few of the 5-pointed star flat panel ends onto clay slabs to compose the lid finial as an echo of the Five-Pointed Star Ring Cross-Section, and glazed the Teapot orange. This Teapot image was published in Paul Park’s Ceramics Monthly magazine article, The Evolution Of An Idea, found in this web site’s Articles Section, and a Teapot Collector in Rancho Cucamonga, California asked me to make another one just like it. The second picture is my attempt at reproducing my original Five-Pointed Star Cross Section Reassembled Ring Teapot. The original had already been sold and shipped to San Antonio, Texas, so I only had this one photograph to go by, and the whole making-again process was very tedious and unsatisfying. Although the second “reproduction” Teapot came out fine, and the California Collector was happy with it, I vowed never to accept a repeat-of-a-Teapot commission again. After this experience I decided that my Reassembled Ring and Upright Ring Teapots are mine alone to create, and buyers can choose what I offer, but not participate in the design process.

8” Tall x 13” Wide x 11” Deep
Cone 5 oxidation Firing
This Teapot was purchased for a private collection in San Antonio, Texas.