Pink Tusk Reassembled Ring Teapot

With this teapot I returned to the positive-curve triangular cross-section ring I used for my Mint Green Sharp Edges Reassembled Ring Teapot and my Lemon Yellow Triangular Cross-Section Reassembled Ring Teapot. I was trying to create a sculptural composition reminiscent of, but different from the collapsed-ring compositions of my Aztec Headdress Teapot, Red Frost Teapot, Purple Pentagonal Cross-Section Teapot, and my Blue Billowing Spinnaker Teapot. In each of these compositions I was trying to simultaneously refer to the original unbroken ring and show sculpturally interesting and balanced variations on the arc reassembly process. The teapot spout for this Pink Tusk Teapot was thrown, then squashed and altered after it was attached. It reminds me of those big baggy pants the hiphop kids wear low on their waists, which bunch up over their expensive unlaced Michael Jordan sneakers. The tusk finial is also reminiscent of the Nike swoosh, a second Michael Jordan reference, and is a sculptural motif variant on the lid finials of the Red Frost, Purple Pentagonal Cross-Section, Blue Billowing Spinnaker, and Grasshopper Leaping Teapots. I glazed it with a first coat of our opaque glossy white glaze, then a second coat of pink glaze, the same combination I used with my Strawberry Pink Reassembled Ring Teapot, my Pink Frost Teapot, and the pink triangular cross-section teapot of the 3-teapot grouping “The Teapot Family Relaxes At Home.”

The pink-over-white glaze coating had both glaze crawl and glaze overrun flaws, and I had to grind off the excess glaze crawls and dot the unglazed patches with fresh glaze before re-firing. More glaze overruns resulted from the second firing –I had obviously glazed the teapot too thickly for the first firing—so I ground off the glaze runs again and re-fired the teapot for the third time. This time it came out of the kiln in excellent shape! The three glaze firings softened and bleached the pink glaze to its handsome pale bone-like appearance, and almost-but-not-quite blurred out the green highlights I had put in the grooves on the lower left end of the lid finial.

This “Pink Tusk Reassembled Ring Teapot” is a much simpler composition than many of my recent teapots, such as “It Is Still (And Yet It Moves) Reassembled Ring Teapot,” and “Water Dragon Reassembled Ring Teapot,” but I think it holds its own with these more complex teapot sculptures. The slightly-taller-than-wide portrait format of its photo image, its bright color, and its clean yet mysterious sculptural presence made it the strongest choice for the postcard flyer photo for the exhibition “Complementary Visions: Greg Winterhalter and Ray Bub,” which was on display in the Bennington Museum Flag Gallery, Bennington, Vermont, from September 8–November 17, 2007. More information about this exhibition can be found in the Exhibitions section of this web site.

Cone 5 oxidation-fired stoneware.

13” Wide x 14” Tall x 7” Deep
This teapot was purchased for a private collection in Beacon, New York