my hand-painted teapot

On our recent trip to Yamanashi, we stopped at a place that sold teapots that were ready to be underglazed (decorated). This place would send it to a place with a kiln to be finished. Then, these pieces would be dipped in glaze, fired, and shipped to the address of the artist.

my hand-painted teapot, originally uploaded by martian cat.

I was so lucky to have the time during one morning. Everyone mentioned that I would have only 15 minutes to make the decorations. However, I actually had to spend almost 1 hour to make the sketch, decorate, and make any of the final touch-ups it needed.

The underglaze was a natural pigment. Taking the time to do this brought back many, many memories. Imagine... it is more than 20 years ago that I did type of pottery decorating in the States. There are actually two different colors of blue that are on this teapot. Then, by adding water to the glaze to "thin out the color"... highlights were added. It will be fun to see how it turns out.

I can hardly wait to have it for my morning cup of tea. Imagine... an original decorated pot for my morning tea. It sounds like a good plan to me!

more later...