A Well Fitted Lid

I enjoy making teapots. It is one-part throwing on the wheel, one-part conceptualizing the final product and one-part assembling the final product.   It blends the skills I have as a potter with a desire to use sculptural techniques to provide balance and form. The end result should be a teapot that is well-balanced in one's hand, pours effortlessly and is cherished by its user as a beautiful object. 

People ask me how much time it takes to make a teapot.  That is such a difficult question to answer.  For me, I balance a "day-job", family time, house chores and a few other indulgences with what I do as a clay artist.  Therefore, there are few periods that one will find me in the studio on two or more consecutive days. Over the years I have developed a rhythm that works well for me.  The elapsed time between making, glazing and firing can be 60-days and sometimes longer. 

One day I may just make teapot bodies and keep them on the wheel head bats.  I can keep teapot bodies workable under dry cleaner garment bags for weeks if I need to.

The next time I get into the studio I finish these teapot bodies by adding the lid galley and marry the teapot to a lid.  I make a number of lids right-side up on a hump of clay and allow them to harden to a leather hard condition. When I get ready to make the teapot body galley, I select one of these lids.  I add a rope of soft clay around the top of the teapot body and form the galley.  Using the lid upside down as a template, I can form the galley to the exact size of the lid.  How the lid fits the galley is one of the hallmarks of a well constructed teapot. This technique allows me to provide a well-fitted lid.  

When the teapot body and lid dry to the same leather hard stage (another day at least), I can trim the galley opening to fit the lid's bottom. My lid design involves a deep bottom that sits inside the teapot.  If the fit is tight, when the teapot is tipped for pouring, the lid will stay on the teapot.  (Of course, I recommend holding the lid on with a finger while pouring....one never knows what might happen.)  Using the teapot body as a "chuck", I turn the teapot lid over and form the bottom of the lid by trimming away excess clay using clay trimming tools. 

Now that the lid has been finished and fits the teapot body,  I cut the teapot from the wheel head bat.

I turn it over, tap it into center, and use wads of clay to hold it in place.  Now I can concentrate on trimming the bottom of the body and creating a foot for the teapot.  This is accomplished the same way the lid bottom is formed....by trimming away unwanted clay with trimming tools.

After I place my mark on the bottom the teapot it is ready to be assembled.  

All this work and the teapot has not been assembled yet.  Put five or ten teapots in motion in the studio and one can imagine the time involved to create a single teapot.  Assembling the teapot will be the subject of my next post.