A question I am often asked, especially in light of the non-functional nature of much of my work, is "why teapots?"
Why indeed?
Teapots have an almost mythic stature in ceramics, where they represent several challenges. Functional handles, spouts, and lids each have their own unique lessons that must be learned. Aesthetically, it is a form that lends itself to a great deal of creativity. To create an elegant, functional teapot is one of the notable achievements for a potter.
For me, however, the idea of a teapot is more compelling even than the function. Tea is the most widely drunk beverage in the world (after water), and is consumed in virtually every culture that has hot beverages. For hundreds of years, tea has been a shared experience, a human experience, a ritual in common. The teapot, made from the earth itself, is the vessel of not only the tea, but of the ritual itself.
For me, the idea of the teapot is a manifestation of the ritual, of the shared humanity, and perhaps even of the message communicated to us by the earth.