A workshop on the Japanese tea bowl; “Chawan”
Ceramist Nicole Tondeur and Resident Artist Anais Tondeur presented a workshop to explore gestures around the making of a Japanese bowl for a tea ceremony known as a Chawan.This workshop was accompanied by Matcha tea tasting, and the bowls produced were Raku fired with the assistance of local ceramic artist Matthew Porter.
Making a Chawan – the bowl used for the preparing and serving of tea in chadō, the ‘Way of Tea’ – is one of the greatest challenges a potter can face. To be suitable for the tea ceremony, potters must work their chawan forms to demanding specifications: the bowl should be light enough to handle with ease, yet heavy enough to have presence in the hand; too thin, and the tea will lose its heat too quickly; too thick, and the bowl will feel clumsy and unwieldy, the heat failing to penetrate to the hand as it is clasped.
- April 24, 2019
