• Sweet Teaker is a hand-built teapot made of white stoneware clay cone 6. A modification of High Tea Top, it represents a Convrese sneaker stressed by extensive wear with an emerging sculpted Chihuahua puppy. 
• Extruded stoneware clay handles, decorated in polka dots, morph out of the shoelaces. The teapot's spout is the dog's snout, enhanced by its protruding tongue. The lid is the collar buckle located behind the head.
• Construction sequence: Initially fired to cone 06. Body and handles underglazed. Second refiring to cone 6. Hardware and grommets decorated with lusters. Third firing to cone 017.
• Size: 9.5" x 10.0" x 4.0".
• Date: 2008.
• Sold to a Florida collector.

     ENLARGED VIEWS

Back to top      

Back to top      

Back to top        

CREATIVE PROCESS

• This stoneware clay teapot varies from its predecessors, High Top Tea and High Tea Top, in a number of overt and subtle ways. Foremost is its very worn appearance. This feature is expressed in the bent sole and relaxed slouched canvass appearance, especially in the back binding.
• The puppy head emerging is another version of the portrait of my own Chihuahua and muse, Lily. My intention in sculpting this head was to show her disdain for worldly matters.
• The protruding tongue is part of the teapot's spout, facilitating the tea pouring process. The shoe's wide laces morph into the teapot's handles. The back of the dog's collar forms the teapot's lid.
• The round Converse emblem is formed of a thin slab of clay that was press molded and underglazed.

Back to top      

DETAILED VIEWS *