Custom Woodland Mushroom Tea Set
Standard start for me: It’s been forever. I know. I’m terrible. But also I’m busy. So, you know, priorities. This particular commission project that I’m working on right now is worth blogging about, though, because the pictures need to be shared.
At the end of April a customer messaged me on Etsy looking for a custom tea set. They had come across my Woodland Mushroom Tea Set from last year and loved it. They asked me to recreate it but with more mushrooms, squirrels, acorns, and just overall larger. And with 8 place settings. It’s a 50th birthday gift for a friend. Of course, I was happy to oblige. And so, the project commenced.
The little squirrel as a handle.
The customer asked me to make 12 ounce cups, but there’s no way a 96 oz tea pot would be useable. So, we settled on a 48 ounce teapot. Technically I threw two very large tea pots, but this is the one that I have decorated. The other one is hanging out at the studio, acting as backup if anything goes wrong with this one.
I also threw 12 tea cups so that I would end up with at least 8, and two sugar dishes with lids and two cream pourers. It was a lot. That’s not even counting the 10 saucers I threw last week.
Once the main part of production was done, decoration commenced, starting with the tea pot’s lid, and then the pot itself.
The cups came next, and they took a while. Each cup has at least an hour’s worth of decoration. Also, they each have a unique little gnome on them. The gnomes all got different colored hats.
Let’s not forget the sugar dish and its spoons. I made two spoons to have options, but then ultimately sent both to the customer.
Going through the photos now I realize that I did not take any pictures of the cream pourer in its green state. I apparently did not get any pictures of the saucers in process either. I started getting panicked for time near the end, even though that was entirely unnecessary seeing as I sent it out three days before the Etsy order deadline, but that’s just who I am as a person. Anyway I was way over taking pics and video of everything by the time the plates got made.
So, you’ll just have to head on over to my portfolio post with the finished pics to see those because let me tell you: they are all absolutely perfect, and I have zero complaints. Everything worked out swimmingly! It’s like I do this.
The finished set is currently in route to New York. It should be there by this Wednesday, so let’s all cross our fingers that it makes it without any casualties. I wrapped every piece really good. It’s going to be fine. Right? Right? Right…?
