Woodland Mushroom Tea Set
So many hours of sculpting. A surprise at the end of my clay bag. A set unlike any other.
Cottage Core Meets The Shire
I get the urge to make a tea set about once every 18 months. In 2022 I was going through a mushroom phase (it’s not a phase, tbh, it’s a lifestyle), and this is the result!
The Teapot holds around 16 ounces comfortably. Also, it pours like a dream. I gave it a pour test, and I think Keith would be proud. I thought a lot about making him cry while I was making this set.
If you don’t know who Keith is, go watch The Great Pottery Throw Down.
A 13 Piece Set - Place Settings for 4
The set includes: the teapot and its lid, a sugar dish, its lid and a spoon, a cream pourer, four tea cups and four saucers. All together, the set took well over 100 hours of work, spread out over about three months. I started in Late February/early March and took these finished photos in May.
Each piece was first thrown and then trimmed on the potter’s wheel. Teapots are thrown in several pieces, usually, then assembled during the leather-hard stage. Its handle was pulled and attached at that stage, too, and the whole thing has to be covered tightly and allowed to equalize in moisture levels (which takes a few days at minimum) before decoration can commence.
The first stage of decoration is creating the wood bark texture, which happens in multiple stages. I have spent many an hour staring at tree bark, and several more trying to figure out the best way to replicate it. I think this iteration of the technique was a success.
Each Detail Sculpted by Hand
Decorating each piece is a labor intensive process, and nothing is guaranteed to work out as intended (as is the case with all pottery). Every piece has a unique combination of mushroom, lichen and moss structures that I sculpt and carefully attach.
The pieces all have to then dry very carefully and evenly to ensure that none of them crack off. Alas, some do inevitably do. But that’s nature for you. It’s never absolutely perfect. And neither is pottery.
Inspired by Nature. Fully Functional.
After they are dry and fired the first time, each piece was dipped in a base glaze called Shino, which interacts with the black stoneware clay in a lovely, toasty way during the final firing process. The various structures are then carefully painted with brightly colored glazes that also interact with the Shino glaze in interesting and exciting ways.
The final firing goes to just about 2200 degrees in a Skutt Kiln, and the glazes are all food safe and lead free. So, the whole set is fully functional and microwave safe. It is technically also dishwasher safe, but hand washing is recommended due to the delicate nature of the decorative elements.
Each cup and the cream pourer holds around 8 fluid ounces. The sugar dish holds around a quarter cup of sugar. The mushroom sugar spoon holds about half a teaspoon.
One of A Kind. Whimsical AF.
We’ve all got a friend that is obsessed with mushrooms, be it a scholarly interest in mycology or a stylistic obsession with the aesthetic. It makes a great gift for either kind! I’m definitely in the latter group, so don’t ask me to define what kind of mushrooms these all are. All I really know is that they’re pretty and fun to make.
Click the button below to buy this set on Etsy. Send me a message to discuss a custom Woodland Mushroom Set. As of this edit (May 16 2023), I’m in the process of making a much larger version for a set of 8. I will hopefully be blogging about that soon. So, stay tuned!