What is this teapot about?

The concept behind this work is that nothing is as seems and that even slightest seemingly insignificant truth that we take for granted can be all very different. Items, truths and humans appealing simple and easy to understand can be in contrary complex in their essence. We should never fail to ask questions to ourselves, mentors, teachers and authorities.

The initial inspiration came from a book by Sir Terry Pratchett called Mort. It is a fantasy novel and it is full of interesting concepts such as; Death is a person and a time for whole universe is managed by an individual who is, in fact, half human son of Time. I love his books! They are always so stimulating. In Fact, reading is one of my strongest sources of inspiration.

Mort teapot is handmade predominantly of 950 silver featuring copper base and Jarrah wood components.
This contemporary teapot was hand raised in combination with other traditional silversmithing techniques such as crimping, sinking and of course plennishing.

Hope you like it, I have certainly enjoyed making it.

All the major work is done! It is the details that I have been focusing on lately…..

Step 25 – finishing of and assembling infuser and lid. The tea infuser and lid consists of three parts which can be separated depending on use. This way user is able to infuse their tea for 3-5 min or as long as they wish then remove the infuser from the lid and place the lid back on.
Infuser

– infuser
– Lid closing infuser (bayonet closing) with a threaded bar that can be attached to a wooden/silver lid
– Lid closing the teapot

Step 26 –Drilling holes into a handle socket is very scary step!!! These two holes must be perfectly positioned and parallel as two silver pins will go through to hold the wooden handle in place. If I make mistake at this point…..I will go crazy! To prevent me going crazy, I made a jig to hold the teapot in position while drilling.

Teapot is soldered and cleaned up. Now it needs essential wooden components such as handle, lid and stand. Wood is a beautiful material and great insolent from the a heat. I had been contemplating for very long time what sort of wood should I use. Eventual, when I went to local Anagote Timbers in Marrickville and set my eyes on absolutely stunning piece of Jarrah, decision was made.

Step 22 – handle making. As much as I dislike using lathe I must admit that it is definitely the best tool for the job.

Step 23 – making a lid that will fit into a silver setting.

Step 24 – making a stand that teapot will rest on when not used.

After long Christmas break I am back and so is my report on the “Mort” teapot!

Step 16 – inside of the tea infuser has been nicely emery so the next thing to do was to file the outside of the infuser and prepare it for next step.

Step 17 –the tea infuser will be submerged in to the teapot, therefore to help to contain the loose leaf tea the separate lid needs to be designed and made. I have chosen to use bayonet closing system as it is simple and not too fiddley for clumsy hands of some users.

First, I cut two slots exactly opposite to each other

Then I have drilled row of holes to be able to go through with file to make the grove in clock wise direction.

Lastly, I have soldered silver bar into the infuser which will be eventually cut to the size of bayonets.

Step 18 – the main body of the teapot needs to be annealed together with base as a preparation for the soldering. That way I am reassuring that both major parts relax in the same way when heated up and that no new gups will be formed. If this was done separately, each metal part could relax in different way and then not match perfectly anymore.

Step 19 – before the spout is soldered on and the main body is soldered to the base, hole for the spout and lid must be cut out. Otherwise it would be unnecessary more difficult to do so when it is all soldered together. Also, these two extra holes will help us to distribute heat more efficiently.

Step 20 – solder! I have soldered spout and socket for handle first. Then I bound everything thoroughly with binding wire and soldered base too. For all of the joints I have used only hard solder.

Step 21 – filing and emarying of the teapot. Filing stage is quiet relaxing, removing access solder and making sure that the surface of the teapot is nice and smooth. Emerying is little bit less pleasant as it is quite dusty and dirty.

Step 22 – will discuss in next post; making wooden handle, lid and stand

Here is just a little update on progress and development of the teapot I am currently making. It has been busy month as it is the end of the year, so there were number of things keeping me away from studio…

Step 11 – I have made some wooden mock ups of spout and handle and now I am making it in the silver. For the spout it is basically only tapered silver ring. In terms of handle it is little bit more complex. In fact it is just a silver sleeve for the handle. The actual handle will be made of wood. The function of silver sleeve is practical; it helps the wooden handle to be attached to the teapot. Because handle will be tapered (wider end touching the teapot), the sleeve needs to be made of two parts; parallel ring and tapered ring that will be soldered together.

Step 12 – raising of infuser. The infuser for the teapot will be attachable to the lid. It is important to get the infuser done first, before I cut out the opening for the lid as the final with of the infuser will determinate the diameter of the opening. The infuser looks at this stage bit like a beaker. In this case I didn’t crimp the disc first, but instead I just sunk it and then I followed with rising.

Step 13 – cut of access silver.

Step 14 – planishing of the infuser. Planishing is done on steel cylindrical stake with rounded end. The objective is to get the surface of the infuser as smooth as possible (on inside and outside).

Step 15 – emerying inside of the infuser. I find this process bit scary as I think it can be dangerous if one loses concentration for a moment. Basically wooden spindle with glued emery paper on its surface is attached to a polishing machine and that is inside of the tight beaker. The spindle is spinning around 5000rpm so one needs to be precise when placing the beaker over it otherwise the beaker gets caught on the spindle, ripped out of your hands and thrown against the wall (and hopefully your hands are safely out of the way). The beaker gets also hot really quickly so it is hard to hold. I finished the inside of the infuser (beaker shape) to 400 grade emery paper.

Step 16 – is the next step and that is to file infuser on outside, cut the hole for lid and spout and solder all major components together.