a theme

i tend towards blues, creams, and browns in pottery. i don't think i do this with a specific purpose; more an inclination towards those hues. red is my least favorite color, followed by orange, but i do like pink rather a lot. primary and secondary hues aren't really my cup of tea (outside of yellow), they are just too strong and bright when used other than as an accent hue. tertiary hues and pastels though, those are lovely. give me a yellow-green, blue-purple, blue-green, or red-purple any day and i'm a happy kid. whites and creams allow me to admire the green shades of my tea, one of the nicest parts of drinking it. an explanation for the celedon color would be it's traditional, so you come across it a lot.

my collection of tea preparing pieces (clockwise from top left): bamboo chasen with celedon stand, tokoname kyusu, stoneware chawan for matcha, water cooler (my grandmother's), tea cup for sencha, hand thrown tea cup for bancha, tea chest in the upper right corner, chakin in lower right corner, teaspoon in lower left corner. it's a mishmash of pieces, i know, but i like each one and they make me happy (the only one i have to impress is myself, any how).

tea is good, but cats are better

driving here and there to fix my computer took us to augusta georgia, then over to aiken south carolina where we found a lovely yarn store. i am quite bad at remembering to take photos, but i did manage to capture this pretty bloom that was right outside the store.

when i arrived back home it was to a waiting box of tea yumminess. since coming home i've tried den's tea, and now ippodo tea to get my sencha and genmaicha fix. i had visited ippodo while in kyoto, so i felt comfortable ordering from them. their website is so whimsical, with illustrated instructions for brewing the different types of green tea.

meiko decided the box would be a comfortable sleeping spot. she often puts me in mind of a muffin top.

enthusiastic collecting

since coming back from japan, i've found much delight in having a cup of green tea for breakfast. lately, my taste runs to the earthy genmaicha tea. i also love the taste of matcha (i still haven't purchased a bamboo chasen yet) and sencha.

the utensils for serving japanese tea are interesting; the ones i've garnered have focused my attention on exotic woods and unique pottery glazes. i already had a small green and brown tea cup for the winter months, and recently bought a handthrown tea bowl for the summer (the width and size allowing the tea to cool faster) on my trip to asheville. the kyusu tea pot's squat shape and long handle are perfect for brewing enough loose tea for one, as well as being visually cute (it's glaze reminiscent of birch trees).

i was browsing ebay for kiri wood (paulownia) boxes and happened upon this tea chest which i believe is used for storing the teaware. kiri wood is velvety smooth and lightly burned to bring up the grain, as well as being resistant to rot (a wonderful thing when living in an area of high humidity); i am most attracted to the silvery color though.

i am still hoping to come upon a shifuku wrapped chaire, and a kiri wood box tied with kumihimo. one day.

the last of sweet things

well, i've eaten the last of my malebranche matcha cookies today. i decided to make an occasion of it, and made some fresh sencha extra green tea (a blend of my gift of sencha from the ladies of the cafeteria from when i was in kyoto, and matcha tea from ippodo). i paired the cookie with a frosted rice cracker, served up on my grandmothers' noritake china.

i like the play between the lines of the cracker and those of the tea pot, as well as the white and green balancing. i've had two cups of green tea everyday lately, usually between breakfast and lunch; it sets me up to go out and work in the studio.

although matcha is my favorite flavor in baked goods and icecream, genmaicha tea has quickly become my favorite drinking tea, and mixing it with matcha to make it extra green is quite delicious!

space to work in

ah, photos. what would the internet be without them. everything in the studio is coming along nicely now, so i thought i would introduce you to my new/old "dyeing laboratory and weaving studio":

the dye laboratory and tea brewing station.

skein winder, gokoh, and kasuri shifter.

ze loom, with the new addition of jazz bands to prevent floating harness syndrome.

my workstation, complete with idea/inspiration board.

now that smell (japanese incense courtesy of lisn), sight, and touch (sheepskin bench cover) are taken care of all this space lacks is sound. i was hoping to get the vers 2x for my ipod, but they're not manufacturing them again until spring. phooey. so i'm on the hunt to find one, and haven't had any success thus far, as they didn't produce any this year.

arranging

a desktop still life: maeve's painting, covered tea vessel, wooden bento, pigment set, tree seeds, and an omiyage.

a trip to uji

this morning i was quite excited to go to uji, the green tea capital of japan. somehow i thought it was in the country, surrounded by fields of tea, and quaint, with little shops and quit streets, and that the moment i stepped off the train i would be overwhelmed by the smell of green tea in the air.

i don't know what i was thinking or where i got this image from, for reality is strikingly different. while riding on the train there i never really felt like i left the city, and though i saw some small fields of tea growing between the houses it was rather underwhelming, and once there the only thing i smelled in the air was car exhaust.

this isn't to say that some parts of uji that i saw weren't beautiful; for i found that walking along one side of the river was peaceful and rather pretty, and while facing away from the city and into the surrounding hills the view was very picturesque.

the matcha sweets i ate while in uji were either delicious or so-so, and so too was the tea i drank. so, overall, i'm at a loss as to what i think of uji. but one thing is certain, the matcha that comes from this area is the best tasting stuff i know of.

tea please

i like tea; it's warm, flavorful, pretty, good for you, tastes lovely, goes well with baked goods. lately, i've started drinking a mug of green tea every day to help me relax when i get home from work. i've been using my hot cocoa mug, but started to feel that maybe it would be nice to have a dedicated tea mug.

while sampling delicious honey at the savannah bee company store i came across a beautiful honey pot in my favorite shade of blue green. the colors used, undulating shape, mixture of matte and glossy finish, really drew my attention. plus the little bee lid was very cute, i figured it could keep my tea warm for me.

this lovely vessel was created by a local potter, giana eden, so i was definitely happy to make it a part of my tea ceremony. i don't know, but i feel good when i purchase works by other artists, maybe it creates good artist karma or something.