Samovar Style

For this piece I tapped into my Soviet roots and made a Samovar inspired tea set.  For those unfamiliar with the Russian style of drinking tea, a Samovar is a large vessel that keeps water hot and is paired with a teapot where the leaves are left to steep for a long time.  The over-steeped tea is called the zavarka.  You add a bit of tea from the zavarka to your cup and the rest is filled with water from the kettle to taste.  Usually it looks something like this:

And mine looks like this:

I also wanted to make all the parts fit just right so that the lid would fit on both the large and small pot and the small pot would also fit on the candle burner.  This way, I ended up with three different tea sets in one.

[A girl at the ceramic studio remarked that the design on the side looked like a lion. Not my intent, but now I can't stop seeing it.]

[Mixing styles by using a side handle typically found in Japanese teapots.]

I have to say, that the spout on the smaller teapot was my best thus far in terms of function.  The larger one is fine, but doesn't flow as smoothly at the small teapot's.

[Candle keeps the water in the large pot warm.]

This took me roughly 15 hours in the studio to make.  It will be my last one for some time, I'll explain why in the next post.