Thing People - Shannon Garson's Teapot

This week’s ‘Thing Person’ is ceramic artist Shannon Garson. Shannon began her career as a painter, but from the minute she started throwing pots she knew she wanted to make the ‘fine, white vessels’ for which she is now known.

Shannon has a very clear, creative vision of what she wants from a pot: ‘I want the whole pot to be experienced, from the weight of it as you pick it up, the texture, the drawing, colour, smoothness of the glaze, all the elements draw the viewer into experiencing the vessel. Everyone who owns one of these pots has an experience that no-one else can share as the owners get to pick up the vessels and hold them and interact with them intimately.’ 

And it is precisely this kind of tactile intimacy that she experiences when using her favourite Jane Sawyer teapot.

I really love my contemporary Jane Sawyer teapot. I use one of Jane's pots every day. The finger marks in the slip give me so much pleasure as my hand washes the pot out brushing against the marks in counter rhythm. Even though her work is really different from mine she captures the sensuality and joy in the materials that I aim for.

Jane’s work is a contemporary interpretation of hakeme brushwork popularized through the Japanese mingei movement. She uses line in a loose gestural way, which accentuates the soft form and also the very nature of creation of the pot. The three "meager" elements, terracotta clay, white slip and clear glaze combine with the movement of the artists body and hands to create these powerful statements on the physical world. Carrying these pots to the table encourages me to consider the link between the human body and the inanimate object in my hand.  

One thing I really admire about Jane’s work is that despite their abstract, sculptural quality these pots retain their original purpose by being usable tableware. In this way, her pots are using form and brushwork to draw attention to the process of making. But their tactility also seduces the user to contemplate the process of using the pot.

For me, a teapot needs certain qualities. The pot has to have a soothing quality to the handle. I like a teapot that when full is easy to lift with one hand. Nothing about the way it works must jar me or make me feel as if I am about to drop the pot or hot water on myself. The colours must be harmonious but also intriguing because a cup of a tea is essential in the afternoon.

I also have tea first thing in the morning, every morning. Since I've had children it is mostly WAY too early. Making tea is such a lovely activity for me, my favourite tea a mixture of English Breakfast and Broken Orange Pekoe is drunk alone, with milk and Tasmanian Leatherwood honey staring out the window into the trees and thinking my thoughts.

(Photo and text courtesy of Shannon's blog Strange Fragments)