Modeled in her hands with local clay and sand from the southwest of France, Claire Landais-Sauvage initially included a raised horizontal line around this tea bowl, about one-third up the side. However, it appeared too prominent, so she folded it down but still let traces remain. For the bowl’s first firing, she placed it in her wood-fired Cranes kiln to a temperature of around 1000 °C. However, while the warm red appeared beautiful, the glaze had bubbled too much.

So, for the second firing, Landais-Sauvage glazed it again and placed it for a short time, up to a lower temperature, in her charcoal kiln Heart of Embers. Her chawan emerged vibrant and glossy with crystallized pooling inside the bowl.

The surface’s spotting of grey - patches of reduced carbon absorbed by the clay - reminded Landais-Sauvage of an archipelago seen from the sky. But the line traveling around the chawan also gave the impression of a horizon - perhaps the spine of an island. Seen from the sky or from the surface of the sea, the tea bowl’s multiple landscapes provoke a shift in perception.

New from the artist’s studio. Comes with Landais-Sauvage’s written account of the tea bowl’s making.