Goldfish Tea's Korean Tea Night

This is a quick post to alert you to a special event coming up in Royal Oak, MI at the Goldfish Teashop Thursday March 22.  

Jim and Janice Gurling, owners of the shop, will celebrate the coming of spring with a special Korean tea tasting and teaware event.  Goldfish is now carrying Dong Cheong Tea's Sejak, Jungjak and Daejak semi-wild Korean green teas to add to their Chinese teas.  The Korean teaware is by Park Jong Il accompanied by a small selection of my chatchan and chawan.  They have asked us to speak on Korean Tea, Tea Culture and Teaware.  This is the first time Korean teas and Korean teawares have been introduced in this way in Michigan.  I realize most of you don't live nearby but now you know another source for Korean teas and teaware and also know we do provide presentations on the subject.  Perhaps you have friends in the area and would be willing to tell them about this event.  If so, thanks for doing that.

click image to enlarge

(Just another quick note.  I know we are supposed to spell teaware 'tea ware'.  But why are teabowl and teaware spelled 'tea bowl' and 'tea ware' when teacup and teashop and teaspoon are not separated?  They say the English language is changed by the way we use it.  I'm spelling teaware and teabowl this way.  Please join me and if you know anyone on the 'dictionary committee' let them know they should change these words.  Thanks - pet tea peeve no. 1)

David Louveau a Chawan

A couple of weeks ago my friend David Louveau, who is a ceramic artist in La Borne, France, sent me an image of one of his teabowls shortly after it was formed.  Then just the other day we spoke over Skype and he sent me some more images so I thought I would share these two.  
I first met David when we both participated in the Mungyeong Teabowl Festival.  He was representing France I represented the United States.  Mungyeong is located in the heart of the Korean mountains just where the magnificent Baekdu-Daegan mountain range bends to travel south to the tea mountains of Jirisan.  I'll write more about Mungyeong and its great festival later.  This short post is to briefly introduce David and his exciting work.

 Greenware cup David Louveau

David's clay is sandy causing the clay to pull as he quickly forms his work on the wheel.  He likes the naturalness of the clay allowing it and the wheel to speak to the form as much as he does.  His bowls are not large often doubling in their use between infused and powdered tea.  I call this type of form a 'dragon' form.  Although this direction in style is not unique to David he has mastered it and brings to it his own voice.  The results after firing in his equally amazing anagama are exhilarating.

Fired cup David Louveau

I will return to the work of David Louveau in a future post both here and on our teaware blog.  Get in line to obtain one of his pieces.