Artisanal Teaware

Petr Novák has over two decades of experience as a seasoned teaware artist. Deeply immersed in tea culture, Petr’s work is inspired by his personal connection to tea. His work is internationally recognized and used by tea lovers from all around the world. Petr creates highly functional teaware, with a focus mainly on ceremonial pieces, his aim is to create teaware to support tea enthusiasts in their meditation practice with tea also known as Cha Dao, The Way of Tea. His designs are created to bring ease and joy to their tea tables.

Always studying and passionately searching for new inspirations, Petr regularly visits tearooms, tea gardens, and potter’s studios from the far East such as Korea, China, and Taiwan. Although he is an experienced traveler, he finds his main source of growth from his personal tea practice and in the experiences of those who use teaware during their daily rituals. He highly encourages thoughts and feedback anytime, it is always welcome and appreciated.

Chen Qi Nan was born in Jia Yi in southern Taiwan. He graduated from university with a degree in electrical engineering and began a successful career and family. At the age of 27 he started taking pottery lessons from Master Ching Hua. "From the very first time I touched the clay it resonated deep in my soul," he says. As he advanced in his art, his career and life made less sense to him, and in 1994, Master Chen decided to try to make a living from his art. He opened the "Eight Piece Ceramic Art Studio" with his wife and six friends. The next several years would be very difficult ones for Master Chen. "One must suffer for their art," he laughs. All six of his friends closed their shops and returned to their previous careers when the art failed to reward them. Master Chen and his family also faced financial hardship. They had to sell their more practical pieces, like plates and bowls, at a roadside stand or market and even then often failed to make ends meet. Master Chen eventually tried returning to work as an engineer, but he confesses that "my heart just wasn't in it." He finally decided that come rain or come shine his life would be one of artistic integrity: "My years of Qigong had taught me to be sensitive to my inner self. I chose to live without regret." And when he put his heart and soul into his art without regard for accreditation or financial reward, people in Taiwan began to notice. In the years since that commitment, Master Chen has seen a dramatic improvement. Not only has he won awards for his sculpture and teaware, but also his innovations have captured the interest of tea lovers around the world. The sidehandles and kettles that he makes use a special clay blend that is both durable and extremely light. The wood for the handles is gathered during his hikes in the mountains where he draws inspiration for his craft.

Peter Kuo is a Taiwanese ceramicist, born and raised in Yingge, and even from a young age felt an affinity to clay. He has a unique and creative soul that is expressed through his ceramics. He finds inspiration and materials in the natural world, using wood or bamboo for his teapot handles. Peter's wood-firing process is demanding but reflects his belief in working with elemental forces. He is driven by a desire to harmonize beauty and function, seeking to learn from tea practitioners, and always trying to find ways to improve his teaware.

Tian Chengtai (田承泰) was born in 1952 in Nanzhuang Township, Miaoli County, a place of mountains, rivers, and quiet rural life that has remained the source and home of his work. He came to pottery late, beginning at the age of forty after years of trying his hand at business in the city. Returning home to Miaoli, he built a wood-fire kiln and spent six years making wares without selling a single piece. He works exclusively with local Miaoli mountain clay, throwing and trimming each bowl in a single unbroken session, and fires his pieces over three days and nights using only the ash of collected driftwood as glaze. Of the roughly three hundred pieces in each firing, he considers thirty a success, and those that fall short are smashed without hesitation.

Master Tian's bowls fit naturally to the hands and lips, opening the energy of Taiwanese teas in a way that feels inseparable from the island's own soil. He has always reminded collectors that his bowls are made to be used, not admired on a shelf.

Ai Yi is a Taiwanese ceramic artist based in Keelung, Taiwan. She has a passion for exploring the diverse expression of ceramic wares in daily life. Her work primarily focuses on flower vases and charcoal braziers. She is continually experimenting with designing unique charcoal braziers that are a beautiful fusion of more traditional designs with new shapes and styles that seek to achieve a harmonious balance between functionality and aesthetics.

Alina has spent most of her life in Russia, though her roots are in the vibrant and beautiful city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A life of Cha Dao has offered her the gentle space to connect with herself and the world around her more deeply. It is this experience that has fostered a broader conversation with her environment, which has inspired her journey with creating handwoven chabu. She is always exploring new ways of creating chabu that are a unique expressions of the world around her.

Ho Wei Jen graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Western Painting Division, at Tunghai University, and worked as a graphic designer in the publishing industry in Taipei for many years before beginning his journey into working with fabric and plant dye. It began by chance, evolving from a personal interest into a side business, and eventually becoming his main profession. He started dyeing fabric specifically to make bags, aiming to give his products a distinctive identity. This evolved over time into working with natural dyeing techniques to create chabu, each one beautifully unique and an expression of the dialogue between the fabric and the plants used for dyeing.

Tao Weng is a Taiwanese artist who spent his career in the industrial world of architectural tile manufacturing before discovering his true passion for the delicate artistry of teaware. Originally a collector, his appreciation for tea culture eventually evolved into a specialized craft of creating tea scoops. Though often overshadowed by the teapot, Tao Weng views the tea scoop as a vessel that carries the "soul" of the tea ceremony. What began as a personal quest to create teaware for his own practice has grown into a mastery for expressing the uniqueness of wood through each scoop he skilfully crafts over many hours.

Michael Sharf is a mixed medium artist and designer. From his pottery studio and woodshop in Ojai, California, he makes contemporary objects inspired for tea ceremony. Michael grew up in Northern California where he was trained in woodworking and ceramics starting at age 8. His work is inspired by the teachings of tea—a reconnection with nature, which we are a part of; a reconnection with presence, which our digital lives distance us from and a reconnection with the reverence for objects, which global trade has obscured.

His teapots are thrown on the wheel using stoneware and flameware clay. He fires to cone 11 in a reduction atmosphere, where the oxygen-depleted flame interacts with the minerals in the clay to create subtle, organic shifts in tone and texture. The interiors are often left unglazed to develop a patina over years of use. The wooden handles are sourced from branches and roots Michael forages while spending time in nature surfing or hiking. In all of his work, he allows the materials to lead, at times finding a piece of wood that inspires him to throw a pot to match it or waiting until a vessel is complete before selecting its handle. Each piece is then worked and finished to fit precisely, offering both beauty and balanced functionality.

Sedona Rigsby is a weaver, second-generation designer, and craftswoman who alchemizes plants into cloth in her Santa Fe studio. She works with natural fibers and dyes on a variety of wooden looms, reshaping the perception of fabric itself. Sedona believes weaving is one of humanity’s oldest technologies; that it’s in our bones. When we touch or wear something made in the old and slow way, we connect to our ancestors and to all of humanity.

Her passion lies in creating heirloom goods such as wall hangings, garments, and functional pieces made from handwoven textiles. The chabu offered here brings together her two loves, weaving and tea, and reflect her ongoing exploration of how these practices intertwine.

Jasmine has had the privilege of learning from indigenous weaving teachers from around the world, she carries this great honour with high respect for different traditions and their stewardship of the land and plants as well as the ancient and ceremonial art of weaving. After many years of deepening her practice in weaving as well as Cha Dao, it became clear that for Jasmine, these practices are intrinsically connected. Her tea practice informs the intuitive way she weaves and mirrors the gentle presence and listening of the land and elements, from the moment she walks out to begin foraging for all the wild plants and fibres she works with, to the drying, splitting, sorting, boiling processes that mirror how tea is lovingly transformed. Jasmine’s weaving reflects this love and the integrity in which she weaves captures the stories of Nature, that express themselves through these trivets that adorn the chaxi.