Tian Chengtai Bowl

Tian Chengtai's wood-fired bowls are made from local Miaoli mountain clay. Each bowl is thrown and trimmed in a single session, allowed to find its own natural form on the wheel, and fired over three days and nights at temperatures exceeding 1,250°C. The only glaze is the ash of driftwood collected by Master Tian himself, leaving each piece with a surface that is entirely the work of earth, fire, and chance.

These bowls are made for tea. They fit the hands and lips with a naturalness that is difficult to describe and easy to feel, and have a remarkable effect on Taiwanese teas in particular, opening and softening the liquor in a way that deepens with every session. No two pieces are alike, and each one bears the marks of the kiln as a record of its own making. Master Tian holds his work to an exacting standard, and only a small number of pieces from each firing are offered. These are bowls meant to be used, returned to, and grown into over a lifetime of tea.