You’re not mistaken. Shawn called it a yunomi due to its small size - it’s just large enough to hold the tea from the 60 ml pot. It’s from 4 years ago when he was doing the snowflake crackle glaze.
Ode to the Kyusu
That's excellent Janice, i have a bunch of work by Shawn and personally I'm a big fan. Apart from his work i have found him to be great person and giving his work and customers a top notch service and very reasonable prices (this is what i think anyway). Only great experiences with Shawn and his wares, only thing is; i actually liked the old name .
Edit: maybe we could invite him over here if that hasn't happened yet. I for one only found teaforum thanks to Victoria
Edit: maybe we could invite him over here if that hasn't happened yet. I for one only found teaforum thanks to Victoria
That is a lovely cup and kyusu pairing. I've been enjoying some a less photogenic pairing of a tiny Shawn McGuire shiboridashi with a large Le Seul yunomi, because of the summer heat: I stuff the shibo with tea, cover with hot water, let it steep to excessively strong concentration, and pour it into the large yunomi full of cool water to get a large drink of cool and tasty tea.
I have a number of Shawn’s pieces also, although none are Kyushu. Maybe we need a thread for western pottery. Everything I’ve ever bought from Shawn is not just beautiful but also functions properly, including 2 small gaiwans from years ago.
I began to wonder if the pot was hand carved or made in a mold. Some of Iroku’s pots cost 4 or 5 times as much. I wrote to Toru and received this reply:
“In reply to your question, yes in general the difference is the carving techniques. It is much harder to carve smaller diamonds shape evenly.”
While the diamonds on my pot are small there are large areas with other textures that are probably easier to carve nicely. One aspect of shopping at Artistic Nippon is that I can see photos of the actual pot. That really helped with this purchase.
My first ever kyusu, or indeed piece of Japanese tea ware! With the new ultra small batch of Hokujo, I had no more excuses to not give it a shot...
So far very pleased with it and it might not be the last Hokujo I ever bought
So far very pleased with it and it might not be the last Hokujo I ever bought
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I know, I wasn't in the position of getting one...
They are quite in demand nowadays in the online tea community, it reminds me how shigaraki pots were a few years ago.
Ok just for fun, here's a small pot by Shawn, i think its pretty cute.
On second thought its not really a Japanese teapot
On second thought its not really a Japanese teapot
That is a really nice pot from Shawn McGuire. How small is it? I haven't seen any like this one on his Etsy page, did you get it several years ago?
There is still one left!
I thought I bought the last one, but apparently the one in the detail shot had not been counted in. I had the luck to see Kyarazen's post on IG in Asian timezone, so could just about jump on the train before it left and everyone in the West wakes up to the news...
I really have to say it is the perfect size for me as the teas I am planning to use it on are my most expensive and would be wasted in larger volumes.
And rightly so! What makes it different to others seems to be its clay's versatility and effect on a lot of non-Japanese teas, something that made me hesitate before with other Japanese makers. The craftsmanship is another plus.