Welcome to the We’re All Ears, May reveal and our inspiration for this month is Tea parties, China patterns, tea stains and more. As Ms. Erin left it pretty open ended, I made Floral button earrings. Her inspiration pictures were from Getty images and as I couldn’t figure out how to post them for free, I picked some Tea pot/china design from an Amazon store called Gracie China Coastline imports.
This theme got me really excited for I am an avid tea drinker. My Friend (or rather her mother) making a model of the “I am a little tea pot” rhyme for a school display in kinder garden was how I was introduced to tea and tea pots. I started drinking tea by the time I was nine as it was supposed to help with my frequent colds and lung inflammations. I ended up loving tea, hating coffee and in the process becoming an outcast in my coffee crazy family.
Indian tea, that is made at home, could be strong or light, bitter or sweet, thick (with more milk) or watery (just a spoon of milk), with or without spices like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom or even pepper, often with a slightly sour after taste. It could be with milk or black, it could be lemon tea, ice tea, green tea and only occasionally the stereotypical Masala chai. It could be served in Stainless tumblers with a deep dish saucer called “Davara” or plastic tea cups, with ceramic cups often reserved for guests.
Here, Tea drinking is a social habit – it is integral to a group conversion. Meeting, discussions, interviews and even dates rely very heavily on countless small paper cups filled to their brims with hot tea. Almost every street, in every state of India will have a “Tea Kadai” (a tea shop), a normal petty box store selling everything from newspapers, weekly magazines, fried snacks, biscuits, fruits like bananas, cigarettes and ofcourse the quintessential strong acidic milk tea. It would be made by the tea master using a milk boiler and served in cut glass tumblers, giving the tea the unique name of “cutting chai”. Its a place where men – both young and old gather together to gossip, talk politics, discuss women and everything else under the sun. You would rarely see a group of women there as they would prefer not to stand at a street corner while sipping tea, but I prefer them over restaurants for a quick drink. Take a look at my friend and miniature sculptor Shilpa Mitha’s mini Tea Kadai model on her page Sueno Souvenir to see what I am talking about.
Though I have never had tea in a “fine China cup” I have always been fascinated by China patterns – landscapes, floral branches, geometric shapes, dots and stripes. Some are reminders of art and design movements of the bygone era. Some are reminiscent of colonial invasion, rule or domination. Whatever be the case, kitchenware and tableware tell stories of the times, the local culture, places, the people who lived there and most importantly how they lived. Of all available patterns I am most drawn to English Floral designs in Fine China. I fell in love with them when I was first exposed to Calico fabrics in the second year of college.
Though it was Vasco Da Gama and eventually the Dutch, who created and exported Calico fabric (muslin) from South of India, it was the British who added the floral motifs to them to make them for saleable and attractive to British Citizens. On one hand it plagued the Indian fine muslin industry so much so that it became almost extinct but on the other hand it added another form, motif and aesthetic to the repertoire of the Indian printer/fabric painter.
For this challenge, I picked flower wooden buttons and made them into statement earrings with a simple wire wrap. They are quite big but relatively weightless. As an afterthought, I made a couple of more beaded earrings using ceramic beads with floral patterns. Both the patterns are very different from the usual ones you find in the Indian market as these beads have smudged – water-color patterns. They look wet, as would motifs on a real tea cup as you wipe spilled over tea off them.
As opposed to some of the other months of this challenge, this month I focused more on my tea memories and less on my design process. The earrings are very simple, easy to make, and are meant for everyday wear – perhaps exactly like tea.
Tea rejuvenates me, it helps me think and focus, What about you? Do share your “tea memories” and how the sights, smells, sounds and tastes associated with tea help you design. Visit the reveal page to see what the other participating artists have come up with
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
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