Lee Kang Hyo Gye Hal Style Tea Bowls

These are some rather random shots of two dynamic Lee Kang Hyo tea bowls. Lee Kang Hyo's Gye Yal style is bold, as if challenging the untethered mind.

Peace

Cha Chan Bad Chim (Korean Tea Coasters) Part I: White Ceramic Coasters By Park Sung Il

Some teawares such as cups, pots, and bowls are almost an obsession amongst people who seriously drink tea. This is understandable because out of all the teaware cups, pots, and bowls directly affect the flavour, taste, feel, and qi of the tea the most. But today lets look at an often overlooked piece of teaware- the tea coaster.

One reason for the tea coaster's lack of attention is the fact that not all tea cultures use them, in fact, most in Asia don't. Japanese teaware mainly focuses on matcha and the ceremony surrounding it and coasters are not necessary in the gong fu setup of China where cups are usually set right on the tea table or a tea tray. In Japan and in China, when they do use them, they often prefer metal coasters. Out of all the teawares that could be made of metal, the tea coaster is, from a Feng Shui perspective, the best place for metal in the arrangement of teaware. It acts to balance all the elements on the table by anchoring (or controlling) any excessive energies that might be present. From this view, having metal under the tea cup makes perfect sense.

In Korea, because of the way teaware is arranged, the coaster is commonly used. Koreans rarely use metal coasters or any metal in their arrangement of teawares. You do see beautiful ceramic ones in use though. These pieces by artist Park Sung Il are real beauties...

These modest pieces are a good example of the natural beauty of Korean wares.

Firstly, they are functional. They are of the appropriate size which hold most Korean cups which tend to be larger that Chinese teacups but smaller than Japanese teacups. The top surface is slightly slanted towards the center so as to not allow the spilt tea to drip off the coaster. It also has four cute little legs which prevent a hot tea cup from transferring heat to whatever is underneath the coaster as well as giving it stability.

The shape of these coasters, although very simple, are quite beautiful. The shape has a quality about it that feels as thought it has just blossomed or formed. It gives the tea coasters the feeling of a cloud in the sky or the outside pedals of a blossoming flower. But it does so in a such a subtle way as not to draw attention away from the cup that sits atop, and the tea that rests in that cup. In this way these tea coasters teach one modesty when drinking tea.

The white colour of these pieces convey a sense of peace, purity, and simplicity. The colour white, although not a metal, vibrates with the frequency of metal- in some ways imitating its affect on the energy of the set up. Due to the nature of buncheong style teaware, these white coasters haven't retained their pure white look. They have darker cracks that are only brought out through usage. This is what gives them such natural beauty.

This beauty also teaches one a deep lesson. Although the purity of white is beautiful in its own, it can only stay pure if unused or if no tea touches its surface. If unused its even more beautiful state of infinitely small intricate pattern of cracks will never be revealed. Only though a subtle mistake, some sort of slightly careless action, or imperfect action can its true beauty be revealed.

The look of these coasters is not stable but always in a state of change. Like the wave of time or an aging peurh cake, in time and through more use the look of these coasters will change even more.

Peace

A Grey & White Lee Kang Hyo Buncheong Style Tea Bowl

The look and feel of this grey and white tea bowl is wonderfully reflected under the dim lights of this traditional Korean home.

This tea bowl reflects the zen mind. Its main colour is grey. In Korea grey holds special meaning, it is the colourless colour and at the same time it is the colour of all colours mixed, the colour of nothingness, the colour of zen. All the monks in Korea wear grey coloured robes, even the highest level monks. This was once the colour all monks of China wore after the first century A.D. This is because grey reflects the "don't know", zen mind. It also is the colour of ashes- a reminder of reincarnation.

This grey bowl reflects some of this meaning. Its dull grey colour is made vibrant by its thick shiny gloss. This gloss is beautifully apparent at the bowls foot where blobs pool creating an opaque-white among the spiralling finish. These blobs are also quite noticeable on the grey outer sidewall of the bowl where they share space with little gashes and stones.

The main focal point of this bowl is the thick gloopy white gye yal (brushstroke) located inside the bowl. This thick white stroke is apparently done in a spontaneous moment of zen where the potter uses what ever materials he can find nearby and lays one on the tea bowl. This gye yal is quite thick. Of particular note is the separate glob that splattered away from the main stroke pictured on the right side) of the bowl. This splatter is balanced coincidentally by the end spot on the other side of the bowl(pictured on the left side). Beautiful.

The shallow of the bowl stands out as it remains grey with the 5 unglazed marks from the stand in the kiln. In the center of the gye yal it creates a beautifully natural affect.

The look of this bowl with tea in it is astonishing as the exuberance of the green froth is amplified by the thick white of the gye yal. The feel of the bowl in your hands is a calming rough under thick gloss.

Drinking tea from its innards, you can taste a little bit of zen.

Peace

Another Beautiful Autumnal Buncheong Style Tea Bowl By Uh Sang Myung

This bowl glows an earthy red- an autumn leaf about to change colour.
Its colour is its beauty. Dry, gritty, brownish red.

The outside wall of the bowl is darker and more vibrant on one side then the other. It is marked at the extreme by a burn blotch reaching over the lip of the bowl- an unpredictable scar from the fire in the kiln. Inside the bowl also reflects this imbalance- one side is darker, more colourful than the other. This is also the case as ones eyes move from the rim down on both the inside and outside of the bowl.

This effect is profound. It creates a feeling of fleeting warmth. A hazy red sunset that throws the most profound colours in the other end of the sky. Beautiful.

This feeling of calm is challenged slightly by the rough, exposed clay around the foot. A foot that exudes simplicity, and gentle ruggedness.

The globs of cloudy white gaze drip down the side and suggest slowness. They seem as if they are still slowly creeping down the sides of the bowl. They remind us to slow down.

If we cannot take the opportunity to slow down when drinking tea,
when else will we?
When watching the sun set?
When watching the seasons change?
When watching the autumn leaves turn?

Peace

A Beautiful Autumnal Buncheong Style Tea Bowl By Uh Sang Myung

This bowl is autumn.
Everything about it seems in harmony with the goings on outside ones window these days.

Its traditional blotchy buncheong style holds ones attention. Most bowls of this style seem to emulate the onset of spring, the colourful blotches representing the blossoming spring flowers outside. This bowl is not your ordinary buncheong bowl.

The dry look-gloss sets the overall mood of the bowl- the feel of autumn. The dry feel is especially apparent as one cradles this bowl in attentive palms. It feels soft but rough, dry but not abrasive.

The muted, neutral, lighter blue hued grey of the bowls sides provides a perfect backdrop for the colourful spots. Like the changing leaves outside, these spots have a center that is being infringed upon by encroaching colour.

The pattering on the inside of the bowl captures the movement of falling leaves. The sparse blotches near the wood-brown rim of the bowl seem to act like leaves blown from tree branches, accumulating in piles on the shallow of the bowl.

This movement is made more profound as frothy green matcha is sipped away from its insides.

Vibrant green changing to autumnal reds.
Summer to Autumn.
This is the movement of now.

Peace

An Exemplary Buncheong Style Tea Bowl by Renowned Artist Min Young Ki

Min Young Ki's work is mind blowing. It has been featured in such famous international art galleries as the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, the Smithsonian Museum in the USA, and the Royal de Mariemont in Belgium just to name a few.

This bowl sits in an old traditional Korean house- a natural place to savour its beauty.

The form is so natural that it fails to capture ones attention as it modestly takes a back seat to magnificent color and texture. Because one doesn't notice its form, one really notices its form.

Inside the shallow of this bowl, reddish brown colour connects this piece to its material- the clay. As ones vision climbs from the bowls shallow up the side wall, the earthy reddish colour fades to a natural blue hued grey. Bursting pebbles penetrate blue in a spectacular contrast of colour leaving behind light orange blotches outlined in red-orange. This effect is also seen on the outside wall of the bowl. Placing this bowl in both hands and rotating it gracefully as per ceremonial etiquette, creates a wonderful panorama of flowers blossoming before the eyes.

There is continuity between the colour and pattern of the inside and outside of this bowl. There is contrast in the texture. The inside shallow is heavily glossed, the outside bottom is uncut and rough, exposing the rugged clay beneath. The sensory receptors of the fingers and hands truly appreciate this contrast, which sharply divide top from bottom.

The roughness of this uncovered clay reaches its zenith in this bowls foot, as does its beauty. Particularly, the center, reveals a low angled mountain of natural rugged symmetry, a mini Fuji.

Peace

A Large Buncheong Tea Jar (Cha Hang A Ree) By Lee Kang Hyo

This is a different motif than some of his other pak ji style tea jars.

There is much beauty in the natural, whimsical feeling of this tea jar.

Peace

A Gye Yal Style Buncheong Tea Bowl By Shin Hyun Chrul

Shin Hyun Churl is not really known for his tea bowls. This bowl stood out from a selection of his bowls. The haphazard nature of the 'gye yal' or brushstroke on this particular bowl reminded one of a breaking wave. The glaze on this buncheon piece is also nicely cracked, a whole shattering into pieces like the breaking of a wave. The clean cut Han Gyab style foot seems almost to act in opposition to such an idea and brings it whole again. One applauds such dichotomy in a piece of art... A million pieces return to one.

Peace