Our new flecked stoneware clay matcha bowl is the perfect vessel to prepare and enjoy your OMGTea matcha tea in. We worked closely with local Sussex potters
Claire and Hugh to develop bespoke bowls that are completely unique to OMGTea, inspired by the origins of our high quality, organic matcha. One design features the silhouette of the volcano in Kagoshima, Japan where OMGTea comes from and a second design beautifully incorporates the pattern of the granite stone mill used to grind the tea leaves. Both designs carry the OMGTea logo and the makers mark on the base.
Thrown on the pottery wheel, the nature of the handmade craftsmanship means that every pot is unique, distinct with its own variations. The pots are trimmed, dried and bisque fired in the kiln before they are ready for decorating. To decorate, Claire and Hugh carefully hand paint fine lines using wax, so that when the pots are dipped in white glaze, the wax resists the glaze, to reveal the design. Inspired by traditional Japanese pottery, we love the imperfections found in the individual bowls, such as the marks left by their fingers, where bowls are held when they are being dipped in glaze, which further highlight the handmade quality.
The History of the Matcha Bowl (chawan)
The Japanese name for tea bowl is chawan and the chawan has been used in Japanese tea ceremonies since the 13th century. It is a flat bottomed bowl with a wide opening. The purpose of the wide opening is to provide plenty of room for the whisk to move around. When drinking from a Matcha bowl, you are meant to hold it in both hands and notice and reflect upon the warmth of the bowl and the colour of the bright green
matcha against it.
Matcha bowls are meant to be unique in shape and colour to denote beauty in the imperfect and the organic development of nature. In Japan much attention is paid to the unique characteristics of handmade pottery, and this includes all of the variables that make a handmade piece unique. A drippy glaze, a slightly lopsided lip, a finger mark in the glaze, etc, are examples of character that shows ‘the hand’ of the maker.
