Teapots to savor

Some are short and stout, but all in a national show reveal the makers' creativity

CREEDMOOR -- The bulldog sold first.

The adorable caramel, white and black ceramic teapot was gone within 30 seconds of the opening reception of Cedar Creek Gallery's National Teapot Show.

The show features 220 teapots ranging from traditional to contemporary and made out of everything from chicken wire to fiber. While some of the vessels hold tea, others are strictly objects of beauty. This year 170 artists, including 91 from North Carolina, are represented in the show.

And the organizers use the term "teapot" loosely -- meaning a creation that has a handle, a spout and a lid. You may have to stare at some of these pieces awhile to figure them out.

That would be the case for "Brown Figs Waiting." At first glance, it looks like a sculpture. "Then you realize it's a teapot show, and you're thinking, 'How in the world is that a teapot?' " says Jennifer Dolan, gallery manager and the show's curator.

"Then you start looking at the spout, and you see the stem of one of the figs. The lid is a top of another fig and the body is a bowl filled with fruit, and then the handle becomes the napkin and knife," she says. "It forces you to look at what is a teapot."

In this exhibit, some of the teapots are whimsical with attitude, such as the porcelain teapot shaped like a sneaker with a dog popping out of it.

Others are traditional, including the one made by Georgia potter Ron Meyers.

Meyers' small, rustic, cream earthenware piece is functional. "I've always stuck with the idea they can be useful," he says.

Some of the teapots are more artsy than his, he explains. But for a collectible, Meyers' pot is very affordable at $190.

All of the "teapots" are for sale and the prices range from $17 to $6,000, with lots of pots in the $350 range.

Meyers considers teapots a part of the genre of utilitarian pots. "You have plates, cups, bowls and teapots," he says.

But he and other potters admit teapots are a real challenge to make because of the four or more parts -- the spout, the lid, the body and the handle.

Not just for pouring tea

Others literally don't hold water.

Hillsborough jeweler Nell Chandler designed a teapot bracelet that was inspired by her grandmother's love of tea.

Chandler said her mother passed on stories of how her grandmother believed everything would be all right once she sipped on a cup of the hot brew.

Chandler created a sterling silver bracelet after looking at famous teapots in books, then etched the images out of brass and soldered them onto silver.

Cedar Creek artist John Martin's creation is tea-lightful. His green and gold crystalline glaze porcelain teapot lamp switches on and off when you touch anything metal on it.

Martin used old objects from his studio, including a bronze knob that probably came from a bed post and copper tubing for the spout and handle.

Cedar Creek artist Tim Turner's sculptural aqua, green and brown teapot is perfect placed on a pedestal in a living room or family room. The abstract piece is large and bulbous, the body round like a pot belly. "I think most people are drawn in by the shape," he says.

Not brewed overnight

The Cedar Creek Gallery National Teapot Show started in 1989. The initial show was the idea of the late Cedar Creek founder and potter Sid Oakley, who saw the event as an opportunity to showcase creativity, imagination and craftsmanship within a theme.

At times, the show has run every two years, but now it's put on every three years because of the work involved in organizing the huge exhibition. This year's show is the seventh.

The teapot theme was chosen because of the infinite interpretations of its traditional components.

The show is something you want to look at and then linger over. Mary Douglas, the curator for the Kamm Teapot Foundation based in Sparta, says she spent three hours walking through and judging for awards of excellence, which she said was a hard job because so many of the teapots were impressive.

Seagrove's Ben Owen III received the "functional pottery" award because his work "represents the evolution of North Carolina folk pottery." Terry Evans of Kansas received the "non-clay media" award for his "wooden teapot whose turbulent surface could be a metaphor of boiling tea within." And Jim Budde of Idaho received the "ceramic sculpture" award for a "fine example of ceramic sculpture in the figurative tradition."

Even with Douglas' trained eyes, she kept discovering new nuances as she toured the gallery a few times. "I would see things I missed. A lot of the work is tiny and intricate."

So take your time as if you were savoring a flavorful cup of tea, one that was poured from an interesting pot.