Summer afternoon is ideal for a work trip through middle Czech landscape. So I visited potter Jiří Duchek in Mutějovice in traditional Czech hops region to choose few pieces of his tea ware for our Klasek Tea Shop.
Mutějovice garden
Tower for hops drying
It was an interesting possibility to look at elegant and tiny tea ware from “the other side” and look at the original materials in their raw form. Also having a look at the place they are born – in flames and ashes…
Hops Farm
Jiří showed me his three wood kilns, where the tea ware is fired. Hundreds of those small pieces have to be created to fill the kilns. In between the workshops there is a beautiful garden with decorative trees. The garden is apparently beloved hobby of Jiří. Even butterflies surrounding lavender bushes were there. The former hop farm is very huge because a lot of space was needed during summer season, when thousands of workers came to work with hops processing.
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- Lavender and buterflies/ levandule a motýli
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- Big kiln/ velká pec
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- Mutějovice idyll/ mutějovická idyla
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- Smaller kiln/ menší pec
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- Raw soil/ surová hlína
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- Soft clays for glazes/ jíly na glazury
Immitation of Vienna porcelain
Protoporcelain aka white ray
Novelty – white teapots and cups from so called protoporcelain were of course chosen to enrich our offer. They get wonderful warm golden ochre colour while using. The tea accentuates tiny craquelles. The protoporcelain was formerly used in Czechia to immitate Vienna porcelain that rather gives much colder feeling.
What is even more funny – the Duchek´s soft stoneware (clay) is originally black, because it is full of carbon, that fires away in a kiln… and the tea ware becomes white! Jiří and also present ceramist Martin Hanuš told me that working with such material is very difficult, since one actually works with a picture of the final result. For me as a layperson it is quite an exciting story!
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- Duchek´s soft stoneware in original unfired form/ Duchkova měkká kamenina před vypálením
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- Pottery/ hrnčírna
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- Blackies by Martin Hanuš/ Hanušova černota
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- Teapot Ray/ konvička Rejnok
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- Changing the colour/ probarvení
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- Coloured Ray/ probarvený rejnok
Jiří Duchek
Czech and other pottery history
Finally I admired Jiří´s small exhibiton – shop with those Czech historical treasures, as well as Czech medieval mugs from Loštice or Chinese ancient ceramic shard from Song dynasty. I have to mention “the treasure shelf” with illustration of materials and styles Jiří uses. It was quite hard to leave those pieces behind – a celadon tea jar with a wooden lid or a translucent tea cup. You will find all novelties online – ray teapots and cups, red clay tea ware, lotus sets or original tea jars, you name it!
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- Treasure shelf/ police pokladů
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- Celadons/ seladonky
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- Translucent porcelain cup/ průsvitná porcelánová miska
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- Medieval Czech mugs from Loštice/ Loštické středověké poháry
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- Shard from dynasty Song under the teapot/ střep pod konvičkou z dynastie Song
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- 200 years old Czech protoporcelain/ 200 let stará česká měkká kamenina
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- Plays with copper – red and green effects/ hrátky s mědí – červené a zelené efekty
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- Reduction copper effects on glaze/ redukční efekty mědi na glazuře
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