Ondřej Sedlák is one of the exceptional people we have met recently. His woodwork and tea accessories are something that takes tea drinking back to its roots − to tranquillity, naturalness and contemplation. Do you think that this is something that doesn’t fit this world anymore? We think the opposite…
Wooden Tea Utensils
Ondřej says about himself:
I was raised in an artistic family. My great grandfather was a cooper, my grandpa was a sculptor and my father’s creative outlet was painting. Influenced by their creative spirit and work, I also did a piece myself now and then. My artistic journey then veered towards music: I studied guitar and composing.
Years passed and I started to pick up on their heritage. Using the tools after my grandfather, who also worked with wood, I started my own “wood adventure”. Totally consumed by it, I dedicate almost all my time outside of teaching music to woodwork. Great inspirations for me are, of course, many years of drinking tea and the magic of tea culture and tea ceremonies.
It all started when I saw Scott Drake’s woodwork. I instantly knew this was what I wanted to do. Now I wander around, collect wood and put my imagination into it. I work with many different woods of different hardness. Each one of them has its unmistakeable character and gives the final product a different feeling. I am fascinated by what fungi can do with wood and I see my work as a unique opportunity to bring this up. In wood processing I either prefer the natural shape of the pieces of wood, sometimes I modify them to a certain extent – but I’m always guided by the way it grew. I am obsessed with surface finishing of wood. I sand it very finely and then polish it to make the structure come out as much as possible. For finishing I treat the pieces with a minimum amount of shellac resin, Camellia Sinensis (tea shrub) oil or a certain kind of hard natural oil. What I want is to keep the natural surface and look of wood.
Each piece is an original. I perceive my work as an ideal fusion of my love for nature, tea drinking and creating. I would also like to get to working with stone, which has been an integral part of my tea drinking experience.
