Frost and Iron — Shino Wood-Fired Teacup

Frost and Iron

This cup looks as though it was pulled from a winter landscape and fired into permanence. The exterior is a cascading composition of white Shino glaze and pale blue — streaming downward in fine vertical rivulets like frost forming on cold glass, or rain running down a stone wall — all of it punctuated by dense iron-brown speckles that ground the composition in the earth. It is a cup of quiet drama: restrained on the outside, revelatory within.

Glaze & Surface

The exterior is covered in a flowing, layered glaze of white Shino and soft blue-grey, streaming downward in fine vertical channels — the result of the glaze melting and moving during the long wood firing. Iron-brown speckles and patches appear throughout, where the clay body shows through or where iron in the glaze has darkened under the flame. The surface is richly textured: pitted, blistered, and alive with the marks of the fire. The rim is raw and encrusted, dark with iron and glaze residue. The interior is the dramatic counterpoint: a deep, warm iron-rust brown ground, over which large, irregular islands of white Shino glaze have settled and crawled — pale blue at their edges, white at their centres — like ice floes drifting on a dark river, or clouds moving across a burnt-orange sky at dusk.

Form & Feel

• Upright, slightly squared cylindrical form with a strong, grounded presence
• Substantial weight with excellent heat retention
• Richly textured exterior — tactile and endlessly interesting to hold
• Dramatic, contrasting interior — a world revealed only when you look inside

The Interior Surprise

Many Shino cups are beautiful on the outside. Fewer reveal a second, entirely different world when you look within. This cup is one of the rare ones — where the exterior's cool, restrained frost gives way to a warm, volcanic interior of rust and white. It is a cup that rewards the curious, the attentive, and the slow.

A cup for those who appreciate the quiet drama of contrast. One of a kind, never to be repeated.

Care

Suitable for contact with tea. Hand wash gently and avoid abrasive cleaners. Variations and firing marks are part of this one-of-a-kind handmade piece.