Bronze Earth, Blue Sky — Shino Wood-Fired Teacup

Bronze Earth, Blue Sky

This cup looks as though it was forged in the earth's core and cooled in the deep ocean. The exterior is a dramatic landscape of iron-bronze and copper-gold — richly textured, metallic, and alive with the marks of the wood fire — cracked and blistered like ancient bronze, or the surface of a meteorite that has travelled through fire and time. Then you look inside, and the sky opens up.

Glaze & Surface

The exterior is a vivid, fully saturated field of deep iron-brown, warm copper-gold, and dark bronze — richly textured with crawled glaze, blistering, and the marks of wood ash and flame. The surface shifts between matte and metallic as the light changes, catching gold and copper tones in direct light and deepening to dark iron-brown in shadow. It is a surface of distinctive complexity — one that took the kiln, the clay, and the fire working together over many hours to create. The interior is the revelation: a striking world of deep cobalt blue, covered in a vivid network of white crackle lines — like ice fracturing on a frozen lake, or the surface of a blue planet seen from space. The crackle pattern is dense, intricate, and perfectly distributed — each line unique, each intersection unrepeatable. The blue is deep and luminous, glowing from within like a backlit stained-glass window.

Form & Feel

• Round, full-bodied chawan form with a gentle inward curve at the rim — meditative and grounding
• Substantial weight with excellent heat retention
• Richly textured, metallic exterior — like holding a piece of the earth itself
• Luminous, crackle-glazed interior — a world revealed with every sip

The Crackle Within

The distinctive crackle pattern inside this cup forms as the glaze cools and contracts at a different rate from the clay body — creating a network of fine lines that run through the glaze like a map of rivers seen from above. Combined with the deep cobalt blue ground, the result is one of the most visually striking interiors that wood firing can produce — and one that is entirely unrepeatable.

A cup for those who find the cosmos in a cup of tea. 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.