The final outcome

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So I wrote before about the clay workshop I was involved in, and the firing of the pots. Since I was there at the start and saw the whole process I was interested to see the conclusion too. The whole art project culminated in an event at the opening of a new building, where the vessels that were made would be used to drink tea. Kind of taking the idea of a Japanese tea ceremony to a large audience. And there was also going to be a special piece of music composed for the occasion. So I booked my free ticket and went along. The event was held in a glass-domed atrium where curved tables were arranged in concentric circles and the pots were set out along them, with a seat in front of each one. There wasn’t much of an opportunity to look at the final pots, because it was so crowded that you couldn’t really wander around looking at them. The audience all found a seat, and the artist was helped onto the circular table in the centre where she gave a short talk about the significance of the pots, asked questions that would have been impossible to say ‘no’ to (such as ‘Aren’t they even more beautiful than you imagined?’) and quoted some lines from some writings that seemed to be only very tenuously connected at best. Then the lights were dimmed and the music began, accompanied by a light show projected onto the glass roof that was like something between a black and white kaleidoscope and a lava lamp. Meanwhile people came round with jugs and kettles and filled our cups with some sort of sweetish, slightly spicy beverage. We all sat there gazing at the lights and listening to the music, cupping our drinking vessels with the ‘tea’, and expecting that there would be some sort of conclusion – the artist would maybe say something about the meaning of ceremonial tea-drinking and toast the new building, or something like that. But no. The music ended, the lights went up, and staff started coming round to collect the cups and point us to the exits! We hurriedly drank our ‘tea’ and after briefly saying hello to a few people I recognised it was time to go home! I didn't actually get to see the final collection of vessels after the anagama firing but here's a photo of some very similar ones. All rights reserved. © Text copyright Fleur 2026.