NEW CONTEST: Tea-inspired Art ($100 prize)
I am absolutely thrilled to have been selected as the winner of the “Tea as Art” contest.
{{{ Thank you, Verdant Tea. }}}
Congratulation Glamorosi!
Your Oolong Bracelet was truly inspired! And thank you to Verdant Tea for having such a great contest!
That bracelet is awesome! Love how the metal will change color over time, growing in personality as it’s used. That really fits in with what I love about tea culture (flavors changing over many steepings, seasoning yixing teapots, pu’ers growing more delicious each year..). Not only does it represent Verdant’s TGY well, it’s also beautiful as a stand-alone piece. All of my friends who’ve seen it ask the same question: will this be for sale anywhere?
Thank you for your generous compliments, Spoonvonstup. I’m so happy you like the bracelet and that people understand why I chose bronze as the medium.
Yes, I am going to have a version of the bracelet available in my shops. I have some orders I have to fill first, and then I can get to work on it. It’s a time consuming piece – I expect to have it out there by the mid-to-end of October.
I’m not sure if it’s okay to drop my shop links in this thread, but if you stop by my blog there’s a lot of info there about where you can find my designs. Also, check back there in a few days because I’ll be blogging pics of my prize from Verdant Tea.
Thank you again! :-D
I had a lot of fun looking at all of the entries for this contest. I didn’t get my act together to make something for this one; hopefully, there will be future contests with other teas??
I really like the winner of this one, but some of my other favorites were the TGY poster from Kate (good graphic design, and the symbolism really fit what this tea tastes like to me), the two musical pieces (super fun!! I didn’t expect them at all), and the bead embroidery. Everyone clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the tea and making their pieces, so congrats and thanks to all! You’ve now all got me thinking about what art I would try and make for the teas I’m drinking every day.
I selected an Yixing pot as my prize – it arrived yesterday and it’s perfect.
Come take a look: http://Glamorosi.blogspot.com
Thank you Verdant Tea!
Congrats once again, and nice selection of the Yixing pot! The text that David translated for you sounds like “The Bamboo Grove” by poet Wang Wei. Tea and poetry, a natural combination. :)
Hey,
Nice catch with that. It looks like it actually is the Wang Wei poem. You made my morning, because I just went and read 50 different versions with commentary. There are so many interpretations. I like most of them better than mine, but with the text in grass script and my Chinese getting rusty I might have misinterpreted the last character. Makes me want to take out all my classical Chinese textbooks again and do some translation. I didn’t know that you were a Chinese poetry buff!
This is why I love tea- Around a cup of tea, or even on a tea devoted website, people meet, and discussion turns to poetry, philosophy, and the such. Tea brings out the best in people!
Hey David, Glad I was right about Wang Wei. It is just weird how some things stick in your mind, since it has been a very long time since I heard that poem, and it was just in the translation Glamorosi posted on her blog. I don’t read Chinese at all, but I love old Asian poetry, mostly Japanese, but occasionally others (like Du Fu). And I think it was either a translation by Thich Nhat Hanh or Roshi Joan Halifax that I heard in a podcast years ago. Serendipity! :)
How wonderful!
Du Fu is my favorite of the classic Chinese poets. Most people like Li Bai better, but Du Fu has such style. His allegories go down about five more levels, and his couplets can be read forwards, backwards and every which way to get meaning. My first Chinese teacher actually gave my that same “Du” as a surname in Chinese.
In any case, discussion of art and poetry is precisely what I want out of these contests. I am thinking about Big Red Robe for the next one as autumn rolls in, but I have to contemplate for a day or two more.
This day gets stranger and stranger… How could I have hit on Du Fu in a discussion on Wang Wei. A few hours ago after I posted my last note to this thread, I started going through a few books my sister left for me from her trip to Vancouver this past spring. One was a book on the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, and a few pages in the was a passage addressing Wang Wei and a famous scroll painting/poem he did that made me think back to the design on the Yixing Teapot that Glamorosi got from you. I’m emailing it separately to you as I thought you might enjoy further investigation.
Du Fu is great for contemplation. Even in it’s English translations there are levels that speak deeply and demand your attention! A natural match for someone who finds so much depth in a cup of tea. :)
David,
Between the research I did for for this contest (mostly about the goddess Tieguanyin and Chinese sculpture), and reading the different links on the Verdant Tea website, and now seeing this wonderful, interesting conversation between you and E Alexander Gerster, your contest has completely expanded my knowledge of tea, art, poetry and China.
I can’t wait to see what discussions future contests bring.
Thank you everyone who participated last month. It was a very close contest, and we encourage you all to sign up again and get your friends in on it too. All of your art has expanded our understanding of tea, and of the Tieguanyin specifically.
Now for Autumn, we decided on the very complex, rich, and hopefully, inspring, Big Red Robe. Let’s keep the dialog and art going!
Oops I think there’s a typo in the first post, deadline is October 20th? :)
Just registered!
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