This is the first piece I made the was pulled from the anagama kiln from my class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts that I have used. I used it two nights in a row, while it is a good size for sencha, it is also an interesting and good shape for Chinese teas as well, though often only filling it a third to half of the way with the way I brew.
I actually quite enjoy this piece, although it is weird to look back at the pictures of the pieces before they were fired. As all the lips were even all the way around, I did not realize how much the thickness causes pieces to contract in the kiln, giving way to a rather uneven lip.
The interior color is fantastic for tea, although reduction did cause some ashy shadows to occur inside the piece which give the piece a nice bit of added character. In the hand the piece feels nice, although I am large person and a little on the stronger side, so I do not mind the slight heft to this piece. In fact I bought a new Kyusu that I will need to share on here in a bit, that actually scares me to handle because even though it is a decent size, it feels so light that it nearly feels like I am holding air when moving it.
I will say I am happy with all my anagama kiln pieces, and am actually shocked at how incredibly different they all are based on where they were placed in the kiln. I forget exactly where this piece was, I believe in approximately the "middle" as it does not have a huge amount of ash build up, but it is far from being mostly bare like one of my other pieces. I should also mention that this only has glaze applied to the interior, everything on the left half of the piece in the picture above is built up wood ash.
