Her Ice-T-teapot is a more literal stack of ice cubes in mostly blue glaze, her pedagogue T-cher teapot is shaped like, well a chair, a fair stretch of the imagination. The Tea -Shoe is like a tissue box with a shoe. These art pieces will stump guests from a formal tea party to an art opening. The are and Iced-Tea breaker for everyone.
For the more conservative, Angel-Wing, her real name by the way, has a Carry Out teapot, a T-can teapot, and a T-bag teapot. Back to that name, no its not from the sixties, her maiden name was Angel and she married local commercial photographer Frank Wing.
Dina's interest in teapots comes from a fascination with tea as social ritual in both Western and Eastern cultures. Her earlier work takes the essence of a functional vessel for tea into the artistic realm of teapot as a conceptual form and then she goes beyond that into its purely sculptural possibilties.
Balancing the body of the pot with spout, lid and handle, she began a series of teapots which use black bamboo as a dynamic counterpooint to her grey crackle glaze. Natural bamboo handles take on elevated heights & graceful curves as she bends them into fanciful arches. Note some of the Classic shaped Teapots.
In a more recent series including a teapot for Celestial Seasonings, inspired by the crescent moon, she started doing handles in sterling silver. Her star shaped, very narrow (2 inches wide) pot, Celestial Ciel stands like a raku star under a silvery moon.
In another excitingly designed teapot, Sur La Pointe, she detaches the pot entirely from its handle, a 12 inch high sterling silver spire which then becomes both an elegant handle and a stand. She is also represented in the Art Guild web site of www.guild.com.
If you feel inspired by fun puns art teapots, look no further than to the ACC Craft Show coming to Fort Mason in August. Check out Dina Angel Wing's T-shirt teapot or her infinit-T teapots and other raku sculpture pieces. They are also available at Gumps in downtown San Francisco. Her art resumé with shows and books, Dina resumé.pdf is attached as a .pdf file for easy printout.
