How to make a ceramic tea strainer
We take a page out of Lilly Maetzig’s new book, Handbuilt, to learn how to craft a tea strainer from clay.
A tea strainer is a little sieve that can sit on top of a teacup. When loose-leaf tea is brewed in a teapot, the tea is poured into the cup through the tea strainer, which catches any tea leaves. It can also be used as an infuser to brew loose leaf tea straight into the cup.
Make a note of the approximate diameter of teacup that you will be using the tea strainer for, as you need to make sure that it is not wider than the cup or too narrow to be supported by its rim.
Materials and tools
Clay, approx. 300g, depending on the size of your finished piece
Rolling pin and guides or slab roller
Metal kidney
Sponge
Scalpel or potters knife
Slip and paintbrush
Wooden knife tool
Needle tool or scoring tool
Small hole cutter or drill bit, approx. 2-3mm diameter
Take a small ball of clay and pinch it into a bowl shape.
Ensure the pinched bowl is not too thick and not too thin, and evenly pinched all the way around. It will need to be approx. 3-5mm thick, this needs to be a narrow bowl. You can bring the rim in a little bit by cutting a V shape into the clay, from rim to base, and blending the join together.
Set this aside to harden slightly, for 15-60 minutes depending on the weather.
Flatten a small slab of clay with either a rolling pin or by pinching it flat, ensuring it is wider than the bowl you’ve made, and wider than the lip of the cup you want it to sit on. This will be the lip of the strainer. Set it aside to harden slightly so that it can be attached to the bowl without it deforming or warping.
Take a metal kidney and refine the bowl. Ensure the rim doesn’t have any cracks and tidy the bowl up with a lightly dampened sponge.
Using a scalpel or potters knife, cut a flower out of the slab (or any shape you fancy – simple semi circles or strips look great). Cut a hole out of the middle of your shape, the same diameter as the bowl. Ensure that the size of the bowl and the lip of the strainer (when it has been attached in step 7, below) will sit over the rim of the cup. Note: you need to consider the clay’s shrinkage to ensure that it will fit after firing.
Attach the lip to the outer rim of the bowl by trimming the sides of the lip to the contour of the bowl, scoring both surfaces and applying slip to one.
Tidy the join with a wooden knife tool and a lightly dampened sponge.
Take your small hole cutter or drill bit and, from the outside going in, poke little holes in the clay. You can do this in a pattern if you would like, or just at random. These holes are most important on the base of the piece and the lower sides. Note: don’t use too large a hole cutter as the goal of the strainer is to keep the tea leaves in; if the holes are too large, they will float out into your cup of tea.
Wait until the piece is bone dry before cleaning up the tiny little clay crumbs that appear on the surface of the bowl as you poke the holes through. You can dust them away with your fingers or use a metal kidney or loop tool to scrape them off, and then wipe with a lightly dampened sponge. If you attempt to clean these away with a sponge while the clay is still wet, they will fill the holes again and get stuck on the surface – there is nothing more annoying.
Glazing this piece is optional. If you choose to, you need to leave a surface unglazed to be able to fire it. I generally leave the bowl part unglazed, so that the little holes don’t fill with glaze. You can leave the whole piece unglazed if the pot is going to fall over with a round bowl when you fire it – fire your clay to maturity, the tea shouldn’t stain the ceramic.
This is an edited extract from Handbuilt: A Modern Potter's Guide to Handbuilding with Clay by Lilly Maetzig. Published by Quadrille, RRP NZD $39.99. Photography by India Hobson.
