Yesterday morning, when I opted to use my actual teapot for tea instead of using my monogrammed coffee pot like I usually do, I discovered (tragedy of all tragedies) that the damn thing had sprung a leak. It will now forever be a display piece doomed to regular polishings rather than regular use. C’est la vie, right?

But it means that I’m in the market for a new teapot, and not just any old teapot. As it happens, I think I’ve found the perfect solution to my leaky pot problem in the practical artwork of one Christine Misak. She takes unloved and unwanted tea sets and transforms them by integrating the old and the new.

Her original recycled tea sets are resurfaced using colorful and vivid enamels, creating something that hints at the past yet appears thoroughly modern — rather like the Jonathan Adler busts I mentioned the other day.

Like the originals, these sets call to mind the past without being stuck in it, but they feel even more contemporary because of the addition of angular, rather Danish handles.

With this set, plasticky contemporary jugs are toned down by the addition of ornate silver tone lids and handles. I can’t say that I care much for these, being that I don’t think the two pieces mesh particularly well.

The disparate elements of these pieces, on the other hand, seem to come together a lot more organically, creating a tea set that just looks “right.”

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 8:27 am by Christa Terry and is filed under Color, Just Because, The kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.