Tea Journey

Working away and decideing ..


My studio is small but there is no problem with that. I just need to figure out how to get the water and wash plates right next to me and have all my other equipment organized with it.
The list only starts there. How am I going to store the “Tea paint”? How often do I have to change it before it starts to ( uhhh) mold? Do I want to use watercolours in my work? Do I need thicker paper? (already know the answer: YES!) Do I want to start sizeing my paper before starting? (still a maybe) Is this all cat safe? ( My cat LOVES to get his nose into my things) Am I being catious for my own health?
So many things to go over~ I can’t wait to get things together instead of in a tiny basket under my easel.

Questions asked of Teaopia

I sent the following to the Teaopia “Tea master” last night and got a response this morning.

Tea master,

1. Is the Tea Master safe? Plastic when heated can leak chemicals into food and in this case tea.

2. I have read that tea is not caffeine free. Despite manufacturer’s attempt to make it so, there is still caffeine. Is this true?

3. Teaopia sells a lot of traditional tea ware, online and in store. Will you on day offer small seminars on how these are used? Especially the Yixing pots which from reading online it seems it needs to be seasoned extensively.

4. When getting a drink at a Teaopia location I over heard that you are a Canadian chain. Why is it not present in the store or online?

Looking forward to your answers.

Their answer is as so:

Hi Kat,

Thank you for contacting Teaopia.

1) Yes our Tea Master is safe to use and is BPA free.

2) Yes all real “tea” contains caffeine that includes, White Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea and Black Tea. However, the caffeine content is significantly less than coffee (60-120 mg compared to 25-34mg in tea). While the caffeine levels in tea vary depending on the blend and how long it is brewed, the average cup contains only 25-34mg of caffeine. This is great news for tea lovers, or those who are looking to make the switch from other beverages to the health smart choice of tea, because according to Health Canada’s guidelines you can consume approximately 10-12 cups of tea every day!

3) At this time I have not been made aware of any plans to introduce seminars at Teaopia. I do have some interesting information about Yixing including how to properly season the pot if you are interested I would be more than happy to pass it along to you.

4) Yes we are a proudly Canadian owned and operated company. I will be sure to mention to the appropriate people that perhaps we should have this better advertised to our customers!

Thank you so much for taking the time to email us. I sincerely hope you are enjoying our store as well as our teas!

Have a great day and take the time to enjoy “The Perfect Cup of Tea”

Elise

Director of Communications

Teaopia

   This is great to hear that the Teamaster is safe to use and learn a new other things about tea as well.
Go out and support Canadian companies!

Large works?

Been so busy with papers and such I took a moment to start some larger pieces. I have always been fascinated by the old art of the east. Gods and Goddesses, Buddha, immortals and demons. Especially the Bodhisattva with a thousand arms.

After thinking it over I have decided it was time to reincorporate my old themes into my new work. I am hoping this piece turns out as well as I wish it will. In addition I have plans to create an even larger piece which will play out the HIV advertisements I saw last year. Bodies covered in many arms, clining and possesing the body. I am beginning to wonder if these new pieces are still part of this collection or not. They do not invoke innocence but desire and the want to be loved or held by someone. It has been perhaps too long since I have seen my girlfriend that it’s unconsciously being put to paper with my ink brush. Oh well time to get back to work

Reaserch notes- "what is a woman?" Google search

So I searched this general question and I’m surprised at what I have found. this question itself was formulated after reviewing my work from when I began at OCAD till now, it is the question I subconsciously have been dealing with.

– How to master a woman’s G-spot
Informative but not what I was searching for.

–Every woman is a cheating whore
Very sexist. “Getting attention from men is a woman’s lifeblood. That’s why women worship men in the form of menial tasks that they’re not very good at — because men control our attention like the gods of old controlled the sun and the crypt. We giveth and we can taketh away.” The writer is either doing this deliberately or as a “joke”. The site url menarebetterthanwomen.com makes it only worse. It is accompanied by articles such as why women hate sex and pets are not children. By the way the reasoning for why women hate sex is this “Women hate sex simply because they are lousy at it.”… apparently. Oddly enough it reminds me of the oblivious men who are part of the mens club in Bleach (anime) and wonder why they are single (it’s also hinted that they don’t get laid either lol.).
I am highly amused by this site to the point where I want to write to Xtra-Toronto about this strange poor man.

–Why is a woman’s Breast called a ‘tit’?
Interesting wiki answer for this question. I still remember the fist time hearing it in High School, such an odd word. Women even use it.

– What is a woman to do? Age, Sex and Menopause
Definitely not what I was looking for but helpful in what another 20 years? Strangely there’s an add for a memory game on it, was that deliberate?

–Sex, gender, and the body: the student edition of What is a woman?
Where has this book been all my life? It is so strange that there is no feminism lecture in High School for all the girls hitting puberty. I wish I had gotten this book instead I got the damned “what’s happening to my body?” which explained where babies came from, what genitalia I have, what happens during sex (briefly, it’s for 10-14 year old of course can’t get them run off to experiment), what pads do, what tampons do, where hair grows now, and Why your different from men. Ah how I despised that book with it’s odd drawings. (continued with other point)
–What is a woman?: and other essays

By Toril Moi
So I found the book twice. Anyhow. It has everything- Donna Haraway, Judith Butler&
Simone de Beauvoir. To name a few. If I had encountered this book earlier perhaps my questions
could have been answered more completely at an earlier age. Compleately being too broad a term
as it calls for an end, when I have only begun to fall down this “rabbit hole” of knowledge.

–What is a woman?
About.com article on such? I’m quite surprised. even more so at the definition that get’s presented
from a blog
“WOMAN- The term `woman’ means a female human being who is capable of becoming pregnant,
whether or not she has reached the age of majority.”
This deffinition does not bring forth the differentiation between body and mind. Anyhow it continues
and the US Senate does not see someone who is female bodied-barren-woman as a woman. Has
this question been changed at all? There is no date on the post so I can not tell how old it is, but
there is a comment from 2008. Strange strange.

I’m going to stop my search there for the night and return to my books. Thesis paper is due on the
1st and I have yet to put together the information to create this piece. Back to my coffee for another
late night.