Specialtea of Deruta

Never tell a craftsman you're not in a hurry. Say something like, "If you can have it done in a month, we're good" and assume you'll have it in two.

I say this because I finally (after nearly a year) have a teapot I requested!

Here's the story...

When Bonnie and Bob were here LAST April, we went to Deruta to do the rounds, at which point they were sweet enough to get me a mug that I loved. While not my normal style, I had always been very taken with the form of the mug together with the pattern and had been romancing it for about the previous 5 visits to Novella's shop.

Well, just like if you give a mouse a cookie, she's going to want something to go with it, I after my third cup of tea (as in the first night that I had my mug), I had decided that a teapot to go with it was absolutely indispensable.

The next time I went to Deruta, not long afterwards, I took the mug and asked Novella about a teapot. "No problem! Let's look at the catalogs of blanks!" We looked. And all the teapots were microsizes. Sort of like the espresso pots of tea...for one person. I don't have a one person household, and while not everyone drinks tea, I am often confronted with an empty pot. A larger teapot would be required.

I indicated that a teapot holding 1 1/2 liters would be about right, if not a bit larger. "Hmm..." She picked up her phone, called Andrea (her son-in-law), who came right over. "So what exactly do you want?" I explained the situation, described the type of spout I wanted (or rather, the type I DIDN'T want...there's one out there I consider to be particularly ugly), and the size...as well as the fact that I wanted a slightly domed lid rather than the flat style they seem to go for.

"Yes, no problem. We can get so-and-so to throw it for you." Sounds great!

Oh, and yes, please throw in a milk jug and sugar basin...useful, you know? But there's not hurry...we're in late spring and tea drinking season is almost over for me.

Well. We went through summer (not as much a tea season when it's in the 90s every day, so I wasn't worried). Then fall. Then winter. Every time I went by, I was assured that it was being worked on. Okay, wonderful!

Jeremy and I arrived yesterday. Novella greeted me with a beatific smile. "It's all ready for you! Hang on, let me go get it for you!!!!"

Jeremy photobombed this one. So he deserves to have it published.

And it's beautiful. Well worth the wait. And not only was the teapot thrown specifically for me, but so were the milk jug and sugar basin because they wanted something the right size and scale. How sweet is that?

You understand, we hadn't discussed price yet, so at this point I was majorly biting my nails. I can't tell you how much it cost, but let's just say that it was less than the price of most teapots you'd buy at Macy's.

I'm drinking tea from my mug now, with my new teaset beside me, and am feeling very special!

Isn't the spout darling???

Love,

Alexandra