Baby Seal Tea Pet — Handmade Yixing Clay

Baby seal tea pet in unglazed Yixing duanni clay

This baby seal tea pet is a small unglazed clay figure that sits on your tea tray and gets fed with leftover tea. This one is a white baby seal, flopped on its belly with a faintly worried look, as if it has just been asked a hard question. The duanni clay is left bare and smooth, so there's no glaze between the tea and the surface.

A seal stretched out on a tray in Hobart seems about right; this one just never asks for fish. Glossy black eyes, dotted whisker marks and a grey-washed tail set off the white body, and the maker's seal is stamped on the base. You might spot tiny iron speckles or small pits in the clay. That's how fired clay comes out, not a flaw.

What happens over time

Each time you brew, pour a little spent tea over it. The bare clay soaks it in, and with weeks of tea sessions the surface slowly deepens in colour and picks up a soft sheen. Being so pale, this seal shows its tea history more openly than most; the white warms toward ivory and amber wherever the tea settles.

Product details

• Size: about 7.7 x 6.6 x 4 cm
• Weight: about 109 g
• Material: unglazed Yixing duanni clay, a beige-grey clay in the zisha family
• Colour: white body, black eyes, grey-washed tail
• Made: handmade in Yixing, each piece varies slightly

This works well for

• A first tea pet
• A small gift for someone who already has the teapot and the cups
• Anyone who wants to watch pale clay change with every session

You'll find the tea pets in a row at our Salamanca Tea Bar in Hobart.

How to care for your tea pet

Tea and water only. Pour spent tea over it, brush with a soft tea brush while it's wet if you like, and let it air dry on the tray. No soap.

Shipping

Ships from Hobart, Tasmania. Free shipping on orders over $95 Australia-wide. The seal is wrapped in tissue and packed in a small box with padding around it.

Related

Tea Pet collection
Baby Penguin Tea Pet, the seal's tray-mate in grey.