A little explanation before the methods; there is very little that is traditional in what follows. Quite frankly, I'm a hyper, impatient little gwai-loh and I just don't have the patience to wait 30 years to really make my pots blossom. Also, I'm a tinkerer. When I was a kid (which wasn't all that long ago) I took apart all of my toys, attempted to understand and then improve them, and sometimes even managed to put them back together. The process of developing these methods and trying them is fun for me and a number of my ideas have been quite successful. Any thoughtful comments, positive or negative, will be appreciated.
Baking Experiments: ***I've only used oolongs for these experiments.***
Dry Leaf: to increase aroma and deepen patina. I fill a teapot with leaf, add about a teaspoon of water, and bake in aluminum foil at 275F for several hours. Note: causes an odd non-stick effect on the surface (which I attribute to a build-up of tea lipids). Tea and water bead up and roll off of the surface. Simmering in water negates this effect. I think that the non-stick effect is positive sign, but it's still nice to know that it's reversible.
Spent Leaf: increases aroma. I pack spent tea leaves around a teapot and cover it all in foil. Where a leaf touches the pot, a dark iridescent spot is formed. If total coverage is possible (through packing with enough leaf), I may be able to deeply colour a pot very quickly. The stains respond to buffing with a very slightly damp cloth to even out irregularities. Best if the buffing is done while the pot is hot out of the oven. Dancong oolongs seem to add more fragrance than other types of spent leaves. Tiguanyin and Wu-Long don't add much fragrance as spent leaves.
The two experiments can be done concurrently.
Painting Experiments:
With normal tea: using a slightly damp brush on a pot filled with boiling water (important to keep surface temps high). Causes a definite improvement in patina. Subsequent baking seems to "set" the patina. An odd thing I've noticed is that Tiguanyin and Wu-long teas seem to leave a much glossier residue than other oolongs I've tried. Darker teas cause darker patinas. If I want to deepen the colour of a pot I use a Shui Xian or a Wu-I yancha.
with tea reduction: As above but with reduced (boiled down) tea. I haven't tried this yet as it seems risky as the reduction is cloudy and smells a bit burnt. May acquire a cheap pot to test.
normal tea plus heating plate: as with normal painting method but using a hot plate to provide sustained heat at around boiling temp. Should make the process faster and may set the patina better.
with tea tincture: I've ground tea to a powder in 95% ethanol to produce a tincture. After several days of steeping most of the waxes and oils should be in solution. Ethanol seems to dissolve the volatiles and lipids while leaving tannins behind. Hypothesis: when the alcohol evaporates from the tincture (after being brushed onto the pot), the patina forming compounds should remain on the surface. This method could be done at room temperature. The ethanol dissolves the desireable compounds before the tannic stuff (which I don't think plays a role in the patina formation though I could be wrong). I'll report on the success or lack thereof of this method in a few days.
Tea Steaming:
This is an idea I haven't tried yet. I want to try using a pressure cooker to impart fragrance into my teapots. First I'm going to clean the heck out of my pressure cooker to avoid having my pots smell like beef. Once it's clean I'll take a stainless steaming basket and line it with tea and place a teapot filled with tea over the leaves. I'll then fill the cooker with the minimum level of water, close it up, and start steaming. I think that the high-temp steam should strip the aromatic compounds out of the leaves and plant them in the pot.
The tea that I use is always fairly cheap but still sufficiently aromatic for my purposes. Anything under $20/lb is fair game AFAIC.
Regards,
Cameron Lewis