Ceramic teapots

Ceramic Teapots

Perhaps the most popular and oldest kind of teapot are ones made from Ceramics. The teapot is to the potter what the canvas is to painter and over the years there have been many great designed ceramic teapots both functional and sometime just for show. Since the ancient Chinese first developed vessels for brewing and serving tea, the teapot has inspired potters to create many different designs of ceramic teapots.

A ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous (e.g., a glass). Because most common ceramics are crystalline, the definition of ceramic is often restricted to inorganic crystalline materials, as opposed to the non-crystalline glasses.

The earliest ceramics were pottery objects made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials, hardened in fire. Later ceramics were glazed and fired to create a coloured, smooth surface. Ceramics now include domestic, industrial and building products and art objects. In the 20th century, new ceramic materials were developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering; for example, in semiconductors.

The word ceramic comes from the Greek word "κεραμικός" (keramikos), "of pottery" or "for pottery", from "κέραμος" (keramos), "potter's clay, tile, pottery" which is said to derive from the Indo-European word *cheros (unattested), meaning heat. The earliest mention on the word "ceramic" is the Mycenaean Greek ke-ra-me-we, "workers of ceramics", written in Linear b syllabic script. Ceramic may be used as an adjective describing a material, product or process; or as a singular noun, or, more commonly, as a plural noun, ceramics.

Ceramic teapots come in a range of styles such as Japanese ceramic teapots, Chinese ceramic teapots and traditional English ceramic teapots.  Ceramic teapots can be painted and finished in a number of styles and some of the more popular ceramic teapot colours are white teapots, blue ceramic tea pots, black ceramic teapots and cream ceramic teapots.  There have also been some fantastic designs of ceramic teapots including work done by famous potters.