Sarah Heimann - Small Teapot with Ribbed Parasol Knob & Basket Handle
Sarah Heimann
New Hampshire
Cone 6 white stoneware, thrown, carved, slips, glaze inlay. Oxidation fired.
Functional
6.75"w x 4.25"l x 6"h
About the Teapot
Teapots are one of my favorite forms. There’s so much time to spend making one, hours of carving. The current umbrella/parasol series is inspired by a card that has been on my studio wall for years- a penguin holding an umbrella. It’s a beautiful, inky little print. People then look at the knobs and confidently tell me that they are shitake mushrooms. They’re not necessarily wrong. I hold an image in my head as I carve, but what ends up on a piece may be quite different. I just happen to love umbrellas—their structure, their touch of whimsy, even their formality delights me. It is that delight that I search for in my teapots.
About the Artist
Sarah Heimann is a studio potter in Lebanon, NH. She is an instructor at Dartmouth College’s ceramic studio. Her work has been published in Lark’s 500 Cups, 500 Vases, 500 Teapots, Studio Potter magazine, and Surfaces, Glazes, and Firing by Angelica Pozo. Awards have included the Huntington Museum of Art Walter Gropius Master Artist, McKnight Artist Residency, Jerome Artist Project Grant, and a McKnight Artist Fellowship. She has an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Artist Statement
I wrap carvings around simple ceramic forms. I am surrounded by history with an apartment and studio in an old barn. Walks in nearby woods take me by trees grown through wire fences, crumbling cellar foundations, and old stone walls. Sidewalk pieces line the bottom of a stream in a neighboring town park.
Images fill my head as I draw on leather-hard pieces. There are stories in every abandoned cellar hole, each forested stone wall, and every clump of field daffodils. Suggestions of these stories fill my head as I start drawing, beginning with a bloom or building, taking a small moon to the ground, and placing a larger one over a vine and behind a tree. In carving, I hone form and breathe life into the image.
*Teapots that are purchased will remain on display in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition, through September 14, 2026.
After the show closes, teapots will be carefully packed and shipped by September 28, or they may be picked up at the gallery.
About National Teapot Show XIII
Cedar Creek Gallery's National Teapot Show XIII is an invitational event featuring teapots crafted by artists from across North America. More than 200 hand-crafted teapots created using a broad range of materials - including pottery, glass, wood, fiber, and mixed media.
Teapots in the show come in all shapes and sizes! Some are functional - just right for your daily cup of tea, while others are created as sculptural teapots.
Every teapot in the show is available for purchase.
All teapots will remain on display (including those already sold), both online and in the gallery, through September 14, 2026.