Kettle and Cup

The Sorapot Part 2….Interview with Joey Roth

by Marye on May 8th, 2008

Here is the second part of the interview…

KC: What do you enjoy? What makes life worth living as far as you are concerned?

JR:I love everyday rituals like chewing gum, swiping your card at a
turnstile, and of course making tea. I think each of these rituals has
the potential to become an oasis in modern overcomplicated life, but
people tend to ignore them, largely because of ease-of-use advances
that designers have made.

KC:Can you give us an example of that?

JR: The less thought a product requires to use,
the less the user will think about the task. This is great in most
circumstances, because it allows people to accomplish more in a
shorter amount of time. Some tasks reveal tremendous beauty if they’re
given some thought however, and I try to design products for these
tasks. The easiest way to make tea is to nuke some water in a mug and
stir in powdered Lipton, but the point of making tea isn’t the tea
itself. I designed Sorapot to encourage its user to attend to the
details, while still making a delicious cup.

KC:What is your hope for sorapot?

JR: I love products that change and become more personal and valuable
with their owner’s patterns of use, like jeans and cast iron cookware.
My dream is to see a well-used and well-loved Sorapot in an antique
shop in a few decades. The raw stainless steel will record the user’s
daily tea making, becoming shinier where it’s held, revealing where it
was scrubbed, and changing color gradually as tea tannins are
deposited on its surface. It will look far better than when it comes
out of the box new.
KC:Tell us about your choice for packaging.

JR:I took an opposite, yet still sustainable approach with the packaging.
Since it won’t be kept by the user for nearly as long as the teapot, I
designed its shape and chose materials with impermanence in mind. It’s
made from post-consumer recycled cardboard and molded pulp- exactly
the same material as egg crates. Instead of hiding these materials
behind a layer of glossy paper (as is often done with retail
packaging), I tried to articulate the cardboard’s natural beauty as
much as possible, using its fluting and imperfections as central
design elements. The package is fastened with natural jute rope, and
avoids the use of tape and staples.

*********************

So.. Is he cool or what? I think this is an amazing teapot, and the most innovative design that I have seen. It will not replace gramma’s McCoy Rose, or the Snowman that I was given by my kids but the sleek lines of this teapot will definitely make it a collectible in the years to come. Check it out on sorapot.com

So what kind of tea would you make in it?

Image :used by permission, Joey Roth, sorapot.com

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