TERESA CHANG, designer and ceramist, works in her Philadelphia studio, offering high-end, handthrown porcelain dinnerware and teaware. A first-generation Korean American, Teresa has developed a signature aesthetic that seamlessly marries a serene eastern sensibility with a rigorous modernist edge. Her work appeals to design-conscious food lovers who seek “quality without fuss.” The collection is available online and at a few craft shows each year. Her studio is open to the public by appointment.

BACKGROUND - Teresa's formal education was in architecture (U.VA. '87, Columbia U. '92). After earning her Master's degree, Teresa set up an informal pottery studio in her Brooklyn loft to give her long time avocation a more permanent place in her life. In 1996, she created a body of work, sold her wares at local craft fairs, and began teaching at the Craft Students League in Manhattan. In 1997, her dinnerware debuted to the trade market at the New York International Gift Fair and her work then appeared in such prestigious stores as Barney's Japan, Takashimaya, and Dean and Deluca. While expanding on her initial collection of dinnerware lines, she has also developed an interest in teapots and has studied on multiple occasions, over the past 10 years, with Taiwanese teapot master Ah-Leon.

FUNCTIONALITY - Achieving true functionality in craft is a way of bringing beauty to everyday life. Teresa is a practical person and loves for people to really use her work. She also loves food, so her passion for dinnerware was natural. Her collection of simple forms gracefully serves diverse cuisines. The soft, yet vibrant, palette of colors makes a quiet and elegant backdrop for a wide variety of foods. But for her, teapots present the ultimate challenge of combining function and form. She has developed an understanding of teapot ergonomics and fluid dynamics necessary to design a pot that pours well and doesn't drip, leak or make flat tea. She uses this hard-gained and uncommon knowledge when designing all the individual teapot components and then excels at bringing these parts together into a single harmonious expression.

CRAFTSMANSHIP - All of Teresa's work is thrown and trimmed on the potter's wheel. She has exceptionally high standards of craftsmanship and a reverence for detail. Her well honed wheel skills are the benefit of years of dinnerware production. For Teresa, this zen-like rhythmic work of repetitive throwing is wonderfully balanced by the distinctly different working mode of making one-of-a-kind teapots for which each handle, spout and strainer is intensely and painstakingly sculpted by hand.

AESTHETIC - Teresa's body of work is distinguished by an unusual and successful marriage of design and craft. She believes that forms pared down to their structural essence are inherently beautiful. There is no applied decoration, no excess in shape, mass, or profile. As a result, the forms are graceful and timeless. She credits many influences for her design sensibilities: early Korean and Japanese pottery, her architectural studies, and an appreciation for simplicity instilled by her mother.