Use for
hot tea, cold tea, as a pitcher for lemonade, sangria, as a
decanter for red wine...
“The tea lantern by Todd MacAllen and Stephanie Forsythe is
clearly a model of product design in the great tradition of
Mies and Jacobsen. The Canadian designers have used latest
glass technology to create a transparent teapot with an
integral vacuum jacket, which conserves heat and allows the
simple cylinder to be picked up by hand.”
The
Architectural Review, ar+d awards 2002 - highly commended
Forsythe and
MacAllen designed the tea lantern in 2001, as part of a
study to create simple and beautiful objects designed of
only a single material. Their inspiration for the tea
lantern was the idea of such an object defining an intimate
place of gathering, or contemplation, through qualities of
light, warmth, fragrance and taste
At its debut, the
tea lantern set won an important design competition in
Europe, and went on to receive critical acclaim in a number
of international design journals. Forsythe and MacAllen
received requests from around the world for this product,
but it was only after the creation of molo that the tea
lantern actually became available for sale in 2004.
Although simple in
form, the lantern and cups do require great precision and
skill to produce. Each piece is carefully hand crafted by
master glassblowers using the highest quality water clear
borosilicate glass. This material is heat resistant,
chemically resistant and inert, meaning that the tea
lantern will not alter the purity of the tea flavor being
steeped inside; the perfect material for the perfect cup of
tea.
The float tea
lantern and cups are also well suited for other beverages.
Whatever you serve, it is the liquid inside which is
emphasized, becoming a lens of liquid color, suspended
within the glass, projecting a play of colored light onto
the table surface. For tea, if the warming candle is lit,
the multi-sensory effect is truly engaging.
