Chinese tea tray - why not ?

[victoria3]

..... I also prefer the lower profile of a tea plate, using ceramic, wood, unaltered stone, and other materials as a low pedestal for my teapot. I find that this way I am more creative in my presentation and in the art of tea, and can more freely blend elements on my tea table, which also happens to set low, Japanese style, with zabutons and zafus surrounding it. So here again, a thicker tea tray with water catching capability takes away, for me, from the more Chan, more empty, low, clean feeling of the tea space I prefer.

........
.....We have a tea deck in the backyard and it's nice to have a simple setup to move easily from the tea room to the tea deck. This Japanese tray (42cm x 27cm) is light, not too big, and makes for a nice tea tray/setup:

That's an awesome rock cushion you have for your teapot, nice. I also like to move my teaset around from work to outdoors to upstairs so weight becomes an important consideration. And like you, I find a low profile tray creates an opening for and is receptive to more creative arrangements, encouraging the introduction of other elements like the use of small rocks, textural fabrics, colors, and ikebana. Also, silence through the use of sound catching fabrics has become part of that sensory exploration for me.

[theredbaron]

Cheap bamboo tea trays can last very, very long, if you don't mind it getting old

I don't know, but after reading the two blog articles, i read that they were leaking and cracking after a few months already (which was my experience as well).
My Qing and Ming ware i use lasted a few hundred years without leaking or cracking.
And if you search a bit they can be quite inexpensive as well.

Good bamboo has to be from old stalks, at least three year old stalks - otherwise they are prone to rot or be infected by termites. The cheap bamboo trays are sealed heavily with cheap varnish, which also prevents the wood from developing a patina. And as you can see, they rot as well, as soon as the first cracks develop.

Each to his/her own. I just would like to point out here that there are alternatives which do not necessary cost a lot of money either, and are very functional.

[Chip]

Thanks gingkoseto for helping me to gain perspective and enhance appreciation for the aging bamboo tray I mentioned above.

Poor thing, I have not cleaned it in a couple years, fearing doing so may jinx its longevity ... I am thinking now I have been using it every day, multiple times, for over 4 years (except when I am out of town). The stains may be what is holding it together. It is never put away, it sits out always waiting for the next opportunity to soak up some spilled tea.

I tend to be prompt in cleaning teawares, but not this table. Sometimes I am sad for not taking better care of it ...

I see some of the glorious trays, tables, etc. that others have been using. And I look at this silly, cheap bamboo table. Perhaps this is more about me than about the table.

So ... ode to the cheap, old, humble bamboo table ...

[ethan]

Expressing thanks for information of this thread:

Victoria's words: zabuton & zafus (z words always needed for Scrabble);
theredbaron's advice to look for older bamboo; & what I can infer from Chip's experience w/ his tray: use it or lose it (to rot) & don't worry about stains, they may be what is holding something together.

Thanks all lol

[theredbaron]

Expressing thanks for information of this thread:

Victoria's words: zabuton & zafus (z words always needed for Scrabble);
theredbaron's advice to look for older bamboo; & what I can infer from Chip's experience w/ his tray: use it or lose it (to rot) & don't worry about stains, they may be what is holding something together.

Thanks all lol

My wife's family has been building entire houses from bamboo since generations (and tools, traps, baskets and whatever else). I have been with them often in the jungle when they selected and cut the right bamboo stalks. Knowing bamboo is a science (which i have not even tried to master).

I do my own tea spoons and picks from bamboo, which i have cut myself under the guidance of one of her brothers. Some of them i have used for more than 15 years. With use they darken and take on a beautiful sheen.

[Chip]

... & what I can infer from Chip's experience w/ his tray: use it or lose it (to rot) & don't worry about stains, they may be what is holding something together.

Thanks all lol

Well, more like irrational fear on my part of cracking (it seems impervious to rotting so far) ... to a degree ... as others have had cracking experiences especially when not used regularly (or hot air blown heat is another apparent culprit).

I actually paurchased the trays lil bro in the same order but have not used it in years. I will have to see how mit is holding up.

We do not have hot blown heat, so this could contribute to my tray's relative longenvity, though 4-5 years is not really, right?!?

My wife's family has been building entire houses from bamboo since generations (and tools, traps, baskets and whatever else). I have been with them often in the jungle when they selected and cut the right bamboo stalks. Knowing bamboo is a science (which i have not even tried to master).

I do my own tea spoons and picks from bamboo, which i have cut myself under the guidance of one of her brothers. Some of them i have used for more than 15 years. With use they darken and take on a beautiful sheen.

Oh, very ... cool (though I doubt much is temperature cool where you are.

Perhaps you can enlighten us with photos? That would be very interesting.

[theredbaron]

the first pic is selecting and cutting bamboo in the forest, the second one is the wooden poles on which the bamboo walls and floors are done, and the third image is only half the house with bamboo, and the other half the bamboo replaced with wooden planks, which were also cut from the trunk by hand with a saw, one after the other, over several days.

[Chip]

Yes, very interesting indeed.

Does a family member live in the house?

Sorry ... a bit off topic.

[jayinhk]

I use a cheap bamboo tea tray I bought on Taobao that comes with a plastic tray. No splitting and no leaking at the seams, although I am careful to avoid getting the seams wet. Even in the dry season here in HK (humidity can get down to 30%), I had no issues. I've been out of town for two weeks at a time this year with water in the tray, and the tray has been just fine.

[Devoted135]

I just wanted to express how much I love this thread. I'm feeling very inspired in my ongoing quest for a tea tray solution (recent extremely kind compliments to my current set up notwithstanding ). Thank you for sharing, everyone!

[theredbaron]

Yes, very interesting indeed.

Does a family member live in the house?

Sorry ... a bit off topic.

Yes, several of them live in this and similar houses. These pics are several years old, now the houses have been improved a bit, are now to the most part wood.
12 years ago we bought a large plot of land, which at the time was very cheap as the area was very wild, lawless and undeveloped, and started from scratch. The land had to be cleared from the bush, the first houses were these bamboo huts, which over time they improved bit by bit.

It was a bit of a lucky buy we did. Soon after we got the land development came - electricity came, the dirt road the land is situated on is now developed into an important regional connecting road, and we have now a prime spot of land.

[arcticfox]

To everyone saying that the bamboo leaks in time, what's wrong with the bamboo trays that have a slide-out plastic tray underneath? Or a drainage tube?

[theredbaron]

To everyone saying that the bamboo leaks in time, what's wrong with the bamboo trays that have a slide-out plastic tray underneath? Or a drainage tube?

Each to his own.
I just do not like artificial varnishes and glues in my tea ware, or plastic. I like natural materials. In order to make such a tea tray from bamboo it has to go through so much sealing and varnishing, closing all pores, that it cannot build any sort of natural patina.
I like it when tea ware grows in beauty with use. Old porcelain has often little kiln failures, such as tiny cracks and spots, which over time change color, bamboo spoons and picks get dark and adopt a luster, wood darkens, etc...
So, in function there is maybe nothing wrong per se, i just think that there are better options more suitable to what i feel is the spirit of tea drinking.

It's not that these bamboo trays have a long tradition either, they are quite a recent invention. The first ones i have seen have been quite expensive Taiwanese trays, which then were cheaply copied by China with quite bad quality bamboo.

[jbu2]

Wow thank every body, your picture are inspiration.

@victoria3 olive tree are very thin so i don't think i could make a one piece tray like you have but i will rub olive oil on my tray, thanks fo the advice. i love youe set still , i will keep an eye open for acacia tea tray , what do you do if a fre drops of tea falls on your fabrics ? does it wash in the laundry ?

@茶藝-TeaArt08 your set is so beautiful it's hunt my in my dreams , the outdoor tray seems very practical , we have similar things here but vey european still so i don't buy them.

i decided to go with this one :

the tray on the website

website.jpg (55.22 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

but the tray i orderd turn out to be:

for real

ORD-0000000241-380d61603dafa37e9766e9b119522305f12.jpg (41.36 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

no bamboo, even the wood is not bamboo, by the way, does somebody know what it says on the tray ?
i am a bit sorry it don't have rails but in the future i will try going for victoria3 look.

[victoria3]

Wow thank every body, your picture are inspiration.

@victoria3 olive tree are very thin so i don't think i could make a one piece tray like you have but i will rub olive oil on my tray, thanks fo the advice. i love youe set still , i will keep an eye open for acacia tea tray , what do you do if a fre drops of tea falls on your fabrics ? does it wash in the laundry ?

Not that you'd want to cut down one so old, but olive trees can grow for centuries, some as old as 2,000 years and up to 6+ feet in diameter. A slice of a trunk is what you would want to make a tray out of. You can look around antique/resale shops, lumber yards, olive groves, wood working shops and one of these days you may find one or have one made.

Regarding fabrics, as an architect, I happen to have Knoll and Herman Miller fabric samples for furniture. They are almost all slightly water repellant using a combination of cotton, linen, hemp, wool, and others include a % of poly, acrylic. These are nice to use to cushion the teapot and cups. Otherwise, For hand tea towels I like getting 100% linen, hemp, bamboo or cotton fabrics that have a woven texture and or are handmade. All of these fabrics wash easily by hand or in the machine depending on fabric mix. If you are worried about tea stains either go for slightly water repellant fabrics and blot drops off, or get colors that will obscure, or you can always soak in oxiclean/spray 'n wash or similar before washing.

To condition and make wood slightly water repellent I recommend a thick coat of mineral oil applied 3-4 times per year. The first time applying let oil absorb thoroughly, this can take several days. Other oils, like olive and walnut, tend to oxidize after a while and have a slight rancid smell if not properly dried.