Erin Brewer

Art 218

Zen inspired Tea Infuser

Sitting down with family and enjoying a healthy home cooked meal should be a daily occasion. Sounds almost foreign for this generation. The Slow food Movement is trying to get people back to taking time in life to enjoy their meals and family. Since fast food has taken over the World and primarily the United States we need to find a way to get people to take time to relax and enjoy a meal.

Due to the generation gap, children are forced to eat alone or pop something in the microwave while parents are at work. No one has time for each other. When sitting at the dinner table it gives the family a chance to learn from each other and enjoy the time spent with each other. At the end of the day there’s not much time for a family gathering around the dinner table. Now, both parents are working or one parent is working two jobs to make ends meet. People rely on fast food chains to feed their families, because taking the time out to cook a meal seems like too much. The generation of parents versus children now is completely different. The now parents were eating with their families when they were younger and mom was home to cook and clean and bring the family together for breakfast and dinner. For the children’s generation this does not happen. The family is broken by prior commitments such as, work and after school activities.

The Slow Food Movement is not just a way to give the fast food chains a bad name, but to slow people down, enjoy life together, and help our environment. Breakfast, being the most important meal of the day and the most commonly skipped can really affect a person’s well being and health. People are always in such a rush to get out the door in the morning they don’t eat breakfast, or either grab something from the local Starbuck’s.

The environment is becoming severely affected by the way we choose to get our food source. By using the Slow Food Movement we can produce good tasting food in clean way that does not hurt our environment.
Tea is the second most-widely consumed beverage in the world. Surprising, right? After finding this out it really interested me. I am a tea drinker, but wanted to figure out where tea was drank and it’s cultural background. I researched this and found out it started in China. So for my tea infuser I decided that I am going to have a Zen inspired design that will keep people from getting up.

According to legend, boiling water before drinking was thought of as being a hygienic precaution to some in China. After tea leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water, a brown liquid (from the leaves) infused the water. One Chinese scientist decided to try this liquid and discovered it was refreshing. Tea consumption then spread all over China and soon after spread to Zen Buddhist missionaries. This was very interesting to me. I thought by putting a little history into the design of the tea infuser I could create an inspiring and exciting design.

I researched Zen designs and found many pictures of Zen gardens. In a Zen garden there is either gravel or sand, that is raked or not raked. This symbolizes the sea, ocean, rivers, or lakes. I want to help people relax and really take their time when drinking their tea. I hope my Zen design will inspire new ideas or provide viewers with happy memories.

By representing a natural landscape I hope to grab the attention of the viewer and to have people focus their concentration on the tea infuser. I want people to be able to relax, enjoy their tea, and the company of friends or family.