Carving a Cha He from Soot Bamboo
For some time I've been wanting a small cha he (茶荷), a vessel used to measure and present dry tea leaves before brewing. It's especially useful for transferring tea into a small teapot or gaiwan.
Instead of buying one, I made it from Japanese susudake (煤竹), soot bamboo. I had a few lengths left over from my chashaku carving practice. I looked at examples online, found a reference I liked, then got onto the sawing and carving. Once I was happy with the shape, I finished it with light sanding and camellia oil.
Photos by Gianfranco Chicco
I tested it with a Korean black tea from Postcard Teas and a small teapot by Ryusei Kimura. To transfer the leaves I used a wooden tea pick, or cha zhen (茶針) in Chinese, chahari in Japanese, that I made last month.
It works. Exactly what I needed.
