Copper Clear Quartz Teapot Dangle Charm Tassel Bracelet Charm

The body is clear quartz; the spout, handle and lid are copper. The joint between stone and metal sits at the shoulder, where the ring of copper is both ornament and fixing. The body is polished rather than faceted, and held to the light you can see the channel inside. The body is open through the middle so the cord passes within it, and the channel has been smoothed so it will not fray the cord. The quartz is ground from one piece, not assembled, and the only joint is the ring at the shoulder.

A teapot is an unusual shape for jewellery. The body is round, the spout angled out, the handle bent into an ear, the lid topped with a small knob. This dangle has all of them, at a very small scale — the spout is only a stub. Below a certain size the shape survives and the detail has to give way; there is no avoiding it. The spout's mouth is cut on the slant, the direction of pouring following the cut. The knob is so small that it takes two fingers to hold.

The teapot's place in tea culture needs no explanation. Yixing clay, porcelain, silver — the material has changed over centuries while the forms stayed roughly the same few: overhead handle, loop handle, straight spout, double-curved spout. This one has a loop handle and a fairly straight spout, which is a common type. Lid and body are made separately and a seam shows where they meet. Handle and spout sit on one line, which is the practical arrangement. The body is round, so it would roll on a table; store it lying flat.

A tassel hangs below, on the dark red side, running past the base of the pot. The weight of the piece is in the body and the tassel only finishes it, so nothing turns top-heavy. Spout and handle both sit to one side, which means it hangs slightly off-centre — a consequence of the form, not a piece made crooked. The tassel's dark red is a shade or two deeper than the copper and holds it down.

The quartz body chips, and the spout is the thinnest part; broken there it cannot be repaired. Wear it on the inner wrist where possible, to keep it away from other objects. Wipe oxidised copper with a dry cloth and keep water out of the seam between spout and body. The handle is a half ring and will catch on a desk edge, so mind it when you stand up. There is no hole in the lid — nothing pours, the pot is a shape only. The cord passes through the loop at the lid and never touches the body.