Camellia is a kettle for every tea drinking enthusiast around the globe. It aims to merge cultures , practices, habits, aesthetics and perception but retain the purity in the experience of drinking tea. Based on the what i call “ Unitea in Diversitea”, and on the theme of “Tea and Time”, I was inspired by the form of the hourglass to signify the importance of time in the making of tea and the object that is the tea kettle. For a more detailed presentation please download the pdf from the link above.

Since Tea is universally accepted and served with various customs and ways, i thought of integrating the best of everything. Thats when the concept of UniTEA in diversiTEA was formed. I wanted to integrate the various aspects of my research into this concept and hence i went about looking at all the different cultural aspects of making tea.

With references and creative brainstorming i could ascertain the various problems and also create an image board to work with the styling and the experience i wanted to convey with my design. This served as the main mood board as well to convey design intent.

As an avid tea drinker i was aware of many of the issues with tea preparation. I therefore looked up a lot of people who drank tea and interviewed them. Also with online surveys and research i gathered enough information to understand the main problems with tea kettles and categorized them into four main areas i wanted to deal with.

Final design sketches for the concept. I was very much excited about the hourglass shape but keeping it too literal made it look like a soy sauce container. To negate that and provide a bit of a modern styling, i introduced a lot more linear and geometric surface treatment.

Concentrating on the design details, like the ingredient tray and the lid, the pointer and the tea infuser mesh inside. The modularity of all these details give easy access to cleaning and also to replace parts.

Shows the various parts and materials of the tea kettle. Since it was designed to be clear, its made of high quality schott glass which withstands great temperatures and also has a higher resistance to shock. I also included a pointer, similar to a presentation pointer to guide old people to pour hot liquid right into the cup which would relieve them of the problem of scalding and burning.

The bottom chamber is filled with water directly through the sprout which is large enough, and the lid is opened to fill the top chamber. Place the kettle on the heating pad and switch on the power button which heats the kettle through induction.

Add the various tea ingredients onto the ingredient tray along with water to make the tea concentrate. In the same time the water is being boiled at the bottom. Once the water is boiled hit the release button on the top to release the tea concentrate into the water. The tea is then served and can be mixed with milk, or any other ingredient to make any brew.