THEY may be too heavy to sit on a thin glass table, but the stone teapots on show in a new exhibition are certainly durable.
Artist Liao Tian Jao has used his talent to produce a variety of teapots through stone sculpture and carving for the past 40 years.
Although the self-taught artist primarily creates the pots as art, each one is functioning and can be used to make tea.
Mr Liao takes his materials from the natural world and seeks to merge his ideas with nature while preserving their beauty.
While his speciality is stone carving, he likes to keep the original appearance of the object and keep the sculpting to a minimum.
After a piece of stone is selected for sculpting, Mr Liao observes and studies the rock until an image has formed in his mind of what he wants to create.
His exhibition at the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist temple, Flat Bush, contains 95 original works and runs simultaneously with a photographic collection titled A Way of Life, which tells the pictorial story of the temples in New Zealand’s North and South Islands.
The free exhibitions run until August 31. The temple is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am-4.30pm.
