In Harry Potter and the Wizarding World, tessomancy is “the magical art of reading tea leaves to predict events in the future.”
We all know of “The Grim”, a dog that appears that means ‘death’. But according to Unfogging the Future, conveniently found at Flourish and Blotts, there are other symbols that may appear to you. Of course, you can buy one of these cups yourself, but it’s less expensive and much more fun to make one yourself!
If you want to make a cup from the Wizarding World, you need to pick out what design you want to make. Some choices (Originally from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban):
· An acorn represents a "windfall, unexpected gold"
· The club represents "an attack"
· A cross means "trials and suffering"
· The falcon is symbolic of "a deadly enemy"
· A five-leaf clover would be representative of "a horrible rash tomorrow morning, dear”
· The Grim, a large dog, was a sure sign of "death"
· A skull represents "danger in your path"
· The sun is symbolic of "great happiness"
If you want to make your own personal cup, I’ve made a little chart with some ideas for designs and their meanings. (Of course, you can perform an actual tea reading and see where it takes you first!)
Meanings:
· An elephant means “good health”
· An anchor represents “stability”
· A crown is a symbol of “success”
· The bird means “good news is coming”
· An apple signifies a “long life”
· A camel represents “burden”
· A clover is “good luck”
· The hourglass signifies “peril is imminent”
· An axe is “overcoming”
Download my templates on Google Drive: Tea Leaf Designs
You need some teacups. The best place for teacups, if available to you, is the thrift store. Sometimes you have to hunt around a little but it can be worth the savings and you never know what treasures you’ll find. Either way, get a teacup or two. Matching plates are a bonus! I found some at the thrift store, I got a few to practice on.
You will also need some paint to make your design. I highly recommend ceramic paint pens for this project. You can use sharpie but it doesn’t hold up the same way in my experience. I used Monami Ceramic Markers from Amazon because it’s specifically for porcelain. The process to set it is easy too!
I used the picture of ‘The Grim’ as reference and started to carefully make dots with a regular marker on paper and practiced the design a few times. When it comes time to make your dots in the cup it’s a little harder, because the surface is not completely flat.
I suggest brown or black, or a combination of the two, but color is your choice! Now it comes time to carefully dot your pattern into your cup. Pay attention to the position you want the cup to be in, if you’re right or left handed, if you care at all. (I made my cup to hang, so to make sure the design looks right I made sure that the top of the design is lined up with the handle above it.)
Once you’re done and you’re really happy with your design, follow the instructions on your paint pens to set the paint. For example, my pens said to heat the item in the oven for 15 minutes. (There was also a microwave option BUT my cup had metal on it! Don't put metal in the microwave!)
So, I stuck it in the oven as instructed. Careful, it gets hot! Once it was done and completely cool I had my very own tessomancy cup! If the first one doesn’t turn out exactly how you’d like, try another. You can make a whole set if you want!
Since I made mine to hang for my Wizarding World project, I needed some nice ribbon. To hang I took a sturdy ribbon that matched the look of my teacup and created a loop and bow through the handle of the teacup and hung it up, it’s that simple!
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