In December I asked you to vote on which teapot I should use next, and Zanzibar won! It’s a rather complex pattern with lots of different colours – see this previous article for my detailed analysis of the design.

I used the Zanzibar pot all throughout January but I don’t really have any teacups that perfectly match it! I tried a few different cups and came up with three that I enjoy using with it.

I only have a few single-coloured teacups and this one almost matches the green in the teapot. So it was an okay pairing.

But actually, I think that a plain (or lightly patterned) lavender cup would be good. I did find this lavender cup (from an Australian brand that I just discovered) which would fit the bill. A dark blue cup would also work.

But in terms of patterned cups… I only really have florals and complex geometric designs in my collection. None of my florals related but I did find two geometric patterns that created fun and somewhat crazy combos.

The pattern that went the best with the Zanzibar teapot is my Watercolour Mark II cup –  Dazed and Dazzled Remix Indigo by T2. (The cup I bought to celebrate the launch of my Watercolour course a few years ago broke so when T2 brought out an updated version of the pattern last year I bought a replacement).

It’s a super complex pattern so I needed to do some analysis…

The only way to sketch it loosely is to simplify and slightly modify the pattern.

And here is the cup with the Zanzibar teapot. (Note: when I sketch these two I can easily match the colours exactly but in real life they are a little different)

The other cup that I enjoy using with the Zanzibar teapot doesn’t really go… but it picks up on the orange and green at the base of the pot. And for some reason I love the wild combo of patterns!

This is my Foundations Mark II cup (see here for more) and I particularly enjoy painting the pattern of the saucer.

I’ve now moved onto the Silk Road teapot which seems to go with lots of my pink floral cups. So it’s a lot easier to match and the combos are much calmer! 🙂

Finally – thanks to everyone who was part of the fun livestream yesterday. If you missed it you can watch the replay here. I’m thinking of doing more of these types of Live Sketchbook Tours if enough people are interested. It’s a nice way to complement all the week-by-week articles and reflections I publish here on the blog.