《清流宫灯》"Qing Liu Gong Deng", 178.5ml, *Ben Shan Uppermost Strata Duan Ni 本山浅层段泥!, by Craftsman Yang Pin Ting, with Craftsman Wo You's Engraving of Practitioner by the Stream and Verse ~!CONGRATS!!TO MR A.A.! 1953hrs 15th Oct 2026, Port Franks! ON Canada🇨🇦!
《清流宫灯》"Qing Liu Gong Deng", 178.5ml, *Ben Shan Uppermost Strata Duan Ni 本山浅层段泥!, by Craftsman 杨聘婷 Yang Pin Ting, with Craftsman 卧游 Wo You's Engraving of Practitioner by the Stream and Verse ~!CONGRATS!!TO MR A.A.! 1953hrs 15th Oct 2026, Port Franks! ON Canada🇨🇦!
本山浅层段泥!
《清流宫灯》"Qing Liu Gong Deng", 178.5ml, *, by Craftsman 杨聘婷 Yang Pin Ting, with Craftsman 卧游 Wo You's Engraving of Practitioner by the Stream and Verse!
Using our Cao Family's rather rare and highly limited stock of Huang Long Shan UPPERMOST STRATA Duan Ni which exists in extremely low quantity as it exists only as a THIN VEIN adjacent to the Zhu Ni layer.
Master Li Yan Ru 李艳如 designs this Qing Liu Gong Deng for Craftsman Yang Pin Ting to craft! Master Li's WeChat nickname is Feng Qing Yang 风清扬, and she chose it because it reflects the 洒脱, 脱俗 carefree, light-hearted, uncomplicated, no-frills state of mind away from complications associated with the hustling and bustling of typical modern life.
She is at ease with this state of "风清扬" and designs this work precisely stemming from her heart and mind. She calls it the《清流宫灯》"Qing Liu Gong Deng"! She deftly improvises the Imperial Lantern to embody the refined, planted stance yet coupled with the non-ostentatious, classy and elegant lines that will remain absolutely timeless in your tea journey, and coupled with the Huang Long Shan Upper Strata Duan Ni
She chose the 七言绝句 Quatrain verse by famous Wang An Shi, composed 1200 years ago in the Northern Song era.
"临溪放艇依山坐，溪鸟山花共我闲。"
出自宋代王安石的《定林所居》
中国北宋著名政治家、思想家、文学家、改革家，唐宋八大家之一。
《定林所居》是一首七言绝句。此诗以清新脱俗、意境悠远的笔触，描绘了一幅人与自然和谐共处的田园风光图。诗中描写了诗人居所的清幽环境以及他的闲适生活，抒发了对宁静闲适生活的怡然自得，展现出他追求自然、向往自由的高洁情怀，给人以美的享受。
From Wang An Shi's "Dwelling at Dinglin" in the Song Dynasty,
“I rowed a boat by the stream and sat by the mountain, enjoying the company of the stream birds and mountain flowers.”
"Dwelling in Dinglin" is a seven-character quatrain. With its fresh, refined, and evocative style, the poem depicts a pastoral scene of harmony between humanity and nature. It describes the tranquil environment of the poet's dwelling and his leisurely life, expressing his contentment with a peaceful and carefree existence, showcasing his noble sentiments of pursuing nature and yearning for freedom, and providing the reader with aesthetic enjoyment.
Wang An Shi was a famous politician, thinker, writer, and reformer of the Northern Song Dynasty in China, and one of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Admire this work a collaboration between Craftsman Yang Pin Ting, Craftsman Wo You, Master Li Yan Ru and our Uncle Zhang.
We brought out our Cao Family's rather rare and limited stock of Huang Long Shan UPPERMOST STRATA Duan Ni which exists in extremely low quantity as it exists only as a THIN VEIN adjacent to the Zhu Ni layer. Mr Zhang Yun Long fires it brilliantly! at 1150degC for the beautiful uniformly deep, LUXURIOUS and MOIST brownish-red. text in Chinese for your information,
Craftsman Wo You apply his usual excellent engraving and mixed with his discrete black underglazing, which INTRIGUINGLY and very SMARTLY, portray this very 禅 painting!
Craftsman Yang Pin Ting with us at our showcase,
Master Li Yan Ru with her morning walk and her cheerful disposition! Thank you for her kind design for Craftsman Yang to craft for all of us!
Our uncle Mr Zhang Yun Long, a deep YiXing historian and ZiSha clay specialist responsible for firing our pots (he asks for your understanding that Fully-Handmade ZiSha works are never perfect, with surface occasional irregularities), and here with granny! Uncle Zhang is Senior Master Cao Lan Fang's husband. We say a big hi and thank you to you friends!
Senior Master Cao Lan Fang and our QC Chief Craftsman Yi Xiao Ran have managed to bring Craftsman Yang Pin Ting to join us! Born 1996, and started learning the Craft of Fully-Handmaking ZiSha Art at twelve years of age. It was until 21 years of age that she started crafting Fully-Handmaking ZiSha teapots as her profession, after graduation at Wuxi University, and fighting as a livelihood doing purely Fully-Handmade ZiSha work. All by herself alone, and being heavily disillusioned for the past decade due to the worrisome status of Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft being tainted by falsity, duplicity and chicanery. She has been having a tough time in the past decade, despite her churning out intricate and elegant pieces in her own curated portfolio of works! AND NOW, WE ARE SO HAPPY for her, and for her love of the Art to continue strongly with our team work. Now, she joyously continue her path of dedication to serve all of you dearest Friends, the dearest Friends who are the guardians of the other half of our beloved journey of tea: Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
She now crafts alongside Craftsman Zhang Huan, Zhu Shu and Yi Xiao Ran in our small studios besides the River Li 蠡河 Shu Shan 蜀山!
ZiSha Art is the most amazing carrier medium, here housing Five aspects of Chinese Cultural Arts, and a beautiful look in to Chinese Painting, Poetry, Calligraphy as well! All five aspects on your hands, plus serving the best teas ever for you on your tea table! Long lasting (lasts beyond a lifetime), easy maintenance, and becomes more beautiful with use and contact, not less!
1. Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft,
2. Painting,
3. Poetry,
4. Calligraphy,
5. Engraving Art and Craft.
Yes, all these engagement with Chinese Artforms, all while going about your daily and healthy mindful sessions at ease, drinking the best tasting Teas!
Savour the journey, dearest Friends :-D
Master Li's design, realized by Craftsman Yang Pin Ting perfectly,
Handle that is graceful, and ergonomic, able to accommodate one or two fingers through,
Perfect curves,
at the body:
Shoulder line, kink, slight slant leading up to the lid interface, and further upwards onto the
sculpted concavity of the lid surround, and topped by the superbly shaped lid knob, being a miniature version of the main body,
AS PROMISED, we will be SPECIALLY incorporating various elements of our Chinese Art, into these Fully-Handmade ZiSha works!
The special, this time, is the incorporation of one of Northern Song Dynasty's renowned Wang An Shi, with a lovely engraving of a painting reflecting exactly what Wang An SHi described and aspire to, a carefree life, rowing a boat by the stream, next to Ding Lin Temple 定林寺!
Previously, the famous《千里江山图》"Qian Li Jiang Shan Tu", the top Qing Lü Shan Shui 青绿山水画 class painting, is incorporated at Craftsman Gao Xiang's work: 《青岚荷韵》"Qing Lan He Yun"
https://www.realzisha.com/products/%E9%9D%92%E5%B2%9A%E8%8D%B7%E9%9F%B5-qing-lan-he-yun-156-6ml-di-cao-qing-%E5%BA%95%E6%A7%BD%E9%9D%92-%E5%BD%A9%E8%89%B2%E6%B3%A5%E7%BB%98-colour-clay-sculpting-art-of-the-famous-%E5%8D%83%E9%87%8C%E6%B1%9F%E5%B1%B1%E5%9B%BE-qian-li-jiang-shan-tu-and-%E6%99%AF%E5%BE%B7%E9%95%87%E7%82%B9%E5%BD%A9-jing-de-zhen-dian-cai-of-%E8%8D%B7%E8%8A%B1-lotus-flower-by-craftsman-gao-xiang-%E9%AB%98%E7%BF%94
The famous《鹊华秋色图》"Que Hua Qiu Se Tu", the famous Shui Mo Shan Shui painting, Shui Mo class, done in A.D.1295 by Zhao Meng Fu 赵孟頫! is incorporated within Zhang Huan's Ban Yue work:
Wo Yo is also very careful in the application of black ceramic underglaze. 
Engraving of the Verse on the side facing the Guests,
Engraved and signed off by Wo You 卧游。
Shrinkage of Fully-Handmade ZiSha works,
Craftsmen Yang Pin Ting and Wo You thank you for your grandest support and USE of their work on your tea table to steep tea for yourself and for your friends!
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BRING ONE HOME, USE IT and you will know all about Fully-Handmade ZiSha, the feel of real and quality YiXing ZiSha, the nurturing of Patina, how the true Patina feels and looks like, the aura and feel manifested by a Fully-Handmade Pot which others simply can't bring forth. Savour Craftsman Yang Pin Ting's skills. You will know everything then!
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Not resorting to moulds and half-handmaking. These dedicated Fully-Handmaking Craftsmen sacrifice their whole lives to commit to this Art and Craft. They will tell you, they will never negotiate. Fully-Handmaking ZiSha works is worth their sacrifice of their entire lifetime, they want to preserve our Chinese traditional art and craft. They want to preserve and enhance the unique character of Yixing ZiSha: the double-sized pores uniquely gifting ZiSha its character.
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Craftsmen and Artists, often say: "a ZiSha pot will behave like a jelly, wobbly like a jelly, once inside the kiln. What comes out of it, we shall see, and we shall only pray."
We cherish every single successful one, regardless of the price. Each is the result of much hard work and experience of the Craftsman, and definitely a certain degree of good luck during firing ~for the convection currents in the kiln is never totally uniform. We also depend on the (窑)气氛 within the kiln. Each completed batch of three, can all totally fail. We cherish every surviving one.
Dearest Friends, we are savouring this top Ceramic material for tea, ZiSha, and these are all the Craftsmen’s and Artists’ hard worked, Fully-Handmade pieces, with lots of preparations, intense crafting, heart aches at the kiln, all fully respecting this totally natural, and high shrinkage unpredictable clay, sensitive to even a 0.5degree in ambient temperature, and even weather (temperature, moisture, the four seasons) outside of the kiln. The 铁熔点 ~ natural black iron melted spots that irregularly and spontaneously appear anywhere and everywhere ~ we call Tie Rong Dian :-D, the “跳砂” Tiao Sha denote the observed “popped-off-spots” effect when the cute surface granulate popped off from the surface during the high shrinkage of more pasty clay around it, the “爆子” “Bao Zi” also dot the surface as those that did not pop off, hover out just enough to cling onto the surface, and the simple surface irregularities, are all due to this ceramic clay, although having the highest shrinkage, are still mercilessly and necessarily fired at 1150degC to 1250degC. These are all part of the natural ZiSha artefacts and what many modern day or Western pottery lovers affectionately call “wabi-sabi”. Our Chinese Craftsmen and Artists do not aim for wabi-sabi for the sake of wabi-sabi. Do forgive them for these natural irregularities. These Tie Rong Dian, Tiao Sha and Bao Zi, are the natural phenomena that dot the surface of our beloved top tea ceramic! YiXing ZiSha, the best ZiSha source in the whole world, and with the double-sized pores innately inherent and imbuing the best taste for any type of tea. Savour Fully-Handmade ZiSha teapot Craft and Art!
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Here with us in our happy family of true ZiSha connoisseurs and friends, you witness 90-120 photos taken of EACH Fully-Handmade ZiSha work here.
Compare this to elsewhere: factory bosses of jigger-machined non-zisha pots contribute downstream to their retailers: 5-10 stock photos for each non-zisha pot model, used to sell a stock of 10, 20, 30 jigger-machined non-zisha pots per model. I.e. 5-10 photos to sell hundreds of one model.
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We at RealZiSha, take 90-120 photos (here for this entry: 190photos!), fresh, of EACH, ONE, Fully-Handmade ZiSha work. Together with our sacrificial and hardworking Craftsmen and Artists committed to honest true Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft, we at RealZiSha go the aeons' distance.
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Again, another tremendous labor of love by our trusted and committed collaborative Craftsmen Yang Pin Ting and Yu TianLi Qiu Lin. It is a team effort and we thank you dearest Friends for your grandest support to the honest and the dedicated Craftsmen here left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
The lines and detailing speak of Craftsman Yang Pin Ting's EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot. Hold one, hold up one, swing the work around. Carefully examine her Fully-Handmade work. Look at it from afar, from near, and it will grow on you, with fine detailing with MUCH THOUGHT on each part, with MUCH TIME spent on every part, section. Because this is what Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art should be, and HOW FULLY-HANDMADE ZISHA ART is so different from and light years ahead of the ubiquitous jigger-machined pots and half-handmade pots masquerading under the sales tagline of "fully-handmade zisha" pots. These latter JM/HHM pots are made in what we call 流水线 a.k.a. 'Factory-Line operation' whereby the main pot body after being jigger-machined or coming off from the mould, is passed to the next worker who fits on the spout, and subsequently this second worker will pass the pot on to another worker who will in turn fit on the handle. Continuing so, the pressed lid is likewise passed to another worker who fit on the lid knob. EACH WORKER has NO IDEA what the other one is doing, and they are always working on fixed time lines stated by the boss. For example, the worker being "passed the baton" a pot with the spout just fixed onto the body by his colleague, will only focus on fixing on the handle, with nil to little regard to WHETHER THE HANDLE fixed on will be cohesive with the spout. Each worker has NO idea of HOW THE FINAL POT WILL LOOK LIKE. Beyond poor craftsmanship and clay, the result of such processes are ugly pots with poor cohesiveness which experienced Artists, Craftsmen and collectors will tell from a metre away. Experienced people in us, do not need to pick up a pot to check whether it is fully-handmade or made of zisha, we can tell from a metre away just by looking at the pot.
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The keywords are: Detailing and Cohesiveness.
A GOOD Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work combines great detailing and cohesiveness.
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The amount of effort put behind each of our Fully-Handmade ZiSha work welcoming you, the authentic YiXing ZiSha clay, the many years of dedication and hardship committed to the craft, the proper three rounds of firing, the presentation with dedicated 80-150 photos of each work, the effort spent behind procuring 5rmb notes in running stacks from our local banks, is 100,000x, more than the what is peddled on countless websites: with cheap common ceramic clays behind the unauthentic pots, the fast, less than a minute of jigger-machining, or just the few months’ ability of newly recruited unskilled workers to churn out half-handmade pots, the simple one to two rounds of firing at convenient and lower temperatures at just only one round of firing, cheap ceramic clays that do not shrink much so as to maximise success and profits, the presentation with a set of ten photos taken per model and repeated for more than tens to thousands of stock.
And yet, Craftsmen Yang Pin Ting, Li Qiu Lin, Fan Xiao Zhi, Chen Fa Chu, Chen Yu, Zhu Shu, Gao Xiang, Zhang Huan, Fang Shi, Gu Xiao Ming, Wang Xing, Wang Hui, etc, honest hardworking people are put in a really bad position, for they 1) have to compete on price with fake stuff from all around, but still 2) have to offer the honest real thing: Fully-Handmade ZiSha works. These honest Craftsmen have to lower their prices so much with their works, authentic works of extreme sacrifices, labour and experience.
Explained, https://www.realzisha.com/blogs/news/actual-zisha-landscape-at-yixing
, the Craftsman by selling his hard-worked ZiSha craft at $190-$240, $45-$65 goes to the cost of the craft, inclusive of the fees for the firing for the kiln operator (three times per pot), the packaging boxes, and between $32 to $52 for the clay (Zi Ni Di Cao Qing, Duan Ni and upwards) used per pot. Craftsman takes 3 days (fastest 2.5days) to craft a pot.
Depending on the difficulty of craft the design elements command, the difficulty of crafting with certain clay types, the rarity and hence cost of clay, the inclusion of engraving 刻绘 and/or clay sculpting e.g. Ni Hui 泥绘, Dui Hui 堆绘, Diao Su 雕塑 on the piece of work, our Craftsmen face immense cost increase, time spent, and the level of expertise and savoir-faire accumulated by sheer HARD WORK.
If he works 30 days a month without a single day of rest (no family time), he will craft 10-12 pots.
If he crafts for 25 days (five days of rest a month), his output will be 8-10 pots.
The success rate for Zi Ni (e.g. Di Cao Qing, Lao Zi Ni, Da Shui Tan etc) and Duan Ni (e.g. Jiang Po Ni, Qing Hui Duan, etc) is 70% on average. Some times the whole batch of 10 may fail. We have seen our Craftsmen suffer like this very often.
The success rate for Zhu Ni (e.g. Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni) pots is 60%, or 70% with most optimism and at the very, very best. Unfortunately.
All of us at RealZiSha of course, hope for one another, professional colleagues and all, that all the pots will survive firing at the kiln successfully.
[For ZiSha models/designs that are very challenging and more complicated to craft, the time taken to craft will be longer, and the failure rate will be higher as well. Zi Sha by its virtue, have the highest shrinkage rate of all ceramic clay. Zi Ni and Duan Ni thus have that 70% success rate, while Zhu Ni has even higher shrinkage rate and thus even lower success rate (the lowest of all ceramic clay.)]
Our Craftsmen are wholeheartedly committed to the cause of Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and their strictness with their craft and dedication earn our respect. We give a big Thank You all of these Craftsmen, for they are saving what is our common precious tea culture: Tea + Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft. Your support is vital to their livelihood and the existence of this craft for all of the tea fraternity.
Thank you Friends!
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