《莲舞天姿》"Lian Wu Tian Zi ~ Lotus Dance, Heavenly Grace", 203.1ml, *Huang Long Yuan company's Sha Pi Qing 黄龙源鲨皮青, Engraving of Dun Huang Fairy 敦煌飞天 & Verses, by Craftsman Zhu Shu ~!Congratulations to Mr A.A.! 1651hrs 11th June 2026, Port Franks! ON Canada🇨🇦!
https://www.realzisha.com/pages/fully-handmade-zisha-art-and-craft-and-tea-pairings
《莲舞天姿》"Lian Wu Tian Zi ~ Lotus Dance, Heavenly Grace"
RAVISHING NEW WORK BY CRAFTSMAN 朱舒 ZHU SHU!
AND as a pleasant surprise for all of you:
We have also gotten YiXing’s only source of Sha Pi Qing 鲨皮青 CLAY! HERE! 
THE ONLY SOURCE OF THE LEGENDARY *SHA PI QING 鲨皮青, Shark's Skin Green CLAY, IS THE HUANG LONG YUAN COMPANY! Yes Sha Pi Qing, the special type of Zi Ni!~~~here for Craftsman Zhu Shu to work on and indulge all of you friends!
Sha Pi Qing 鲨皮青 means Shark’s Skin Green, the ore is greenish, but after firing it transforms into a breathtaking darkish gray, slight tinge of purple and brown, and with the white sands beautifully and moderately interspersed in the matrix. Sha Pi Qing is rarer than most Zi Ni and Zhu Nik, but in YiXing, only Huang Long Yuan company holds the authentic Sha Pi Qing. If our Cao Family does not have any clay type, we admit so, and we go the distance to procure the authentic and archetypal one for all of you via our strong reputation and robust connections with the who's who in YiXing. You will have already read that our Cao Family has great connections with the Huang Long Yuan company too!
Here in this Sha Pi Qing work:
EACH and EVERY certificate will have the luxury of the Huang Long Yuan company’s sticker affixed, as these stickers are entrusted to us Cao Family for labelling of the pots made from their prized clay,
Here, our friends, we present Sha Pi Qing! and never to fail all of you, the full production team here at RealZiSha YiXing is at work again, procuring, testing and having Craftsman Zhu Shu practise on it for a full month before embarking confidently on this《莲舞天姿》Lotus Dance, Heavenly Grace!
A beautifully complicated pot shape that is mastered fully by Zhu Shu. She will continue to fight for the cause of Fully-Handmade ZiSha works shoulder to shoulder with the other Craftsmen here and hopes all of you friends would appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes behind every single work. Every piece looks almost perfect (each ZiSha piece is subject to the irregularities of the natural clay and the firing), but the work behind each is nothing short of tedious, the regard of each successful piece from the kiln is nothing short of spectacular. Each piece is both a miracle and a huge labour of love.
Presenting,
《莲舞天姿》"Lian Wu, Tian Zi ~ Lotus Dance, Heavenly Grace.
with the beauty of the Sha Pi Qing clay.
Zhu Shu 朱舒 has tagged on to learn from Master Li Yi Jun 李逸军, and now Zhu Shu emulates the master, providing BOTH pot crafting AND ZiSha Engraving! Zhu Shu engraves BOTH the Dun Huang fairy and the poem as well!
The spout is angulated beautifully at each of the two bends, carrying the aura of a dance of the fairy's arms or the floating and flowing ribbons,
Zhu Shu styles the Lid Knob, as if Reminiscing the Unopened Bud of the Lotus Flower.
Qian Gai Interface between Lid and Body,
The shape of the handle is of a generous and aesthetically gorgeous sweeping flow, that doubles up for an easy reach and intuitive hold.
Right-sized at 200ml for versatility for the Tea Master in her or his daily tea practice.
ZiSha Art is the most amazing carrier medium, housing Five aspects of Chinese Cultural Arts!
1. Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft,
2. Painting,
3. Calligraphy,
4. Poetry,
5. Engraving Art and Craft.
Hold, Use and Keep relishing all five aspects of our Chinese Culture in your daily life, in solitude, in practice, during hospitality to family and friends alike!
Savour the journey, dearest Friends :-D
Assuming the user is right-handed,
Engraving of the Verse in Kai Shu style 楷书, faces the Guests,
”鲜衣怒马少年时，不负韶华行且知。“
"This is a modern inspirational message full of positive energy, encouraging young people to cherish their precious time, hold onto their dreams, and put them into practice in a down-to-earth manner. The first half uses classic imagery, while the second half is an extension of the insights from "Only when the year grows cold do we know that the pine and cypress are the last to wither" and "The wise are not perplexed" in the Analects of Confucius.
Shrinkage of Fully-Handmade ZiSha works,
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Craftsman Zhu Shu has joined us in mid 2025! Craftsman Yi Xiao Ran, together with Senior Master Cao Lan Fang and Senior Master Lu Xue Feng talked to her and another lady Craftsman Yang Pin Ting, in June of 2025, and convinced both of them to join us! Zhu Shu is a very skilful Craftsman whom we have observed and scrutinised, and hence join hand in hand to be great professional Artisans with Craftsman Zhang Huan to share our studio in working on delightful ZiSha Artworks for ALL OF YOU Dearest Friends!!! Our Cao Family is delighted to have Zhu Shu, a very hardworking, young lady Craftsman to be together in this happy team here in YiXing besides the River Li 蠡河 at Shu Shan 蜀山!
Craftsman Zhu Shu 朱舒 has taken a strong affinity to Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art, and has dedicated herself to crafting small volumes, excellent works for YiXing Association and events. We decided to support her and convinced her to join us at RealZiSha, as we all insist on only ZiSha works of HIGH QUALITY. Hand-picked by Senior Cao Lan Fang and Senior Master Lu Xue Feng over observation of the past decade as she works alone, and oft times challenged in her livelihood, and they have also taken her in as their very hardworking disciple and our CORE COLLEAGUE. She will be featuring delightful works regularly together with Zhang Huan and Yang Pin Ting!
Craftsman Zhu Shu is NOW proudly one of us and she will be featuring consistently, and she also works closely with Yi Xiao Ran (featured in our home page video), Zhang Huan, Yang Pin Ting, Gu Xiao Ming and also Chen Fa Chu (together both being the longest serving Craftsmen with us) mastering the Zi Ni and Duan Ni clays. Craftsman Zhu Shu is extremely diligent and talented at the same time, and very focussed now in producing her best work for you friends! Her lines and detailing speak of her EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot.
Only a very well-trained, experienced and skilful Craftsman will be able to understand the curves and proportions perfectly, and here beautifully captured and crafted by Craftsman Zhu Shu.
~~~~~~~~~~
Again, another tremendous labor of love by our trusted and committed collaborative Craftsman Zhang Huan. It is a team effort and we thank you dearest Friends for your grandest support to the honest and the dedicated Craftsladies and Craftsmen here left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
Hold one, hold up one, swing his work around. Carefully examine his Fully-Handmade work. Look at it from afar, from near, and it will grow on you. The whole piece grow on you because 1) he takes reference from what the Senior Masters chose for him, 2) and he amazingly crafts them up EXACTLY as to what the Senior Masters want from him: extreme 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The keywords are: Detailing and Cohesiveness.
A GOOD Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work combines great detailing and cohesiveness.
~~~
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.
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 critical to their livelihood and the existence of this craft for all of the tea fraternity.
Thank you Friends!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Senior Masters have given Craftsman Zhu Shu the full blessings with all of us. She is fully-fledged at RealZiSha. Most important, after all the hard work our team have put in collectively,
We are very happy that she is now with all of you.
Presenting Zhu Shu and her hard-worked and fine-worked Pieces for you. One by one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~