Han Wa 汉瓦 (Special and Difficult to Craft, "Ai Han Wa" 矮汉瓦 version), 281.0ml, Lao Zi Ni 老紫泥, by our Collaborative Craftsman Chen Fa Chu 陈法初。
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The Han Wa 汉瓦.
AND THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL AND TREASURED HAN WA.
We refresh ourselves with the previous explanation on all our Han Wa 's :
In YiXing, there is a saying that,
"Do not brag how good your skills are in crafting Fully-Handmade ZiSha pots,
FIRST SHOW ME your Han Wa.
This saying has its strong foundations.
1.
Han Wa needs to have a gently curving side wall and if not done evenly, is very obvious to the eye.
2.
Han Wa has a largish lid spanning the large circumference. In relativity to the pot's width, the Han Wa obviously has the largest lid-width to body-width ratio! This largish lid also has its front edge VERY close to where the front spout takes shape. These present a very challenging task to the Craftsman, because:
IF not done well and tight, there will be leaking at the front lid edge when the user tilts the teapot to serve tea. The whole big circular lid has to be perfectly evenly made to secure a tight fit.
3.
Han Wa's lid, being wide and flat (not domed), still needs to account for a gently curving convex top surface, WHILE supporting the heavy lid knob that can cause the flat lid to "sink" down in the middle. A domed lid otherwise would naturally present a stronger vertical axial strength to support a heavy lid knob, but not the Han Wa.
Admire this Han Wa.
Simple, but a Top Classic.
Han Wa, is also VERY practical!
4.
It provides extreme ease of introducing tea leaves into the pot,
extreme ease of removing and flushing out tea leaves during cleaning,
extremely fast speed to drying within the pot.
5.
THIS IS THE LATEST IMPROVED HAN WA WITH 4+5+6+5+4 = 24 exit filter HOLES!!! Han Wa also facilitates: during tilting and pouring tea out: allows and draws in more tea and presents a higher hydrostatic pressure that results in a strong jet of tea during serving!!! Coupled with the wide aperture spout>>> the jet is strong and fast! Despite the largish volume of 281.0ml, yes, the tea within pours and empties out into the serving pitcher fast!
Here amazingly, perfectly and astutely made by Craftsman Chen Fa Chu. Thank you for your grandest support to the honest and dedicated Craftsladies and Craftsmen left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
NOW WE EXPAND FURTHER!
Craftsman Chen Fa Chu is challenged to make this broad Han Wa.
And he succeeded!
We cheer him!!! :-D
On top of the previous 5 points,
This Han Wa is crazy:
1. The lid is EVEN WIDER AND BROADER! That means the lid is even much more prone to collapsing downwards during firing. But Chen Fa Chu succeeded with this! He needs to grasp properly the clay processing, and the moisture needed, and the firing temperatures at all 3 firings perfectly. It took a lot of trial and errors. He succeeded eventually!Fun Fact. Craftsman Chen succeeded with usually only one out of every five made.
We salute his huge efforts to bring this to us.
Additional point, Number 4! Craftsman Chen spent his efforts to make this AMAZING outlet filter that sports a total of 24holes!for much better flow during our usage during tea steeping and serving.
