《梅报春》"Mei Bao Chun", Moderately Ornate Class ~ Daily Use, 201.9ml, Di Cao Qing Zi Ni 底槽青紫泥, by Craftsman Tu Xia Ying 屠暇英。

The lines and detailing speak of Craftsman Tu Xia Ying'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 Chen Fa Chu, Zhu Shu, Gao Xiang, Zhang Huan, Fang Shi, Yang Pin Ting, 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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