《半月》~ "Ban Yue ~ The Half Moon", 135.8ml, *Hong Qing Shui Ni 红清水泥~四十目 sieve count 40, by Craftsman Zhang Huan 张欢, Engraving by Craftsman Peng Peng 芃芃!
《半月》"Ban Yue ~ The Half Moon"
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT SHAPE, and one of the very top archetypal early versions of fhe Ban Yue, is this in the late Ming ~ early Qing period:
DISCOVERED IN THE 17th CENTURY: Late Ming ~ Early Qing.
Although a very old classic, the lines, silhouette and proportions are stylish. A very beautiful forward-looking Oriental shape, and EXTREMELY WELL-MASTERED by Zhang Huan! Seemingly simple, but all the curves are perfected by Zhang!
Our Cao Family brings out our classic Hong Qing Shui Ni !!! Here in a smooth yet tactile sieve count of 40! Qing Shui Ni basically means the ZiSha ore is weathered down naturally, and then simply mixed with water to arrive at the clay to be used for crafting.
So far, ALL the pots you have been procuring from us, whether it is a type of Zhu Ni, Hong Ni, Duan Ni or Zi Ni, can hence be considered to be Qing Shui Ni. However back in the 70s when the Artists working purely under the auspices of our national ZiSha faculty, when they pick on Zi Ni for their pots, they mostly use it mixed with other clay types in a mix: 拼配泥料, and almost the only Zi Ni clay they use which is not mixed, is this type of Zi Ni: Hong Qing Shui Ni, or also affectionately abbreviated in three words, Hong Qing Shui. Here we present our family's beloved stock of Hong Qing Shui!
Our aunt has previously used the same Hong Qing Shui of sieve count 60, to create and craft her Signature《牛气冲天》"Niu Qi Chong Tian", that is adopted and placed on permanent display at the national capital museum. Here our uncle Zhang Yun Long provided Zhang Huan with the Hong Qing Shui of sieve count 40 for one's precious collection and USE for steeping your teas!
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's《牛气冲天》work in Hong Qing Shui Ni of sieve count 60 is on the left of the triumvirate of《牛气冲天》Niu Qi Chong Tian:
SAVOUR THE BAN YUE by hardworking and skilful Craftsman, Zhang Huan!!
Superb form, mastered by Zhang Huan, and manifested pampering all of you friends!
Senior Master Cao Lan Fang CHOSE for the ENGRAVING to be done by Craftsman Peng Peng again!with a great repertoire of engraving savoir-faire and calligraphy skills! Yi-Lei and ian chose the verse for Engraving Craftsman Peng Peng, while she exercises her own artistic direction for her flowery delicate engraving!
Craftsman Peng Peng 芃芃 crafts the famous stanza from Legendary Poet Li Bai 李白, facing the Guests (assuming right-handed use):
”长风破浪会有时 直挂云帆济沧海“
This two verses are hugely inspirational, and gives us strength to believe in, that by exerting oneself and working supremely hard, will definitely prime oneself for greatness and success. And once you fly, you will soar high and far.
Believe in yourself, work hard, and one day your formidable wings trained for many years, will open and you will fly high and strong.
Dearest friends, enjoy your tea :-)
中文：石榴多籽，其花又红艳热烈，寓意繁荣昌盛，福气满满。Engraving of the Pomegranate Flowers blooming, faces the Tea Master while steeping tea!
Shrinkage of Fully-Handmade ZiSha works:
SMOOTH and unclogged fluid pour afforded by the diligently worked-in hand-pushed filter by Zhang, 
Savour this beautiful Ban Yue by Zhang Huan and Peng Peng!!for your best tasting of teas daily!
Craftsman Zhang Huan 张欢, since young, has embarked on his journey of crafting Austere ZiSha works of HIGH QUALITY. He had been noticed and hand-picked by Senior Cao Lan Fang and Senior Master Lu Xue Feng over observation of the past decade, and they have taken him in as their very hardworking disciple and CORE COLLEAGUE.
After three years of perfecting further his already polished skills, his works have consistently been given more than a nod by our Artists, be it Senior Master Lu Xue Feng, Senior Master Cao Lan Fang, Assoc Master Yang Quan Sheng, Assoc Master Li Yan Ru, Assoc Master Du Cheng Yao. Craftsman Zhang is NOW proudly one of us and he will be featuring consistently, and he also works closely with Yi Xiao Ran (featured in our home page video) and also Chen Fa Chu (together both being the longest serving Craftsmen with us). Craftsman Zhang Huan is naturally gifted, and extremely dedicated to perfecting his Art. His works have been noticed and appraised highly. The lines and detailing of his pots are unmatched for their prices. His lines and detailing speak of his EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot. The lines and detailing speak of his fighting through his years from very challenging family conditions since young.
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 Zhang Huan.
Craftsman Zhang's works are highly scrutinised by our Senior Masters, and deemed to be ready for you, delectable for your use and a long lasting permanent ZiSha work in your collection.
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 Craftsmen here left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
Also to be cherished and witnessed in this ZiSha Work, you : besides the usual important, critical and beautiful hallmarks of a Fully-Handmade ZiSha pot, this pot has the discontinuous and roughly horizontal marks evident on the inner walls, and these are called the: 泥凳纹 Ni Deng Wen, which are the marks left on the clay slab, complementary to the marks on the workbench of the Craftsman Zhang Huan; During the making of FHM ZiSha pots, the Craftsladies and Craftsmen will be using tools to cut the clay slabs, etc, and these cutting strokes will leave marks on the studio workbench. Especially the first major forceful cut across the table to delineate the clay she/he wants to utilize to form the main body of the body. Thus when the craftsman subsequently pound the clay slab on the workbench, these marks will be etched onto the clay slab. Thus you are "enjoying" the additional natural hallmarks of a Fully-Handmade pot. Even a partially handmade pot will not show these marks. And those fake, those Jigger-machined pots may show CONCENTRIC continuous circular lines, usually all parallel to one another, and extremely uniform.
We are working every day hard to bring more classics and classy standards, for you to hold a broad view and savour the delightful landscape of ZiSha works that our YiXing fraternity has!!!
A treasure chest and our team will continue to work very hard to prepare and bring forth every single piece to you. Thank you, dearest Friends for your understanding.
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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 Zhang Huan's skills. You will know everything then :-D
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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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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, efflorescence, 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, 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 Craftsman Zhang Huan. 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 Zhang Huan's EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot. Hold one, hold up one, swing the work around. Carefully examine his 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 Zhang Huan, Gu Xiao Ming, Chen Fa Chu, Zhu Shu, Gao Xiang, Zhao Huai Xu, Yang Pin Ting, 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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