《古鸣钟》"Gu Ming Zhong ~ Ancient Sonorous Bell", 211.9ml, *Lao Qing Hui Duan ~Sieve Count 40, by Craftsman 杨聘婷 Yang Pin Ting, with Craftsman 雨田 Yu Tian's Engraving of*China‘s Famous Painting 山市晴岚图! and Du Fu's Poem!
《古鸣钟》"Gu Ming Zhong ~ Ancient Sonorous Bell", *Lao Qing Hui Duan ~Sieve Count 40, by Craftsman 杨聘婷 Yang Pin Ting, with Craftsman 雨田 Yu Tian's Engraving of*China's Famous Painting 山市晴岚图 by Xia Gui! and Verse!
Here OUR TEAM SPECIALLY CHOSE, for Yang Pin Ting's Gu Ming Zhong ZiSha teapot work with a generous side wall:
Nan Song 南宋 famous painter Xia Gui's 夏圭 MONUMENTAL WORK:
THE《山市晴岚图》Shan Shi Qing Lan painting!
This famous painting is now housed in New York's The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for those in the U.S. living near New York, you are very lucky to drop by to view Xia Gui's work 820 years ago!
Admire Yu Tian's excellent and RIGOROUS engraving and black underglazing, which INTRIGUINGLY and very SMARTLY, portray the painting!
《古鸣钟》"Gu Ming Zhong! ~ Ancient Sonorous Bell"
Craftsman Yang Pin Ting excitedly presents her latest work!!! The Gu Ming Zhong this time in our Cao Family's limited stock of Lao Qing Hui Duan ~~~ of Sieve Count 40.
Here our LAO QING HUI DUAN is translated into a beautiful work by our team:
The《古鸣钟》"Gu Ming Zhong! ~ Ancient Sonorous Bell"!
Our aunt Senior Master Cao and Master Li Yan Ru had worked together to help design this beautiful Gu Ming Zhong for Yang Pin Ting to craft!
Beguiling Graceful Form and emanating the aura truly of an ancient and antiquated Bell, stately and sonorous when rung!
Craftsman Yang Pin Ting with us at our showcase,
Our uncle Mr Zhang Yun Long, a deep YiXing historian and ZiSha clay specialist responsible for firing this pot (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!
Here Senior Master Cao Lan Fang entrusted Craftsman Yang with our Cao Family's batch of Lao Qing Hui Duan (Sieve Count 40) FOR this beautiful Gu Ming Zhong.
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
This《古鸣钟》"Gu Ming Zhong ~ Ancient Sonorous Bell",
HERE MATCHED WITH our Cao Family's Lao Qing Hui Duan 老青灰段 clay!!!
This is the EXACT SAME Lao Qing Hui Duan and Qing Hui Duan clay 青灰段 that our uncle:
ZiSha Religious Art PRIME MASTER CAO AN XIANG 曹安祥, uses in many, many of his works for the temples!
Approaching this STATELY and ENTRANCING Gu Ming Zhong closer, we can admire Craftsman Yang's remarkable skills all round!!!
Starting with the spout, it sprouts and arises naturally due to the superb curves at the base, wider and then Yang manages to coax an ever-slight-narrowing girth as the spout purses upwards. Excellent skills we admire!
Next is the Qian Gai, and this Qian Gai is outstandingly constructed, as the outer edge only extends by a slender 3mm before dropping off the cliff, forming a concave curve, and then a stepped motif, before gliding down a supremely formed side wall.
More impressively! :
The LATERAL WALL JUST ADJACENT TO THIS QIAN GAI INTERFACE, is formed BEAUTIFULLY SEAMLESSLY with a perfect silhouette with a concave sweep outwards, and then the stepped motif, before convex sweep and downwards for a magnificent wall!
This is beautiful, but the lower end flaring outwards aesthetic of this BELL can mean poor ergonomics: the Tea Master when placing this pot down on the table, may transmit too much force onto this acute edge ~~~> This is where the beauty of the design by Senior Master Cao and Li Yan Ru, and the Craftsmanship of Yang Pin Ting, all combine to achieve excellence! First, Craftsman Yang SMOOTHENS and ROUNDS off the edge beautifully with a beguiling design detail of the slight convex and sculpted curve introduced and sculpted carefully allowing a supremely reassured operation!as we confidently put this work down with 100% confidence!
Illustration with a Gu Ming Zhong model showing actual extreme ease of use, much better than many other designs!:
The Handle is mirrors the Spout, with its largish form, it is a generous sweep from top to bottom, a svelte form that is organic and easy to handle!
The lid knob is a superb miniature of the whole Gu Ming Zhong, and presents itself welcomingly, for the Tea Master to confidently and intuitively grip and lift.
Shrinkage of Fully-Handmade ZiSha works,
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 China's top paintings, called the 鹊华秋色图!
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:
Here OUR TEAM SPECIALLY CHOSE for Yang Pin Ting's Gu Ming Zhong with a generous full squarish side wall, for the Nan Song 南宋 famous painter Xia Gui's 夏圭 MONUMENTAL WORK: THE《山市晴岚图》Shan Shi Qing Lan painting!
This work is now housed in New York's The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
For your quick interest's sake, you may find information about our people's reverence and discussion of this famous painting here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT8tneH432E
https://www.zhihu.com/market/album/1157321890375876608/section/1157341793187094528
https://www.jiguzuo.com/guohua/xia-gui-shan-shi-qing-lan-tu-5744.html
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,
3. 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!
Yu Tian is also very careful in the application of black ceramic underglaze.
The black underglaze is to rhyme in with the Shui Mo Shan Shui 水墨山水画 painting!
The black would be solemn, and also black underglaze is able to contrast with and accentuate the dark grayish Lao Qing Hui Duan clay.
On the opposite face, Yu Tian engraves Tang Dynasty Famous Poet, Du Fu's poem: 《望岳》"Looking at Mount Tai"
“会当凌绝顶，一览众山小。
"I will climb to the summit, and all the mountains will appear small before me.”
出自唐代杜甫的《望岳》
译文定要攀登到那最高峰，俯瞰在泰山面前显得渺小的群山。
会当：终当，定要。
凌绝顶：即登上最高峰。
凌：登上。小：形容词的意动用法，意思为“以······为小，认为······小”。
赏析此句突出了泰山的高峻，写出了雄视一切的雄姿和气势，也表现出诗人的心胸气魄，表达诗人不畏艰险、俯视天下的雄心壮志。
会当: will, certainly.
凌绝顶: to climb to the highest peak.
凌: to ascend.
小: an adjective used as a verb, meaning "to consider something small."
This verse highlights the towering height of China’s Famous Tai Mountain, depicting its majestic and imposing presence, and encourages us to practise broad-mindedness and exercise our ambitions, to be brave in the face of hardship.
Craftsmen Yang Pin Ting and Yu Tian 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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