《子冶石瓢》"Zi Ye Shi Piao", 156.3ml, Zhi Ma Duan Ni 芝麻段泥, by Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明 ~!Congratulations to Mr J.P.! 1858hrs 6th Feb 2026, Vineland! NJ!
"德不孤,必有邻。"
This ancient phrase of everlasting wisdom guides us to an aspect of morality:
德 , Virtue
"Being Virtuous and practicing moral principles,
One will never be lonely
One will always be blessed with true and close friends who will come to your help in times of need."
《子冶石瓢》"Zi Ye Shi Piao"
Finally the Zi Ye Shi Piao makes its appearance! Not after Gu had worked very hard, mastered and presented to us the previous Ping Gai Shi Piao and the Jing Zhou Shi Piao, all in the delectable Zhi Ma Duan clay! Zi Ye Shi Piao precedes the creation of Jing Zhou Shi Piao and Ping Gai Shi Piao in ZiSha Art history. A legendary sleek and alluring must-have classic in our fraternity.
We know in the inner circle: Do not be mistaken by its seemingly simple design, for although a Zi Ye Shi Piao is deceptively simple, it IS very difficult to get right a very good Zi Ye Shi Piao: the angle of slant that the Fully-Handmaking Craftsman must pat into the use of any moulds, yes, that tapering form which the Craftsman has to paddle-pat the cylindrical clay slab into. The right place to site the spout onto, the angle of rise, and the handle that must conform and amplify the triangular form of the whole design. Any slight curve, a wrong slant, will affect everything. We are all very happy that hardworking Gu succeeded upon our request! Do cherish this classic, small-volume Zi Ye Shi Piao by Craftsman Gu! Rest assured of the strong jet pour from a Zi Ye Shi Piao: the properly crafted 2+3+4+3+2 filter holes for a smallish pot, amazingly ensures your satisfaction during your tea seassions!
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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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Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming delights us this time, crafting the all time evergreen classic, the Jing Zhou Shi Piao, with the delectable Zhi Ma Duan Ni 芝麻段泥! Zhi Ma Duan "Sesame Seed Duan Ni" is a lovely type of Duan Ni, incorporating much iron as its constituent, amidst the highly porous nature that is Duan Ni!
Zhi Ma 芝麻 Duan Ni 段泥 is thus affectionately named, because of the speckling of iron constituents in generous quantities resemble Sesame Seeds 芝麻 :-D!
Bring this home early for more brilliant tea tastings with your guests, or by yourself
Dearest friends, enjoy your tea :-)
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Crafted at ~150ml to cater for our tea friends who want a small pot for Gung Fu tea steepings, and suitable for one to three persons.
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As with all Art pieces from RealZiSha here presented to all of you dearest Friends, guardians of Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art, they are premium pieces availed at the most astounding lowest prices. We want you each of you friends to get the best. You deserve it.
Craftsman Gu also conscientiously sculpted a 手推内球孔 Hand-Pushed Spherical Filter to increase the number of filter holes for a solid and fast pour of tea out and with better catching of tea leaves at the bottom fast while allowing tea to flow out from the upper holes.
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Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明 thanks you dearest friends for your grandest support to the honest and dedicated Craftsmen left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
Here with us in our happy family of true ZiSha connoisseurs, you witness 90-120 photos taken of EACH Fully-Handmade ZiSha work here.
Compare this to elsewhere: factory bosses of jigger-machining 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.
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 eons' distance.
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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!
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