《景舟石瓢》Jing Zhou Shi Piao, 198.6ml, Di Cao Qing Zi Ni 底槽青紫泥, Craftsman 李秋林, Engraving of Plum Blossoms and Poem by Craftsman Ruo Xi 若兮。
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!
世事漫随流水，算来一梦浮生。
出自五代李煜的《乌夜啼·昨夜风兼雨》
译文人世间的事情，如同东逝的流水，一去不返，回想这一生，就像大梦一场。
赏析此句情感真实，清新自然，“算来”二字，传神地表达出词人的空虚、疑惑、迷惘之感，抒发了对人世无常、人生如梦的感慨和无奈。
Craftsmen and Artists, 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.
Jing Zhou Shi Piao here IN 底槽青紫泥 DI CAO QING ZI NI, FIRST TIME BEING CRAFTED below 200ml, SPECIALLY! to cater for our tea friends who want a small and beautiful JING ZHOU SHI PIAO pot for Gung Fu tea steepings, and suitable for one to three persons!
Craftsman Ruo Xi crafted this time his favourite VIVID Plum Blossoms!
And of course;
Accompanied by the poem by Li Yu:
《景舟石瓢》Jing Zhou Shi Piao ~ classic and famous shape created by legenedary Maestrao Gu Jing Zhou!
First, the history and background of this ultra-classic Jing Zhou Shi Piao:
This, in the auction information above, is the most famous Jing Zhou Shi Piao which legendary maestro Gu Jing Zhou had crafted in collaboration with Wu Hu Fan 吴湖帆。
~ the version created by the late Gu Jing Zhou in collaboration with Wu Hu Fan: 吴湖帆 Wu Hu Fan did the bamboo painting and calligraphy on the Shi Piao that Gu Jing Zhou had crafted. Gu Jing Zhou 顾景舟 himself performed the engraving upon Wu Hu Fan's completed painting and calligraphy. After Gu Jing Zhou fires it successfully, they gave it as a gift to 唐云 Tang Yun, who is a famous painter and acclaimed ZiSha collector in the late Min Guo Republic era.
The actual historical piece was auctioned at ~USD4,000,000 at the 2015 Beijing Jindong auction house.
Yes, this historical, famous Jing Zhou Shi Piao shape created by Gu Jing Zhou.
There are more about this piece crafted by Craftsman Li Qiu Lin:
This Jing Zhou Shi Piao stands at only ~195ml in volume! Jing Zhou Shi Piao is an ultra classic of our ZiSha fraternity, born of the legendary Gu Jing Zhou's genius design mind, and Craftsman Zhao Huai Xu here in our team embarked upon creating and crafting the smallest Jing Zhou Shi Piao amenable for most tea people's practice in modern times. Keeping the same pretty side silhouette as the prettiest Jing Zhou Shi Piaos known (but often crafted beyond 220ml), our uncle Cao An Xiang advised for a mild lowering (-1mm) of the upper brim/water level line, so that the lid that caps out on top, will be afforded a bigger gap (+1mm) that exists in the loop between A) the top of the lid knob, vs B) the ventilation hole below. This is very important because it creates more space for the Tea Master to grip the lid knob!
Under the stewardship and eyes of our aunt Cao Lan Fang, Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming crafted the Jing Zhou Shi Piao in our family's Di Cao Qing Zi Ni 底槽青, while Zhao Huai Xu crafted in Da Shui Tan Lao Zi Ni 大水潭老紫泥 and Chen Yu crafted in Zhi Ma Duan 芝麻段。
We thank Craftsman Gu for putting on the extra shifts painstakingly mastering this difficult shape, that is this Jing Zhou Shi Piao piece, making the required modification and thereby created this very lovable small volume Jing Zhou Shi Piao! A must-have classic, HERE with Ruo Xi's favourite engraving of Plum Blossoms and Poem, the hard work and creating this smallest Jing Zhou Shi Piao for all!
You will find it a joy, savouring this SPECIAL ~195ml volume Jing Zhou Shi Piao!
Just for reference, and further understanding:
The famous and original Jing Zhou Shi Piao created by Gu Jing Zhou and Wu Hu Fan, stands at ~600ml and the lid knob is amenable to being gripped and lifted off.
The original 600ml piece by the legend Gu Jing Zhou and Wu Hu Fan is (auctioned at 27,025,000RMB, Year 2015).
Beautiful form, mastered by Li Qiu Lin:
ZiSha Art is the most amazing carrier medium, housing Five aspects of Chinese Cultural Arts!
1. Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft,
2. Painting,
3. Calligraphy,
4. Poetry,
5. Engraving Art and Craft.
Hold, Use and Keep relishing all five aspects of our Chinese Culture in your daily life, in solitude, in practice, during hospitality to family and friends alike!
Savour the journey, dearest Friends :-D
Bring this home early for more brilliant tea tastings with your guests, or by yourself!
Assuming right-handed use,
RUO XI'S Plum Blossoms engraving appears on the ide facing the User,
This Famous Verse by Li Yu, in Xing Shu 行书 Calligraphy Style, and faces the Guests,
"世事漫随流水，算来一梦浮生。
出自五代李煜的《乌夜啼·昨夜风兼雨》
译文人世间的事情，如同东逝的流水，一去不返，回想这一生，就像大梦一场。
赏析此句情感真实，清新自然，“算来”二字，传神地表达出词人的空虚、疑惑、迷惘之感，抒发了对人世无常、人生如梦的感慨和无奈。
From Li Yu's "The Nightingale Cries - Last Night's Wind and Rain" (五代李禹《乌夜啼·昨夜风兼雨》)
Translation: The affairs of the world are like flowing water, gone forever; looking back on this life, it's like a grand dream.
Craftsmen and Artists, 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, experience and definitely a certain degree of good luck during firing
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Craftsman Li Qiu Lin 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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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 exuded from a Fully-Handmade Pot which others simply can't bring forth, and, Craftsman Li Qiu Lin's skills, savour the pour. You will know everything then.
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Hold one, hold up one, swing his work around. Carefully examine his Fully-Handmade work. Look at it from afar, from near, and it will grow on you. The whole piece grow on you because 1) he takes reference from what the Senior Masters chose for him, 2) and he amazingly crafts them up EXACTLY as to what the Senior Masters want from him: extreme 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.
Do own one. They make amazing tea, with very slight muting effect on any bitterness in the tea leaves during steeping, and heightening their "refreshed"-ness and slight sweetness!
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A GOOD Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work combines great detailing and cohesiveness.
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