《登云壶》"Deng Yun Hu - Ascend The Clouds", 220.3ml, Di Cao Qing Zi Ni 底槽青紫泥, by Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明 ~!Congratulations to Mr H.W.T.! 0717hrs 6th Mar 2026, Englewood! CO!
《登云壶》"Deng Yun Hu - Ascent The Clouds"
Ascend the Clouds! Taken from the inspiration of The Monkey God ~ Sun Wu Kong fables: as The Great Sage ascends and step upon the clouds!
This is largish pot, measuring 142mm long, spout to handle, and 82mm tall.
The styling elements imbue this amazing pot with a very ROBUST and solid visual impression! Stout spout, an equally wide-girthed handle, a good sized lid knob in the form of a cloud, the thick lips at the lid-to-body interface, and the stepped sculpting at the shoulder line and reflected also near the base, all add to the hefty and robust aura of this pot!
Adding to the pompous and massive impression, is the circular foot at the base employing a highly raised design, very sumptuously done by Gu Xiao Ming!
Great fast and strong pour.
This is a thick-walled, robustly-designed and robustly-built pot, weighing 235grams when emptied.
The adorable and robust Cloud Motif, forming the lid knob!
Robust design of the spout,
Equally thick handle,
Sumptously SCULPTED Stepped shoulder line,
Observe and Savour the minor shrinkage lines above the shoulder line too (Zi Ni shrinkage is less than Zhu Ni, and hence the shrinkage lines are not as obvious as Zhu Ni),
Highly raised bottom with a the raised circular foot,
A design that will delight everybody around the tea table! Massive and stately, robust-looking and of an evergreen Oriental design!
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.
Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明 thanks you dearest friends for your grandest support to the honest and dedicated Craftsladies and Craftsmen left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
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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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