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Dearest Friends, all our Craftsmen and Artists, brothers and sisters in olives🌿saving our common tea culture, are proud to present to you their latest colleagues, Craftsman Wang Hui and Craftsman Shi Yun. Both are former course mates of our Craftsman Yi Xiao Ran! :-D whom you have seen in her video on our main homepage showing the craft involved in making a Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work.
Both these ladies Shi Yun and Wang Hui, are past colleagues of Craftsman Yi Xiao Ran, and upon her convincing, have joined us as well to preserve Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art! Yes! Both Senior Craftsmen Shi Yun and Wang Hui are here now with RealZiSha to SERVE ALL OF YOU!
After bringing to all of us, her amazing Ai De Zhong 矮德钟, Craftsman Shi Yun is delighted to announce her latest Fang Gu!!! At ~150-160ml!
She worked with Assoc Master Zhang Ke on this. We chosen for her the ideal Fang Gu that we love, for the application of Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni!!! AND CRAFTSMAN SHI YUN WENT ONE UP and decided to craft in the very delectable: Na Di 纳底, the carefully coaxed in, concaved-in, base! and with all the supremely sumptuous shrinkage lines, made only possible from the Fully-Handmaking process: WITHOUT forcefully pressing outwards against the moulds used in Half-Handmaking process. The point of Fully-Handmaking ZiSha is not just to honour the age-old esteemed Art and Craft pioneered and perfected through five hundred years, generations and generations of Masters, masters to students, on and on; the point of Fully-Handmaking ZiSha is to FULLY enable the INNATE and ESPECIAL DOUBLE-SIZED PORES of ZiSha clay, to work its wonders with steeping of our beloved Teas. Our Craftsmen often say they will *never* betray their ZiSha clay by subjecting them to half-handmaking processes. We also thank Craftsman Shi Yun for bringing us this wonderful Fang Gu, and at the 150ml mark.
(The 纳底, Na Di base! Na Di base crafting and sculpting involves carefully coaxing the ZiSha clay step by step, and patiently pressing and pressing into shape, the concaved-in structure. "Na Di" 纳底 , the "pushed in", coaxed in, pressed-in concave base. Sumptuous treatment.)
Craftsman Shi Yun 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, working with the largish diameter spout; 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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Many of us delight in a small Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni work to steep our Oolong Dancongs, Oolong Da Hong Paos, Wu Yi Yan Chas, Black Teas, with dense rich taste. A 100degC steep in of hot water, with a fast pour out. Especially your costliest Oolong, that $4,000 per 100g Oolong harvested around the Mu Shu Da Hong Pao trees meant for the leadership of China. We want to get the Rich TASTE OUT from the leaves OPTIMALLY, and not burning nor scalding the leaves, with a fast pour out. A classic fast move. Elegant and the Oolong that results, especially if that is your costliest Oolong, your costliest Yan Cha in your collection. Nothing else replaces this prerequisite for the BEST resultant tea taste.
Here Craftsman Shi Yun worked with the classic Fang Gu shape, perfects it to a tee, carefully crafting in a hand-pressed half-ball filter, and that delectable Na Di.
:-D With a bigger sized 150ml, we now have one with a model with a bigger opening, for introduction of bigger sized leaves, your Green Teas, Your Tai Ping Hou Kuis 太平猴魁s! Your White Teas, all types Oolongs, Yan Chas, all come together as well for steeping in Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni! We believe that Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni and Zhao Zhuang Zhu Ni are the best *not just* for steeping Oolongs and Yan Chas, but also very confidently (which many tea aficionados have joyfully learnt and realised with us): Green Teas, White Teas!for they emanate their BEST flavours and Aromas. Steeping Green Teas and White Teas with our Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni pots delightfully OPENS UP colourful and "eye (tongue)-opening" tastings and aroms for people who have only tasted with Gaiwan. Many, including the top Fu Ding White Tea families, tasted their family heirlooms White Teas (Bai Hao Yin Zhen 白毫银针, Bai Mu Dan 白牡丹) in our Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni pots, and THEY NEVER LOOKED BACK, and kept purchasing from us many Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni pots for themselves and their relatives and of course customers.
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When every steep matters. The most unique and transcendental tasting, that teaches us the matter of impermanence, and we treasure every steep, every drop that passes through down our palate.
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This is Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni, as we all know, with the highest shrinkage together with Zhao Zhuang Zhu Ni compared to all other ZiSha types. Failure rates are high. Unpredictability of the clay edges and joints, due to this high shrinkage is scary to say the least.
This is a precious piece of ZiSha Art, and we give kudos to Senior Craftsmen Shi Yun and Wang Hui, and their diligence and hard work all these years. Although three out of five crafted are successful coming off from the kiln devoid of deformations/cracks, ONLY two of these three are worthy in final form, beauty and cohesion. 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.
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TRULY FULLY-HANDMADE AND DELICATELY MADE ZHU NI WORK:
Note on our TRUE Fully-Handmade Zhu Ni pots from RealZiSha: NOT those thick-/irregular-thickness-walled ones which are actually fake "Fully-handmade ZhuNi pots" utilising the cheating new technology: "车一刀 Che Yi Dao": Such ZhuNi pots utilizing Che Yi Dao process, have been sprouting up in the market since early 2022. Che Yi Dao involves a swivelling-rotational cutter that goes around a roughly-finished ZhuNi pot to cut the outer surface into a perfect shape. This cutter obliviates the need of accomplished skill of a true Fully-Handmaking Craftsman. Obviously, Che Yi Dao also absolves the need of a skilled FHM Craftsman to 1)pound the slab into a careful thin-slab, 2)paddle-pat the slab into a uniform shape purely manually.
In the utilisation of Che Yi Dao cutter, the worker will just need to 1) roughly pound the slab into a slightly thicker slab. After that the worker rounds up this slab as part of the main body, and will just 2)need to ROUGHLY paddle-pat it into shape. After which he sets up the Che Yi Dao cutter to revolve and cut the body into a perfect shape.
Of course, rest assured here, and avoid the ubiquitous fake jigger-machined fake "Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni", "Zhao Zhuang Zhu Ni", "Zhu Ni Da Hong Pao", etc pots all around sold in a multitude of places, sites, apps and platforms.
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