Le Rong 乐荣, 121.2ml, rare Zhu Sha 朱砂 (highest granularity form of ZhuNi), by Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明 ~!Congratulations to Mr E.W.! 1237hrs 7th Oct 2025, Berkeley, CA!
《乐荣》Le Rong ~ by Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明
This is the FIRST SMALL VOLUME ~ ZHU SHA model crafted by dear Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming! Specially for you friends!
Dearest Friends, Zhu Sha. It first appeared on Assoc Master Yang Quan Sheng's all important work, the Ding Mao piece!
https://www.realzisha.com/collections/monumental-precious-by-assoc-master-yang-quan-sheng-the-ming-yuan-ding-mao-%E9%B8%A3%E8%BF%9C%E4%B8%81%E5%8D%AF
Zhu Sha is the highest granularity form of Zhu Ni known to us in the ZiSha fraternity. And it is exactly famous for its high granularity! This is proper Yuan Kuang Zhu Sha, and is rare and more costly. Zhu Sha works have the same success rate during firing as Zi Ni and most Duan Ni. However, Zhu Sha is "notorious" for its highly granularity, and Artists and Craftsmen find it difficult to craft because it is 很疏松, very, very "loose" (not pasty) and Artists and Craftsmen during forming the pot, have to acquire AND GET USED to special skill sets to handle and work on it! Firing is not an issue, success rate is high, but crafting is extremely tricky and tiresome. However, the result is extremely savoured!!! IT brews excellently Aged Sheng Pu Er, and Shu Pu Er!!! Some of our Chinese tea masters swear by it for this application.
Generally, we favour Zhu Sha 朱砂, Xiao Hong Ni 小红泥, Da Hong Ni 大红泥(Yuan Kuang Da Hong Pao 原矿大红袍) and Hong Jiang Po Ni 红降坡泥 for this application.
We discussed amongst all Craftsmen, and being a team effort, Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming volunteered to take up this onerous task. After past months of practice, trial and error, getting used to it with the previous highly limited De Zhong, Han Jiang models launched in the past few months, and sending specimens to firing for the ideal colour~texture~surface feel, all of us are finally happy with its appearance and success!
Do cherish this ZhuSha used, because a rare clay, premium price, delectably vermillion-reddish, granular and highly tactile!!
Delightlfully Oriental and very cute model suitable to be crafted small!!! (Not all models are suitable to be crafted small).
Le Rong brings a great smile to our faces as this rare and highest granularity form of Zhu Ni anchors itself as one of the classic clays on our tea table! Lovingly made by our trusted and committed collaborative Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming. Thank you! for your grandest support to the honest and dedicated Craftsladies and Craftsmen left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
This Le Rong model has a sumptuous, oriental and highly organic form Spout! Very eye-catching, yet supremely functional!!!
It enables, and sports, many filter holes: 3 vertical roles of 4-5-4! holes, for such a small volume pot!
Craftsman Gu also rises to the occasion and turns up his superlative skill and familiarity with this Zhu Sha, crafting in the Qian Gai interface!
The sharply raked dome shape of the main body, this is very testing to any Artist or Craftsman. We have taken the photos of the inner walls, and Craftsman Chen is very happy to share with you the detailed photos of the upper aspects of the inner side walls!: with the folding, creasing vertical shrinkage lines. Because of the SEVERELY narrowed upper part of the body, the radius of the top circular part is a whopping TWO CENTIMETERS smaller and away from the lower circular wide body part. And being of Zhu Ni with high shrinkage, you see the characteristic infolding albeit masked by some of the granularity/sandiness:
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This is extremely difficult to coax and paddle-pat from a standard regular clay slab. This is the power of Fully-Handmade ZiSha, testament to the severe sacrifice of these Fully-Handmaking Craftsman and Artists, taking many years to perfect each of the two hundred over steps of a Fully-Handmaking work.
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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Further: Zhu Sha is a natural Yuan Kuang (unadulterated) type of ZiSha. It is classified as a ZhuNi type. It is the highest granularity form of Hong Ni picked at site. Less granular than that would be Da Hong NI and Xiao Hong Ni, and less granular than that would be Ben Shan Zhu Ni. The least granular would be the XiaoMeiYao ZhuNi and the ZhaoZhuang ZhuNi.
This is not to be missed!and a valuable piece in your collection. We are very glad and grateful to Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming, who goes from strength to strength, to embark on this crafting with this rare and delectable Zhu Sha. We value Craftsman Gu's guile and determination to bring this to us.
Here in this Han Jiang, Craftsman Gu spares no effort as he 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 Craftsmen left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art. Enjoy his diligence, excellent handwork with this Rong Tian and let his work accompany you on your tea journey!
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 “跳子” Tiao Zi 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 is what we love about 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, 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.
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 vital 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 Gu Xiao Ming's skills, savour the pour. You will know everything then.
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