Le Rong《乐荣》, 186.3ml, Zhi Ma Duan Ni 芝麻段泥, by Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming 顾小明 ~ Congratulations to!Mr K.F., 1828hrs 25th Nov 2026, Chamblee! GA!
《乐荣》Le Rong.
This is the larger volume Le Rong, after he had mastered Le Rong with Zhu Sha clay four months ago! The previous Le Rong in Zhu Sha clay stands at ~125ml.
Craftsman Gu gives it a heftier and larger volume, which he hopes friends who love the Le Rong shape but had found it too small at 125ml, find this at 160ml much more versatile, especially with the festive season and gatherings with friends round the corner!!
Delightfully 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!!!
Previous 125ml model sported 3-4-3 filter holes, and now Gu gives it 3 vertical roles of 5-6-5! holes, for still a relatively small volume pot of 160ml!
Craftsman Gu also rises to the occasion and turns up his superlative skill and familiarity with this Zhi Ma Duan, crafting in the DEMANDING and exacting, 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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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 ~170-180ml 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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