Skilful Craftsman Zhai Yi Yao 翟一耀 has officially joined up with Craftsman Wang Xing and us taking care of all the Zhu Ni Zi Sha Works from June 2024 onwards! He starts off with both his Xi Shi and Li XIng for us. Zhai Yi Yao and Wang Xing are former course mates for three years at the ZiSha school. He is one with us, working alongside his long time friend Craftsman Wang Xing.
Humble, hardworking and single-mindedly continuing his pursuit to help us all with affordable, high quality true Fully-Handmade ZiSha pots.
Here is Wang Xing!! A great salute to him and his hard work, as he had served many of you friends previously with efforts earlier this year!
Here is his Ming Lu created for you friends :-D
Ming Lu 明炉 is the Austere shape and model which all ZiSha collectors love for its extreme practicality!
Ming Lu 1)exudes the Aura of Chinese Orientalism, 2)has a wide opening for extreme EASE of introducing tea leaves and washing after steeping, 3)has a sharp-ish spout for decisive cutting of flow, and 4)has a slightly raised lid that stores a column of air above the tea water level when the lid is closed, so that during the initial first moment of pour with that few degrees of tilt, tea water flows out decisively and easily right from the start. 5) It also has a raised circular base with the protruding circular foot so as to enable the pot seem larger than its volume suggests, giving a bigger presence on your 禅意十足 tea table.
Crafted at ~120ml to cater for our tea friends who requiring a small 120ml ZhuNi pot for Gung Fu tea steepings. Suitable for one to two persons.
Zhai Yi Yao's skills are brilliant.
His mastery of the overall shape is here for us to savour.
The Xing Ti 形体 of his works are superb! From the photographs, we admire and easily appreciate his amazing Craftsmanship.
This is ZiSha Art, working with XiaoMeiYao ZhuNi, one with even higher shrinkage than ZiNi and DuanNi, and thus a lot more deformities that CAN arise easily during firing. Success rates between 50-70%. We bear witness to dear Wang Xing's skills as he PAINSTAKINGLY and PROUDLY presents his labor of love for all of you friends.
TRULY FULLY-HANDMADE AND DELICATELY MADE.
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.
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Craftsman Zhai Yi Yao 翟一耀 thanks you dearest friends for your continued support and appreciation for his craft. He is very glad to be working for all of you!
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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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. Out of 12 pots he makes a month of 30days, 9 pots will survive the kiln firing successfully. Out of 9 pots, a Craftsman on average sells 7 pots per month. For ZiSha models/designs that are very challenging and more complicated to craft, time taken will be longer, and the failure rate will be higher as well. Zhu Ni pots have higher failure rates than Zi Ni and Duan Ni pots too. Our Craftsmen are crazily 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.
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