Ming Shi Xi Shi《明式西施》, 153.9ml, *Da Shui Tan Ben Shan Duan Ni 大水潭本山段泥 with Color Clay Sculpting Art 泥绘, by Craftsman Zhu Shu 朱舒 ～!Congratulations to Ms C.Y.T.! 1141hrs 28th Jan 2026, Laguna Woods! CA!
《明式西施》Ming Shi Xi Shi!
Dearest Friends, exploiting the Artistic flair that Zhang Ke is known for (he was appointed and commissioned five years ago to craft about 150 bespoke pots for two hotel chains in China for their premium suites), exploiting the color clay sculpting skills of Craftsman Zhu Shu, and our wish to create a smaller version of the Ming Shi Xi Shi, we decided to bring out our *Da Shui Tan Ben Shan Duan Ni 大水潭本山段泥 ore store in our Cao Family's vault, as the clay of choice to embark upon this project!
We made the suggestion that Zhang Ke modify his Ming Shi Xi Shi: a Ming Era style Xi Shi, as seen here by you our friends during the launch of the Bai Ma Zi clay.
https://www.realzisha.com/products/%E6%98%8E%E5%BC%8F%E8%A5%BF%E6%96%BD-ming-dynasty-era-style-xi-shi-265-6ml-using-our-cao-familys-rare-cherished-bai-ma-zi-%E7%99%BD%E9%BA%BB%E5%AD%90-endorsed-by-premier-master-cao-an-xiang-crafted-by-l4-assoc-master-artist-zhang-ke-%E5%BC%A0%E8%BD%B2
After the modification, this project of the smaller and adorable version of the Ming Shi Xi Shi, will be for Craftsman Zhu Shu to craft and accomplish!
Zhang Ke’s master teacher: Grand Master Chen Guo Liang comes by regularly by our Jing Tang She 镜塘社 showcase (103号, 解放中路) and he also gave his artistic direction. Together Grand Master Chen and Assoc Master Zhang came up with the sketch of the modified and smaller Ming Shi Xi Shi:
~ keeping the mild double-blob Xi Shi style (lid and body),
~ skilfully adapt the spout from the classic Wen Dan 文旦 model to accentuate the cuteness. The lid knob is correspondingly modified to be a third ovoid spherical motif to match the overall desired artistic form,
~ Zhu Shu to utilise her skill with COLORED Clay Relief Art Sculpting, so as to COUPLE with the overall shape and aura of this adorable form, balanced by our family's delightful and rustic looking Da Shui Tan Duan Ni, in order to achieve this final, finished Artistic work for all of you friends!
A few weeks of gestational period encompassing practice, practice and more practice, ensues. And finally, Craftsman Zhu Shu proudly and lovingly presents her hard work for all of you! Clay Sculpting with the applied embellishments, is challenging and raises the likelihood of failure at firing: through cracks at the thin ZiSha clay appliqué, which would be irreparable. If the clay sculpting comes off, these are irreparable, and the whole pot has to be abandoned. Zhu Shu needs to craft again. Generally success rate is one in two.
Color Clay Sculpting is more difficult and requires higher experience, as the colors pre-firing is different from the colors manifested post-firing, hence the Craftsman must be able to envision the final post-fired effect and color, as she applies fresh ZiSha paste during this Clay Sculpting process!
Having the skill of knowing what ZiSha paste to sculpt with is one thing, having the petals and all, having the 3-Dimensional Effect, varying thickness to beautifully bring up the aesthetic appreciation of the Orchids, is another forté which must be mastered together by Craftsman Zhu Shu.
Relish and cherish Craftsman Zhu Shu's savoir-faire and years in color clay sculpting!
We hope you will love the overall Artistic production from the team!
Ming Shi Xi Shi《明式西施》, in our own Cao Family's well preserved stock of Da Shui Tan Ben Duan 大水潭段泥 excavated well before the site was closed in the 1950s.
Da Shui Tan 大水潭 excavation site is an open air site (and not a tunnelled operation), and the site was closed in the 1950s after its inevitable filling up with water through excavated water vein, and weather and rain from a depressed site.
Da Shui Tan 大水潭 site is part and parcel of Huang Long Shan 黄龙山, and thus it is always regarded and termed as Ben Shan 本山 (Huang Long Shan黄龙山).
Da Shui Tan Ben Shan Duan Ni is beige-yellowish, and a Duan Ni that is smooth to touch, and also sporting the yellow spots seemingly floating atop a darker, almost purplish-gray background.
Relish our Cao Family's Da Shui Tan Ben Shan Duan Ni, and make this one of your cherished works on your tea table doing tea steeping duties!
Savour BOTH of Craftsman's Zhu Shu's Pot Craftsmanship AND COLORED Clay Sculpting 彩色泥绘!
ZiSha Art is the most amazing carrier medium, housing various aspects of Chinese Cultural Arts!
Here in this Ming Shi Xi Shi by Craftsman Zhu Shu,you enjoy the embodiment of
1. Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft 紫砂美术与工艺,
2. Painting 绘画,
3. Clay Sculpting 泥绘.
Hold, Use and Keep relishing the delightful aspects of our Chinese Culture in your daily life, in solitude, in practice, during hospitality to family and friends alike!
Savour the journey, dearest Friends :-D
Great pour!!! Extremely easy and addictive to handle, pour, settle and pick up and use again! Decisive cuts too, in an adorable and elegant Oriental flavor! Here is the 2+3+4+3+2 multiple filter holes afforded by Grand Master Chen Guo Liang's direction to utilise the Wen Dan spout onto this Ming Shi Xi Shi! Wen Dan Spout is very broad-based!
Enjoy this adorable Ming Shi Xi Shi in our Cao Family's Da Shui Tan Ben Shan Duan Ni!! We wish all our dearest friends in you, to enjoy it, use it, savour it and feel the aura of our Chinese YiXing Art.
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GRAND NEWS! Craftsman Zhu Shu joined us in year 2025!! Craftsman Yi Xiao Ran, together with Senior Master Cao Lan Fang and Senior Master Lu Xue Feng talked to her and another lady Craftsman Yang Pin Ting, in June of 2025, and convinced both of them to join us! Zhu Shu is a very skilful Craftsman whom we have observed and scrutinised, and hence join hand in hand to be great professional Artisans with Craftsman Zhang Huan to share our studio in working on delightful ZiSha Artworks for ALL OF YOU Dearest Friends!!! Our Cao Family is delighted to have Zhu Shu, a very hardworking, young lady Craftsman to be together in this happy team here in YiXing besides the River Li 蠡河 at Shu Shan 蜀山!
Craftsman Zhu Shu 朱舒 has taken a strong affinity to Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art, and has dedicated herself to crafting small volumes, excellent works for YiXing Association and events. We decided to support her and convinced her to join us at RealZiSha, as we all insist on only ZiSha works of HIGH QUALITY. Hand-picked by Senior Cao Lan Fang and Senior Master Lu Xue Feng over observation of the past decade as she works alone, and oft times challenged in her livelihood, and they have also taken her in as their very hardworking disciple and our CORE COLLEAGUE. She will be featuring delightful works regularly together with Zhang Huan and Yang Pin Ting!
Craftsman Zhu Shu is NOW proudly one of us and she will be featuring consistently, and she also works closely with Yi Xiao Ran (featured in our home page video), Zhang Huan, Yang Pin Ting, Gu Xiao Ming and also Chen Fa Chu (together both being the longest serving Craftsmen with us) mastering the Zi Ni and Duan Ni clays. Craftsman Zhu Shu is extremely diligent and talented at the same time, and very focussed now in producing her best work for you friends! Her lines and detailing speak of her EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot.
Only a very well-trained, experienced and skilful Craftsman will be able to understand the curves and proportions perfectly, and here beautifully captured and crafted by Craftsman Zhu Shu.
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Again, another tremendous labor of love by our trusted and committed collaborative Craftsman Zhang Huan. It is a team effort and we thank you dearest Friends for your grandest support to the honest and the dedicated Craftsladies and Craftsmen here left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
Hold one, hold up one, swing his work around. Carefully examine his Fully-Handmade work. Look at it from afar, from near, and it will grow on you. The whole piece grow on you because 1) he takes reference from what the Senior Masters chose for him, 2) and he amazingly crafts them up EXACTLY as to what the Senior Masters want from him: extreme fine detailing with MUCH THOUGHT on each part, with MUCH TIME spent on every part, section. Because this is what Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art should be, and HOW FULLY-HANDMADE ZISHA ART is so different from and light years ahead of the ubiquitous jigger-machined pots and half-handmade pots masquerading under the sales tagline of "fully-handmade zisha" pots. These latter JM/HHM pots are made in what we call 流水线 a.k.a. 'Factory-Line operation' whereby the main pot body after being jigger-machined or coming off from the mould, is passed to the next worker who fits on the spout, and subsequently this second worker will pass the pot on to another worker who will in turn fit on the handle. Continuing so, the pressed lid is likewise passed to another worker who fit on the lid knob. EACH WORKER has NO IDEA what the other one is doing, and they are always working on fixed time lines stated by the boss. For example, the worker being "passed the baton" a pot with the spout just fixed onto the body by his colleague, will only focus on fixing on the handle, with nil to little regard to WHETHER THE HANDLE fixed on will be cohesive with the spout. Each worker has NO idea of HOW THE FINAL POT WILL LOOK LIKE. Beyond poor craftsmanship and clay, the result of such processes are ugly pots with poor cohesiveness which experienced Artists, Craftsmen and collectors will tell from a metre away. Experienced people in us, do not need to pick up a pot to check whether it is fully-handmade or made of zisha, we can tell from a metre away just by looking at the pot.
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The keywords are: Detailing and Cohesiveness.
A GOOD Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work combines great detailing and cohesiveness.
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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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Our Senior Masters have given Craftsman Zhu Shu the full blessings with all of us. She is fully-fledged at RealZiSha. Most important, after all the hard work our team have put in collectively,
We are very happy that she is now with all of you.
Presenting Zhu Shu and her hard-worked and fine-worked Pieces for you. One by one.
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