Craftsman Gu Xiao Ming delights us this time, crafting the delectable Si Ting, with the 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!
~~~~~~~~~~
思亭, Si Ting,
Si Ting has always been a model of high difficulty.
The most difficult is the patting of this SINGULAR pasty clay slab that is Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni, from one part into two parts with WIDE disparity in girth. Crafting so is demanding on one's experience and skill, as this pasty clab slab may crack during its patting. The curves must all be cohesive as well and there should not be any turning back. What we take for granted, the extremely graceful and svelte silhouette, is the fruit of the Craftsman's labour, great eye of aesthetic as she works, and years of experience gained from crafting.
Si Ting, being of a form whereby:
1) the form above AND below the widest girth, narrow inwards,
2) the lid has a highly extended dome above the tea water when filled to the brim.
These mean that Si Ting is a shape that houses less volume that its visual estate would suggest on our tea table. This is in direct contrast to the Jing Zhou Shi Piao and Han Wa, which houses maximum volume for the lowest visual estate. What this means in turn, is that, to craft a Si Ting to house 190ml of volume, it has to be crafted rather large, utilising more clay.
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. The Fraternity-recognised: Puffer Fish silhouette iteration of this Xi Shi spout, is also crafted here, which accommodates the more generous lumen/outflow, FURTHER accentuating and aiding the swiftness of pour.
~~~~~~~~~~
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, superb, classic handwork with this Xi Shi!!!and let his work accompany you on your tea journey!
~~~~~~~~~~
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 critical to their livelihood and the existence of this craft for all of the tea fraternity.
Thank you Friends!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
