205.8ml,
~ suitable for our tea sessions for one to two persons.
TRULY FULLY-HANDMADE AND DELICATELY MADE.
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.
We must take our hats off to Craftsman Zhai Yi Yao!
1. Large Zhu Ni crafts above 200ml would present the challenge of having the inherent huge degree of shrinkage during firing, unsettling the pot structure as the pulling forces "tear and deform" it at tension areas where there is more clay vs where there is less clay. With a bigger pot, the thinner slabbed portions, having to support a bigger structure, may also yield more easily to the weight of the pot above. Everything adds up to the difficult of getting a perfectly-formed largish Zhu Ni work out from the kiln.
2. Craftsman Zhai, even takes the LONG WAY OUT to craft in the very delectable:
纳底, Na Di base! Na Di base crafting and sculpting involves carefully coaxing the ZiSha clay step by step, and patiently pressing and pressing into shape, the concaved-in structure. "Na Di" 纳底 , the "pushed in", coaxed in, pressed-in concave base. Delectable.
3. Craftsman Zhai 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, working with the largish diameter spout; 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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Xi Shi is the Austere shape and model which all ZiSha collectors must have.
Xi Shi, is a spherical shape which is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO GET RIGHT just with the paddle and hand. That is why we cherish Fully-Handmade Xi Shi so much.
IMAGINE yourself, drawing a TWO-dimensional circle of Symmetry and Cohesiveness, on a piece of paper. A two-dimensional circle. Difficult? Yes! Now imagine you paddle-patting a relative UNYIELDING, FRAGILE AND FLAT clay slab that is ZiSha => into a THREE-DIMENSIONAL sphere!
That is how difficult a Fully-Handmade Xi Shi is in its crafting and formation! Devoid of moulds used in Jigger-machining, Slip-casting and Half-handmaking, and avoiding the use of the Che Yi Dao swivelling cutter.
A Fully-Handmade Xi Shi is difficult in its birth from a flat slab to a cohesive sphere, AND in its surviving the kiln (three-times firing) without deformation and cracking.
Please cherish a Fully-Handmade Xi Shi.
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Note on our TRUE Fully-Handmade Zhu Ni pots from RealZiSha: 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.
Of course, rest assured here, and avoid the ubiquitous fake jigger-machined fake "Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni", "Zhao Zhuang Zhu Ni", "Zhu Ni Da Hong Pao", etc pots all around sold in a multitude of places, sites, platforms, apps.
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We truly admire Craftsman Zhai Yi Yao's guile to bring his skills all to us. Let us all help him along and adopt his works as well. Kind and diligent, we all love Craftsman Zhai. He thanks you dearest Friends for your kindest support of his Art!
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(Dear Friends, during the photo-taking process, five to six separate spotlights above and around, are used. Looking at the photos, the collar-rim of the lid-body interface thus shows the various spotlights' reflection. You will therefore see 2 to 3 scattered brighter spots around the collar-rim. This will allay concerns from some friends, "is the rim-collar having any irregularity in circularity?". This explanation of the usage of five to six overhead spotlights around, will allay this concern. Yes, the rim-collars of all these ZiSha works crafted by our Craftsmen ARE REGULAR in CIRCULARITY :-D, and you can rest assured. Thank you Friends.)
