Yummy pear

This is my 60’s Zhu Ni Ming Zhi Zhai Pear-shaped Xia Pin (Small) Yixing Teapot. It’s a really long name for such a short pot.



I got it a year or so ago from Guang. When I opened the parcel, the pot was cleaned with no tea stains. Now I use this yixing quite often with big leaf raw pu-erh, so today the pot is seasoned quite well. On these pictures I want to demonstrate, how it changed over the time and why I like it so much.

But first, the teapot facts
Clay: sanded zhu ni
Spout: single holed
Bottom seal: Ming Zhi Zhai. "Zhai" means a scholar's study room. "Ming Zhi" means "to reveal, to make clear my aspiration/ambition/will", so together it could mean "I Find My Ambition In The Study Room"
Year of making: 60's
Size: 130cc
Tea: young sheng
Use: quite often, at least once a week

It’s a lovely pear-shaped teapot, with few limitations. Because of single hole spout I use it with young raw pu-erh with bigger whole leaves, because the teapot do not have strainer and I do not use a separate strainer. Too broken pu-erh, like the samples leave too much mess in my teacup. So this teapot is dedicated to better quality pu-erh only!



In these pictures you can see how the teapot changed over the last year. The hole in bottom part of teapot show the original clay – since I use a tea tray the teapot does not stand in tea, so the bottom remains always dry. I do not want to season my pots in artificial ways, so there will be probably always be visible the original clay.

Please click the picture with bottom seal; you will see the big difference in look of seasoned clay and the look of unseasoned one. The pictures were not altered or color enhanced in any way, they were taken under natural sunlight.



The oils in tea gave my teapot a very shiny look; they enhance the original color of teapot making it bright orange. Also, the sanded zhu ni clay shows a very interesting texture. And the pot is shiny! Just look at this picture.

Even if it does not look like original zhu ni clay because of sand, it still possesses it’s qualities but the durability is greatly increased. I had once a true zhu ni teapot but it cracked when I was careless for a moment and I poured too hot water into it. That moment I felt like my heart cracked a bit too.



I believe that most important qualities of teapot are:

• clay quality
  
• usability
  
• esthetic value
  

The clay of this teapot is good, solid with high-pitched knocking sound. The usability is great too – the lid fits tight and well, the pot pours swift with beautiful flow. And the beauty of this simple teapot is hidden in its details – in the lid, the handle, the spout.

80's Jing-Ding Zhu Ni Shui Pin

I got this teapot about a year ago from Guang. A sad story, this is a replacement for pure zhu ni teapot that cracked – maybe I poured too hot water into it in cold room, maybe the teapot was cracked before, I don’t know. But this new one serves mi fine for more than a year now.



This teapot is quite unique amongst my teapots. It’s rather old, being at least twenty years old. Also, the knocking sound of this teapot is highest from all of my yixing proving the high quality of clay. The dark orange color, wrinkle lines and oily surface points out, that this clay is zhu ni, or it’s at least very similar to zhu ni.

The filter. I never saw a teapot with filter like this – a circle with small square connected with four diagonal dashes. The bottom seal is very artistic, too.




Certainly, this teapot has some flaws. The lid does not fit perfectly and when I fill the pot with too much water it leaks. Also, maybe because of the unique filter it pours rather slow. And the size is maybe too big for just me.

Yet, I still use it for young sheng pu-erh. I like the clay; I like the tea this pot makes. I feel somehow connected with it, just like with my other teapots I use. I like it because it’s nearly as old as I am. Well, ok, I’m older than this pot, but not too much. So when evening comes and I know, that I will drink more tea than one session of gong fu from smaller teapot can provide, I choose this one.

Teapot facts
Clay: zhu ni
Spout: quite unique multiple holed
Seals: quite unique artistic one, on bottom only
Year of making: 80's
Size: 225cc
Tea: young sheng
Use: seldom

Spirit of Zi Sha - Dwarven Warrior

I'm sure many tea fans have tons of yixing teapots. Some are used frequently, some are just display items. I own few yixing, too. Some is good, some is not so good. But I remember the story of each one piece.

First of all - where can I get yixing? Since I never was in China or Taiwan, my only chances are local or internet vendors. Unfortunately, most pieces I can get in Slovakia is of very poor quality. And if I order online, there is a chance, that I will got something else, than I believed to get.

Now you have to know, that I’m in the position, when I have more yixing, than I can use. Well, I use nearly all of them, but some of those precious pieces of art see their use maybe once a month… And this is bad. I do not like them to just sit on the shelf. So I decided not to buy anymore of them.

Unfortunately, my greediness is probably much stronger than me. And when I saw this small piece (xiao pin) at Guang’s website, the urge to hold it in my hands was stronger than my decision not to buy more yixing.



Just check out this little guy. My first thought, when I saw him, was - he's just like a small, strong dwarf! If you saw Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Lirng, Gimpli as a yixing teapot would look just like this. Small, sturdy, radiating hidden power.



Also, if you check the photo above, you can see the high quality, solid zi sha that was used to make this teapot. Chocolate brown clay, with nice structure and solid feeling.

When I said solid feeling – check out this interesting article about how yixing is made. The idea of “slip casting” yixing is very strange to me. I believed that most of the yixing is hand made by underpaid Chinese craftsman. And now I see that most of it is only cast using moulds. It is horrific, but somehow not surprising fact.

Fortunately, if you check the inside of this teapot (click the picture to enlarge), you can see the “scars” the maker left while arranging the inside of the teapot. So this is at least partially hand-made. That also explains the nice feeling of the teapot.



I like this teapot. It has some flaws – it leaks a bit when pouring, it does not have built-in strainer. Maybe I will not use it frequently, but when I will drink some high-fired wu yi oolong, I will feel the spirit that teapot have.



Teapot facts
Clay: zi sha
Spout: single holed
Seals: on bottom only
Year of making: around 2000
Size: 150cc
Tea: high-fired wu yi oolongs
Use: infrequently

PS: Is there someone, who can help me to translate the Chinese calligraphy on seals?