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The Han Wa 汉瓦.
AND THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL AND TREASURED HAN WA.
We refresh ourselves with the previous explanation on all our Han Wa 's :
In YiXing, there is a saying that,
"Do not brag how good your skills are in crafting Fully-Handmade ZiSha pots,
FIRST SHOW ME your Han Wa.
This saying has its strong foundations.
1.
Han Wa needs to have a gently curving side wall and if not done evenly, is very obvious to the eye.
2.
Han Wa has a largish lid spanning the large circumference. In relativity to the pot's width, the Han Wa obviously has the largest lid-width to body-width ratio! This largish lid also has its front edge VERY CLOSE to where the front spout EMERGES and takes shape. These present a very challenging task to the Craftsman, because:
IF not done well and tight, there will be leaking at the front lid edge when the user tilts the teapot to serve tea. The whole big circular lid has to be 1)perfectly evenly crafted 2)and SURVIVE the variables of shrinkage during firing, to secure a tight fit.
3.
Han Wa's lid, being wide and flat (not high-domed), needs to COPE with the heavy weight of the lig knob pressing down on the lid surface. Despite this relatively heavy lid knob, the lid cannot sag down due to this gravitational push downwards. If not done skillfully, the heavy lid knob that can cause the flat lid to "sink" down in the middle. A domed lid otherwise would naturally present a stronger vertical axial strength to support a heavy lid knob, but not the Han Wa. We therefore must savour and appreciate the gently curving convex lid in this Han Wa on your hands as you handle and use it in your tea practice.
Admire this Han Wa. Simple, and a Top Classic.
Han Wa, is also VERY practical!
4.
It provides extreme ease of introducing tea leaves into the pot,
extreme ease of removing and flushing out tea leaves during cleaning,
extremely fast speed to drying within the pot.
5.
THIS IS THE LATEST IMPROVED HAN WA WITH MANY exit filter HOLES,
5 + 4 + 4 + 3 +3 = 19 filter holes. Therefore, this Han Wa during the tilting and pouring: facilitates the drawing in more tea and presents a higher hydrostatic pressure that results in a strong jet of tea during serving!!! Coupled with the wide aperture spout>>> the jet is strong and fast! Despite the medium-largish volume here, yes, the tea within pours and empties out into the serving pitcher fast!
Here amazingly, perfectly and astutely made by Craftsman Zhai Yi Yao. Thank you for your grandest support to the honest and dedicated Craftsmen left to fend the Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art.
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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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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 true ZiSha Patina feels and looks like, the Zenith Tea Taste that only Pure and Good Quality ZiSha can give you, and equally important: the Aura exuding from a Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work which others simply can't bring forth, all from the hands of Craftsman Chen Hua Jun's skills. You will know everything then. Enjoy his superb, classic handwork, and let his work accompany you on your tea journey!
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! 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.
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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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.
