Ji Zhi 汲直, 138.1ml, Tai Xi Zi Ni 台西紫泥, by our Craftsman Zhang Huan 张欢。
An outstanding, very beautiful Fully-Handmade ZiSha work.
Craftsman Zhang Huan, performed this for all of us friends: An exquisitely charming and Oriental ZiSha Art piece,
PRESENTING the Ji Zhi 汲直 ZiSha model famously created by Chen Man Sheng 陈曼生。Chen Man Sheng is a famous calligrapher and painter in the Qing period. He also is the governor of an area what is YiXing now. He is a famous literati and he also loves ZiSha Art. He designed ZiSha Art and is prolific at it. Man Sheng's 18 Styles 曼生十八式 pots are FAMOUS within the ZiSha fraternity and continue to this date, an amazing 18 styles of legendary classics.
Ji An 汲黯 is a famous Minister of the Han Wu Di era and he is well-known for his honesty, frankness and Straightforward-ness.
直 is Straight.
Being a person of good honest character and Straightforward-ness, he is also known as Ji Zhi 汲 直 。
Chen Man Sheng designed this pot with him in mind and named it Ji Zhi, to signify the elegance and upright character Ji An has.
This pot being named Ji Zhi, is to remind us to develop and maintain our honesty and upright character.
Senior Master Cao and Senior Master Lu supervised heavily and scrutinised Zhang Huan on this demanding Ji Zhi ZiSha work.
Admire this finished work, admire the amazing lines and silhouette of this Ji Zhi!
Start with the wholesome, upright body, which appears slim and upright, yet emanating the great strength and fullness. This is priceless.
The body's shoulder comes in narrower and merges upwards with the sculpted lid dome shoulder, and then upwards culminating in a delicately and carefully formed lid knob by Zhang Huan. The characteristic spout of the Ji Zhi historic work is beautifully mastered and executed under the auspices of Senior Masters as well.
Probably the most demanding is the handle of the Ji Zhi:
1. It is slim, and flimsy to work with,
3. The curves are bewildering to form correctly, as once bent, it cannot be "unbent"/straightened again and re-bent. It has to be formed with decisive movements by the Craftsman.
4. Cohesiveness: heavily time-consuming, as Zhang Huan has to undergo many pieces before deciding on the most cohesive one to match up. As much as experience comes in: Zhang Huan can look over the ten to fifteen pieces of handles on the work bench and look over at the Ji Zhi body, sometimes the defining decision HAS to come when he attaches the handle onto the body and only when the rubber meets the tarmac, can he make the final decision to stick with it, or to detach it and put up another one. Back and forth, he finally forms up the decided specimen onto the body.
Senior Master Cao and Senior Master Lu Xue Feng chose this special Tai Xi Zi Ni for Zhang Huan to craft this beautiful Ji Zhi ZiSha work.
Tai Xi Zi Ni, is the peculiar clay that is mined from the already collapsed and sealed Quarry site, the Tai Xi quarry. The Quarry Pit is named Tai Xi Kuang 台西矿。It is an extinct clay per se. Whatever is left in our inventory, will never be renewed.
Our Tai Xi Zi Ni, not just being authentic, is sold to true connoisseurs at this low price. Dear Friends, this is superb quality Tai Xi Zi Ni. Do procure at least one.
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After three years of perfecting further his already polished skills, his works have consistently been given more than a nod by our Artists, be it Senior Master Lu Xue Feng, Senior Master Cao Lan Fang, Assoc Master Yang Quan Sheng, Assoc Master Li Yan Ru, Assoc Master Du Cheng Yao. Craftsman Zhang is NOW proudly one of us and he will be featuring consistently, and he also works closely with Yi Xiao Ran (featured in our home page video) and also Chen Fa Chu (together both being the longest serving Craftsmen with us). Craftsman Zhang Huan is naturally gifted, and extremely dedicated to perfecting his Art. His works have been noticed and appraised highly. The lines and detailing of his pots are unmatched for their prices. His lines and detailing speak of his EXTREME CARE AND TIME taken to craft each part, each pot. The lines and detailing speak of his fighting through his years from very challenging family conditions since young.
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 Zhang Huan.
Craftsman Zhao's works are highly scrutinised by our Senior Masters, and deemed to be ready for you, delectable for your use and a long lasting permanent ZiSha work in your collection.
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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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Our Senior Masters have given Craftsman Zhang Huan the full blessings with all of us. He is fully-fledged at RealZiSha. Most important, after all the hard work,
We are very happy that he is now with all of you.
Presenting Zhang Huan and his hard-worked and fine-worked Pieces for you. One by one.
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