Dearest Friends, all our Craftsmen and Artists, brothers and sisters in olives🙇♀️🙇♂️🌿saving our common tea culture, are proud to present to you their latest colleagues, Craftsman Wang Hui and Craftsman Shi Yun. Both are former course mates of our Craftsman Yi Xiao Ran! :-D whom you have seen in her video on our main homepage showing the craft involved in making a Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work.
Both these ladies Wang Hui and Shi Yun, are past colleagues of Craftsman Yi Xiao Ran, and upon her convincing, have joined us as well to preserve Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art! Yes! Both Senior Craftsmen Wang Hui and Shi Hui are here now with RealZiSha to SERVE ALL OF YOU!
Craftsman Wang Hui after her magnificent 秋水 Qiu Shui, presents this Qie Gua!
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Qie Gua 茄瓜。
Very adorable model specially chosen by Craftsman Wang Hui! Delightfully minimalistic ornate, resembling the Qie Gua fruit we consume in China, and she painstakingly worked in the exquisite lid knob! Seemingly simple, but upon closer inspection, the work of Craftsman Wang Hui is perceivable:
1) She carefully and consciously fashioned in an L-Shaped ventilation port out from the dome of the lid! The stalk of the fruit rises up and then joins with the slightly curved Crescent-Shaped Branch. How lovely! We also acknowledge the slimness in girth of the stalk when viewed axially. Thank you Craftsman Wang Hui!
She wishes to show the ergonomics that she intended, and hence the four consequent photos showing how it is ergonomically and conveniently handled with elegance. Guests will smile and the lid becomes a central talking point. Be sure to share with your guests the craftsmanship involved, the minimalistic aesthetics manifested which lasts the years of use. Always, bringing a smile to our faces. Very satisfying and as she wants it: adorable, on our tea table!
2) Wang Hui also worked in conscientiously the our favourite, 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.
3) Further sculpting in the 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.
4) BEYOND the savoir-faire showcased above, Wang Hui shows her fine eye of cohesiveness and aethetics, with the twice-angulated handle, to rhyme in with the curve of the lid, and the curve of the shoulder-line of the body.
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This is Xiao Mei Yao Zhu Ni, as we all know, with the highest shrinkage together with Zhao Zhuang Zhu Ni compared to all other ZiSha types. Failure rates are high. Unpredictability of the clay edges and joints, due to this high shrinkage is scary to say the least. With this minimalistic and detailed XiaoMeiYao ZhuNi work, Wang Hui is able to craft at most NINE pieces per month, of which ONLY SIX would be successful. She appreciates all the kindness for her hard work.
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A delightful and adorable piece of ZiSha Art, and we give kudos to Craftsman Wang Hui and her diligence and hard work all these years. 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.
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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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TRULY FULLY-HANDMADE AND DELICATELY MADE ZHU NI WORK:
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, apps and platforms.
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