Official/Different Yixing Show Off Topic!

[ajiaojiao]

Here is a lesson in how not to fix a Yixing pot.

I purchased this pot recently from a friend and collector. I knew she wasn't at all pretty right from the beginning- chipped spout, loose lid fit, ugly rough slip cast clay on the bottom, slip cast clay in the lid hole creating a slow pour, white water marks all around the lid and top, BUT the pot is from the late 60's - early 70's, and the price was a little more than a song, so what the hell.

I got her home, took some fine steel wool to the water marks, and within minutes the pot was starting to look a lot better. Gaining a little confidence, I decided to take out my trusty pin vise and tiny drill bit, and attack the slip-cast clogged lid hole. Unbelievably, I managed to slowly drill the lid hole out and the pour became a whole lot faster and better, with fewer drips. Now I'm riding high, and a little full of myself... this is turning out to be a great return on my small investment. I should have stopped while I was ahead, but... who really ever does that? I decided to try and smooth the newly expanded hole with a very tiny round file, and ... CRACK! Busted the darn lid knob in two.


Not sure If you can tell from this pic, but the pot is actually made from purple clay, and only slip-cast in zhuni.



Boy did I feel like an idiot. As you can see in the pics, I managed to epoxy the knob and reattach it to the pot with some JB Weld- it's non-toxic, rated to over 600 deg F, and is 100% waterproof. I'm sure it will hold for a very long time, but still, this poor pot exists for four decades before I got it, and within 3 hours of me owning it, it's broken.

Style: Shui Pin
Clay: Zi ni inside, zhuni outside. Med fired.
Size: 150 ml
Hole: Single
Age/Year: Late 60's - Early 70's.
Walls: Med-Thick
Pour: +/- 7 sec. Some drips. Loose lid fit.
Tea Pairing: Young Sheng Puer
Effect on Tea: The good news is that despite all its flaws, this pot handles young sheng very well. It really cuts way back on astringency, while not muting the underlying flavors too much to make the tea boring. It also rounds the mouthfeel quite a bit. She's bruised and battle-worn, but I think I'll keep her around!

Oh NO! Well, she is still a bute! Its'a all about the clay right and ultimately the tea! Cherish her!

It's water level,and zhu ni /very good

[ajiaojiao]

Just a little fun question. What period and clay is this 100 ml Yixing? And what tea is it good for? I just started to test this new baby



Close-up texture in Day light.

Clay: Pear Skin Zhuni + Hong Ni. high fired.
http://photo.blog.sina.com.cn/photo/4e9 ... ec3e61c6a1
Stamp: Mang Sheng bamboo pen hand script
Size: 100 ml
Age/Year: late 70s- Mid 80's.
Walls: Medium Thick.
Pour: +/- 12 sec. No drips. Med. tight lid fit.
Source: Hong Kong
Tea Pairing: Wuyi. Mellows the fire and brighten the youth.

very good ,zhu ni

[ajiaojiao]

This is a Zhuni Teapot of mine from 2008. It rings like a bell and is shiny from lots of rubbing. It also pours very fast. I use it for Gaoshan Tea. Normally i wouldn't choose this shape for Gaoshan, but Gaoshan just seems to sing in this one.

good ,if it's real

[ajiaojiao]

*This is a most dangerous thread...and it will seriously test my will to resist temptations*

Even though we all want to see the "best" pots we have to offer, it's also important to show what mistakes we've made so we can come to terms with the fact that we all have to pay tuition of some kind...



These are just a few of the crappy slip-cast pots I picked up in China...at the price of about $7 USD each. I obviously overpaid. These represent some of the worst pots I have ever seen.
It's not the yixing zisha teapot

Clay: Duan Ni of some kind? "rings" a creepy and off-putting metallic sound
Size: Approx 300 ml
Age/Year: Modern-modern
Walls: Medium
Pour: decent, but the lid fit is terrible and when I put my finger over the water spout it doesn't do anything! Some of these don't even have water spouts!
Source: Shanghai, China
Tea Pairing: None at the moment. I had bought eight of these thinking I could have all my bases covered...but once I got my hands on some quality pots (once I was back in the states, ironically), these were never used again. I keep them as only a warning to myself and to others: never rush too fast. For the amount I paid for these pots I could've gotten a decent older pot.

PS: I'll be in the city from 2/3-2/7. When do you all usually meet? Some night during the week would be great, but Friday night would be great as well. I'm planning to troll through all of Thursday and Friday (while the friends I'm crashing with are at work) in Chinatown for tea ware...mostly new/"antique" porcelain, but I would love to find a yixing like yours!

it's not the yixing zishateapot

[auhckw]

Just got these 3 this week, modern Zhuni teapot made in this year. Clay was from 90s. The seller claimed that the clay is pure zhuni and not mixed.

According to the seller (if I interpret her mandarin properly), this is semi hand made from a factory which produces mass teapots. The design is custom made for them and clay is selected by one of their contacts who is well known for making pots. She told me the name of the person, but I couldn't remember the name.

These 3 pots are marked with the shops signature and the year it is made on the outer bottom. The person (unknown person) who did the pot has a signature below the cap. All the pots are made by 3 diff person.

Outer Bottom Signature


Tacha Zhuni Teapot – Chuo Qiu Hu
Dedicated for Ripe Pu-erh
Size: 140ml


Tacha Zhuni Teapot – Chuo Zhi Hu
Dedicated for Young Raw Pu-erh (1 to 10 years)
Size: 120ml


Tacha Zhuni Teapot – Shui Ping Hu
Dedicated for Aged Raw Pu-erh (Above 10 years)
Size: 160ml


All 3 passed the:-
1) Tilt 90 degrees and cap won't fall off
2) While pouring, cover the hole on the cap and the water would stopped instantly
3) While holding the hole on the spout, turn the pot upside down and the cap would not fall off
4) Pouring the water out in less than 10 seconds (without leaves)

[tingjunkie]

Here are some shots of another repaired pot with more realistic color.





Clay: Excellent quality Zisha. Medium fired.
Size: 130 ml
Age/Year: 1980's.
Walls: Thin
Pour: +/- 8 sec. No drips. Good lid fit.
Source: Generously donated to my Yixing hospital by TIM of the Mandarin's Tearoom
Tea Pairing: If you can read Chinese, you already know! "Tie Guan Yin" is engraved on the side
Info: This pot has changed my idea of what purple clay is capable of. Perhaps because I was mostly familiar with modern zi ni, I thought purple clay would always mute a tea's high notes unless it was very high fired. Not so! This pot completely rocks Anxi TGY, highlighting the floral, fruit, and perfume notes, as well as rounding the mouthfeel, and prolonging the sweet finish. Why don't more potters tell you what tea is best with each pot and write it on the side!?!

[tingjunkie]

Clay: Hong Ni. Med-high fired.
Size: 180 ml
Age/Year: Early 90's.
Walls: Thin
Pour: +/- 5 sec. No drips. Good lid fit.
Source: Tea Gallery
Tea Pairing: So far, I've only tested it with light Anxi Oolong, but it did great with that!
Info: This interesting pot was unearthed recently when the Tea Gallery joined forces with the Mandarin's Tearoom. While digging through old stock churned up from the move, I found this guy mixed in with many large (300ml +) pots. Even though it was produced in the early 1990's, the pot was intentionally made to look old. There is a very obvious seam running down the inside of the body, there is that beautiful old school curved spout, a pen engraving on the bottom instead of a chop, and patina was artificially added by pouring tea over the pot (luckily no shoe polish or soy sauce here). I wish I had taken a pic before I cleaned the heck out of it! It looks totally different now! In addition, the color of this Hong Ni is more orange compared to several other Hong Ni pots I own. I'm not sure this is intentional, but from my understanding, Hong Ni was more orange pre-1960's than it is now. All I know is that, reproduction or not, this pot is sexy, and the clay is capable of maintaining the higher notes and perfumed finish in a light Anxi oolong. This leads me to believe it will be an excellent "switch hitter" -being used for several tea types when I have enough company for a 180ml pot to come in handy. Buried treasure indeed!

[entropyembrace]

Here are some shots of another repaired pot with more realistic color.

Clay: Excellent quality Zisha. Medium fired.
Size: 130 ml
Age/Year: 1980's.
Walls: Thin
Pour: +/- 8 sec. No drips. Good lid fit.
Source: Generously donated to my Yixing hospital by TIM of the Mandarin's Tearoom
Tea Pairing: If you can read Chinese, you already know! "Tie Guan Yin" is engraved on the side
Info: This pot has changed my idea of what purple clay is capable of. Perhaps because I was mostly familiar with modern zi ni, I thought purple clay would always mute a tea's high notes unless it was very high fired. Not so! This pot completely rocks Anxi TGY, highlighting the floral, fruit, and perfume notes, as well as rounding the mouthfeel, and prolonging the sweet finish. Why don't more potters tell you what tea is best with each pot and write it on the side!?!

Haha! That would be great if more pots had such clear tea pairings!

[TokyoB]

Clay: Hong Ni. Med-high fired.
Size: 180 ml
Age/Year: Early 90's.
Walls: Thin
Pour: +/- 5 sec. No drips. Good lid fit.
Source: Tea Gallery
Tea Pairing: So far, I've only tested it with light Anxi Oolong, but it did great with that!
Info: This interesting pot was unearthed recently when the Tea Gallery joined forces with the Mandarin's Tearoom. While digging through old stock churned up from the move, I found this guy mixed in with many large (300ml +) pots. Even though it was produced in the early 1990's, the pot was intentionally made to look old. There is a very obvious seam running down the inside of the body, there is that beautiful old school curved spout, a pen engraving on the bottom instead of a chop, and patina was artificially added by pouring tea over the pot (luckily no shoe polish or soy sauce here). I wish I had taken a pic before I cleaned the heck out of it! It looks totally different now! In addition, the color of this Hong Ni is more orange compared to several other Hong Ni pots I own. I'm not sure this is intentional, but from my understanding, Hong Ni was more orange pre-1960's than it is now. All I know is that, reproduction or not, this pot is sexy, and the clay is capable of maintaining the higher notes and perfumed finish in a light Anxi oolong. This leads me to believe it will be an excellent "switch hitter" -being used for several tea types when I have enough company for a 180ml pot to come in handy. Buried treasure indeed!

How did you clean the pot? I recently cleaned a pot by first rubbing it with a water and baking soda paste. After rinsing I left it in a 10% - 15% bleach solution for 20 or 30 mins. (I was going to try 20% but started with something that was probably closer to half of that.) The bleach really removed all traces of black that were inside the pot. The pot wasn't really that dirty to start with though. It was more of a test for more valuable pots that I don't want to mess up! I also put a newer pot in the bleach solution. It had acquired a bit of an odor. The bleach removed that as well. Interestingly this newer pot then retained the bleach smell until boiled in water a few times over a few days. However the older pot had no bleach odor at all after the first rinsing. The newer pot is probably medium fired.

[tingjunkie]

How did you clean the pot?

It was really mostly the outside that needed cleaning. I scrubbed with clean toothbrush under hot running water as best I could, then boiled in clean water for an hour. Scrubbed with a brush again, boiled for another 1/2 hour in new water. Finally I used a Mr Clean Magic Eraser for the stubborn spots, and boiled for another 10 minutes. It worked like a charm actually! I would only use those on the outside though, as I have no idea what chemicals are in them.

[BarbJ]

Mr.Clean Magic Eraser is Melamine foam. As far as I know, it doesn't absorb into things, and rinses off well. It works like an extremely fine sandpaper.

Btw, you can find the same item in dollar stores for half the price of the Mr.Clean brand. As the sponges wear away to nothing as they're used, buying them for less is a good thing. They are also great at getting off fingerprints and other marks on painted walls.

Nice job, nice pot!

[Fireflower]

here my first yixing!
i love it very much!

[auhckw]

Just got this Zini

Tacha Zini Teapot – Chuo Qiu Hu
Dedicated for Young Ripe Pu-erh
Size: 120ml





Info from the seller:-
-This is new production using 90s clay which is from Factory No. 1.
-It was made by one of the studio in Factory No. 1.
-This pot is Tiao Sha. Mixed of the same kind of clay from different batch (if i interpreted correctly) but is still considered pure.

This pot passed the:-
1) Tilt 90 degrees and cap won't fall off
2) While pouring, cover the hole on the cap and the water would stopped instantly
3) While holding the hole on the spout, turn the pot upside down and the cap would not fall off
4) Pouring the water out in less than 10 seconds (without leaves)



There seems to be some different coloured dots on the Zini, according to them, it is mixture of other pure zini, so should be considered pure... is this normal or pure?

[Tead Off]

Nice looking teapot. Isn't zi ni mixed clay rather than a specific clay like zisha or zhuni? Pure zi ni? It would depend on how pure each of the different clays that comprise it are. You will never know so just enjoy it.

[ycleong]

Just got this Zini

Tacha Zini Teapot – Chuo Qiu Hu
Dedicated for Young Ripe Pu-erh
Size: 120ml





Info from the seller:-
-This is new production using 90s clay which is from Factory No. 1.
-It was made by one of the studio in Factory No. 1.
-This pot is Tiao Sha. Mixed of the same kind of clay from different batch (if i interpreted correctly) but is still considered pure.

This pot passed the:-
1) Tilt 90 degrees and cap won't fall off
2) While pouring, cover the hole on the cap and the water would stopped instantly
3) While holding the hole on the spout, turn the pot upside down and the cap would not fall off
4) Pouring the water out in less than 10 seconds (without leaves)



There seems to be some different coloured dots on the Zini, according to them, it is mixture of other pure zini, so should be considered pure... is this normal or pure?

May I know what does the stamp indicate? My Mandarin is pathetic.
It's not unusual to find little dots of different colours in Zini teapots. Dark or black dots are due to manganese while yellow specks are basically 'golden sands'.