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Jul 6th, '08, 03:33
Posts: 1885
Joined: Mar 22nd, '08, 22:26
Location: Yixing

by chrl42 » Jul 6th, '08, 03:33

Solodays wrote:
chrl42 wrote:
If I had a thousand, no I won't buy their pots. But I will rather focus on spending on pots made of rare clays. Because to me a clay is more important than design of the pot, like this-wise everyone's asthetic or point of money-spending is different.


Peace.
with prices like that their clay should be as rare as you demand them to be, how do you know their clay is not rare?

again, wuold tea brewed in those pots have a more satisfactory outcome compare to cheaper ones?
Solodays, consider this.
A famed painter needs only brush and dyes. But no one discuss the price of their stuff. Yixing teapot is the most flourishing genre of art nowadays in China.

And yixing masters do not use so-called 'rarest clay' often,
First, they know their pots will not be used to brewing
Second, they use Qin Shui ni or Zi ni often because they are much more easy to be crafted as they want. Imagine a sculptor engrave when the clay is too harden to do so.

And like I said before, they are not best for brewing.
Their pots usually come in bigger size because bigger sized pots look better on the stands.

Well, did I say too firmly? should have elaborated a little..

Peace.

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Jul 6th, '08, 03:53
Posts: 517
Joined: Jan 30th, '08, 09:15

by betta » Jul 6th, '08, 03:53

Solodays wrote:
with prices like that their clay should be as rare as you demand them to be, how do you know their clay is not rare?

again, wuold tea brewed in those pots have a more satisfactory outcome compare to cheaper ones?
Some masters bet on their reputation to guarantee the clay rarity (for example, the clay age). But as Chrl42 wrote, not only they won't use clays that difficult to work with (such as zhuni), they also tend to fire the pots at a lower temperature (well, at least at the lower margin of the temperature span) to avoid large geometric change in the kiln.

It doesn't necessarily give a better brew than 10$ pot.
For tea lovers, pot functionality is the most important but for pot collectors (who don't necessarily also tea lovers), pot geometry and craftmanship is the most important.
It all comes back to our initial motivation; to enjoy tea or to collect a piece of art work? or both?
Somehow you should balance it by brewing tea in a vessel you like the most. For me who is high mountain oolong lovers, the zhuni, which I like the most, is fortunately match.

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