About Yixing clay and the current situation

by **chrl42** » Mar 4th, '11, 07:35

What you should be aware might not be kilns but clays. Since ROC, chemical ingredients have been added. Mostly they are added less than 0.5 percent of total clay. One of reasons is these imported oxidized powders were high priced (chrome and cobalt).

Safety issues regarding Yixing clays are still on the go, but if you watch around...so many stuffs in the kitchen also contain.

by **bagua7** » Mar 5th, '11, 06:45

Yes, chrl42, consumerism is a big issue here. I am not going to play a lottery game with that 0.5%.

by **chrl42** » Mar 5th, '11, 20:16

consumerism

bagua7 wrote:Yes, chrl42, consumerism corrupts the spirit, it becomes greedy and then problems start to arise. I am not going to play a lottery game with that 0.5%.

Do you think Shouzen pots are totally clean?

Consumerism breaks the market but consumerism also makes it alive. Note Yixing teapot only became 'art' after heavy followers of HK and Taiwan approved it. Before Gu Jingzhou, Yixing teapot wasn't treated as 'national treasure' (even though they sent some tributary), and Gu Jingzhou was a man who saw the CR at his prime.

I'm not closed with Shouzhen pots, but I see them that represent one of present Yixing teapottery and all I can say is, once you get into Yixings, it's time and money we lack..not safety issue! c'mon it's fired at 1200c, what are you worried at?

by **ChinesePottery** » Mar 7th, '11, 05:18

The other day I wrote that I'd post some impressions of Yixing clays, so here we go.

We visited a local (and official) clay factory.
Its name is 亨利陶瓷厂(Hēnglì táocí chǎng) and they are a supplier XuJianQing uses(not exclusively though).

the sign translates to 'high quality zisha clay'

the sign reads 'ready product storage'

and inside their storage & sales area it looks like this:

by **brandon** » Mar 7th, '11, 11:28

Mr. Potter,
Thanks for all the detailed treasure hunting.
But we can't access most of your image links at the bottom.

by **ChinesePottery** » Mar 7th, '11, 19:28

brandon wrote:Mr. Potter,
Thanks for all the detailed treasure hunting.
But we can't access most of your image links at the bottom.

Apologies. Thanks for the hint. I edited the post and it should be ok now.
I forgot that wordpress renames the files to a all lowercase name.

cheers
Nico

by **TIM** » Mar 7th, '11, 21:41

ChinesePottery wrote:
brandon wrote:Mr. Potter,
Thanks for all the detailed treasure hunting.
But we can't access most of your image links at the bottom.
Apologies. Thanks for the hint. I edited the post and it should be ok now.
I forgot that wordpress renames the files to a all lowercase name.

cheers
Nico

Excellent Work Potter! Thanks again for spending time and energy for us all! Any luck to look into Qing Long Mt. Clay? It's just right next to Huang Long Mt.? ~ Cheers T

by **ChinesePottery** » Mar 15th, '11, 04:26

The other day I wrote that I'd post some more pictures of the unprocessed clay in the yard of Hēnglì táocí chǎng as well as their processing equipment, so here we go.

This is what (part of) their yard looks like.

This raw clay material gets fed from above into those 2 machines which will grind it into the desired grain-size.

The resulting grain-size is controlled by a sieve which determines what is being let out of the machine and what still has to stay in until it's small enough. Those sieves are changeable and have different mesh sizes. Here is what one of them looks like up close:

When the clay comes out it is a powder looking like this:

some mixing and mainly adding of water:

and then is being pressed into sell-able bars whilst some water is being added still:

Most of the machinery in those pictures wasn't used that particular day (or even week, guessing based on the dust layer) the last machine which presses out the ready pieces was being operated whilst we where there and we had a chance to get all the information above from the workers on site.

So here is what the clay that came out fresh that day looked like:

That was it so far about how Yixing clays are being produced mainly these days, if it is done by one of the bigger official suppliers that is, but if you remember the pictures of Huanglongshan I posted a while back, I showed freshly dug holes where people have been sourcing clay... well, that's gotta go somewhere too, right? So next time I might give you some impressions and maybe some insights how it's done the less official way.

by **chamomileteaguy** » Mar 15th, '11, 10:25

awesome post, really interesting! Love the gorgeous deep red colour of the finished product.

by **brandon** » Mar 15th, '11, 10:32

Can you teach us about the next step in the process?

What clays are preferred to be fired to what temperatures?

What clay and temperature combinations result in more or less porous bodies?

What might be the difference between person (or animal?) power crushed minerals to machine crushed mineral selected for larger particle size? Do they really "not make it like they used to?"

Thanks again.

by **tortoise** » Mar 15th, '11, 12:01

Wow. Super informative. I wonder how many pots can be made from one refined clay brick?

by **bagua7** » Mar 15th, '11, 18:56

And where do all those pots end up, because I can't see any on eBay.

by **ChinesePottery** » Mar 15th, '11, 20:51

bagua7 wrote:And where do all those pots end up, because I can't see any on eBay.

I'm a bit biased for that Question (I hope that doesn't usually show in my posts)
but if you are looking for where some of that clay went, head over to Teaware Artisans and check the thread "ChinesePottery - Yixing tea pots by XuJianQing" and follow the links there or underneath my avatar.

brandon wrote:Can you teach us about the next step in the process?
What clays are preferred to be fired to what temperatures?
What clay and temperature combinations result in more or less porous bodies?
What might be the difference between person (or animal?) power crushed minerals to machine crushed mineral selected for larger particle size? Do they really "not make it like they used to?"

For some of those questions I might have partial answers, but even the little information I can offer will take a while I'm afraid. I will have a little clay and pottery break and write something about tea next week. For Sunday (20th of March) I made an appointment with Chái Lín Jūn who happens to be a local tea producer.
I will see if I can make some pictures all the way from the plucking to the ready made YangXianXueYa. Watch out for a new topic somewhere in green tea.

by **ChinesePottery** » Mar 25th, '11, 09:48

Huang Long Shan is getting fenced in,

the other day on the way back from town I came past huang long shan again and the building works there made progress since last time. Seems they where not only building a new entrance path, but also started to erect a big wall around it. I took a quick snapshot.

: HLS-wall.jpg (51.82 KiB) Viewed 5052 times

My post about the harvest and production of YangXianXueYa has to wait a few days longer still, it's just not ready yet to be plucked on that field...

by **brandon** » Mar 25th, '11, 10:56

ChinesePottery wrote:Huang Long Shan is getting fenced in,

the other day on the way back from town I came past huang long shan again and the building works there made progress since last time. Seems they where not only building a new entrance path, but also started to erect a big wall around it. I took a quick snapshot.

My post about the harvest and production of YangXianXueYa has to wait a few days longer still, it's just not ready yet to be plucked on that field...

Why?

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About Yixing clay and the current situation

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Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation

Re: About Yixing clay and the current situation