Cheap "Yixing" Pots: For Tea or Flowers?

[AaronF]

Hello,
I look to your expertise yet again, TeaChat.
I just bought two very inexpensive clay tea pots from an independent retailer, whose employees didn't know much about them. I paid $22 combined for the two. Did I buy two cheap functional clay teapots or did I buy two expensive and whimsical flower pots? I can post more/different pics if need be.

The small one looks nicer to me upon closer inspection. It has a stamp (poorly applied and probably not legible), as opposed to the larger. The larger also appears to have some coating on the outside to make it look better. That makes me highly suspicious. The smaller does not have this.
Both have three hole strainers.

I'd love any info you can give me about their usability, style, etc. If you don't think they're worth using, I'd love a tip or two for places to purchase inexpensive but functional yixing to start with.

The pair:




The stamp on the little 'un



This shows the poorly applied stuff on the surface of the larger (around the rim).



Thank you!

[MarshalN]

Oh wait, just noticed - the air hole is not in the middle of the tip? That's seriously weird. Can we have white-balanced pictures? The hue of the clay might be useful here.

[AaronF]

Yeah, the airhole is in a weird place on the big one.

[MarshalN]

Ok, looks like these are made with non-Yixing clay and then dipped (exterior) in some makeup clay/slip/stuff that looks like red yixing clay.

I have a few pots made with clays like these but without the makeup - if I unpack them, I'll take a pic

[AaronF]

Thanks Marshal.
I don't think the little one is dipped, or at least if it is, it's much better done than the big one. It feels like clay on the outside, while the big one does not. If they are dipped and use some other clay, are they still functional as teapots? And if so, will they still gain positive qualities with time and lots of use?

[MarshalN]

The little one does look a little better, the big one is probably crap. I wouldn't invest too much love in them.... I have no idea what kind of clay they might be.

[tingjunkie]

Here's a different approach to answering this question...

Yesterday I found a useable 150ml shui ping made from pretty decent zini clay for $15. The clay was well fired, the pot was in fairly good proportion, and after some cleaning, it would have been very much useable. I decided to pass on it because it had some very visible seams running down the body in front by the spout, and in back by the handle. I do like pots with "character" and I don't demand perfection, HOWEVER, if I'm going to spend my time and good tea to nurture, brush, rub, and raise a teapot over the next X years, I'd better darn well like the pot. If I think a pot is ugly, or "flawed" in a way I don't find charming, then why bother developing a good intimate relationship with it? Maybe it would be worth the $15 just to find out if the pot absolutely kicks butt with a certain type of tea, but... meh. Even if so, I could save up my pennies, have some patience, and find better. This is a Yixing lesson it's taken me quite a while to finally learn. It's hard for us westerners to pass up super cheap pots which could maybe possibly have potential, but if the pot doesn't really speak to you, then pass it up.

I can't tell you how to feel about those two pots, but I can tell you I sure wouldn't bother investing my time and tea in them. If they do it for you, then by all means, go for it!

[AaronF]

Great answer, tingjunkie!
I really like the little one. It has a little chip on the tip that I actually find charming for some reason. Furthermore, the day I bought the pots was really lovely, and I'd like to use at least one of the pots as a reminder of it.
However, if it really won't work like a yixing, I'll certainly use it much less, and I won't care as much about what I put into it, so I guess that's what I'd like to know. Can you (or anyone) tell from the pics if it is something that will actually hold onto lovely tea oils and be useful like a yixing should be long-term?


I do not at all like the paint or dip on the big one, and you've convinced me to plant something in it! Perhaps the first seeds I get from the asparagus fern I just bought at the farmer's market.

(oh, and they are both shui ping shape, right? They line up when I have them upside-down...)