Yixing
@Simniak
This pot is quite shiny. It's only acceptable for Zhuni to have this amount, kind of shiny, and that's only after long patina development.
Zini or any other yixing doesn't have this kind of shine. Seems like more coarse particles were used, as said before, could be made of previously fired clay. I don't think you should buy it, for that money, you can get much better modern yixing.
This pot is quite shiny. It's only acceptable for Zhuni to have this amount, kind of shiny, and that's only after long patina development.
Zini or any other yixing doesn't have this kind of shine. Seems like more coarse particles were used, as said before, could be made of previously fired clay. I don't think you should buy it, for that money, you can get much better modern yixing.
Most pots I find soulless, until they are seasoned and developed a nice patina.
Exceptions are pots made by artists, but that's to be expected.
If it is superglue then acetone (or acetone based paint thinner) will work great. Since it is on the outside you don't need to worry about it too much, it's not gonna penetrate deep into the clay. Nail polish tend to contain some acetone, but not much, and will be less effective, and full of other things as perfumes.
However the first thing to try is to submerge the teapot to boiling hot water: lot of times the glue is not bonded well and will just peel off. Plus some glues soften up in hot water.
Some other possibilities:
- yinchenteapot.com have some nice looking pots (never ordered from them but other have).
- Essence of Tea has just posted some new pots, but pricewise it's over $200.
- 2088taiwan.com has some Factory 1 pots.
- Teamountain in Prague had a couple of decent looking pots on their shelves in the past.
IMO, you're better off with GlobalTeaHut: they source their pots from the same studio, but directly, while Chanting Pines deals through a middle men, i think. And their grading of clay is just weird.