Yixing

[Bok]

@Youzi of course that’s ideal, but not realistic for the majority of people, probably even in China itself. Things are sketchy enough as they are, difficult to be sure things are from the same person, unless it’s a famous one.

In the end there’s no way of getting around spending a lot of time and tuition fees if one really wants to learn about it. No shortcuts except having more experienced friends who can guide and show things in person.

[Youzi]

Youzi of course that’s ideal, but not realistic for the majority of people, probably even in China itself. Things are sketchy enough as they are, difficult to be sure things are from the same person, unless it’s a famous one.

In the end there’s no way of getting around spending a lot of time and tuition fees if one really wants to learn about it. No shortcuts except having more experienced friends who can guide and show things in person.

Sorry, I didn't necessarily meant the same potter, but the same studio. like Chanting Pines and EoT worked with the same studio of Zhou Qi Kun, "Wu Xing Shan Fang". If you find a good and honest Studio, who makes great pots, that can be Cultivated in a short time, then one should treasure it. As you said, there's many bad agents in the field.

[DailyTX]

Hi All,
I own some F1 hongni pots, some modern zhuni pots, I wonder if anyone can share their knowledge on identifying good clay quality of hongni or zhuni pots. This maybe a super complex question due to clay process methods vary from different period. So the question is what do you look for in a hongni/zhuni pot?

Something that I look for in every Yixing teapot, and which seems to be a major indicator if the pot is good or not, or if its a real yixing, or not, is the ability to cultivate the teapot aka, natural patina development, smoothening of the outer surface, natural darkening of the clay.

And tricks don't count here, such as:

• cooking the pot in a tea soup

• painting the pot with concentrated tea paste

• showering the outer layer of the pot, with tea

• Rubbing the surface of the pot with polishing clothes, etc.

@Youzi
I guess only time will tell...I am looking for a pot to pair Shui Xian tea (I guess it falls under the Yancha category). I own those 4 pots, I have no idea what the origin of zhuni/hongni besides the Si Ting, which seller said it's from Zhao Zhuang (赵庄). 3 of the 4 pots were purchased from reputable sellers that this forum and Old teachat members recommended. One was purchased in-person in China last year. What do you think?

[Youzi]

Hi All,
I own some F1 hongni pots, some modern zhuni pots, I wonder if anyone can share their knowledge on identifying good clay quality of hongni or zhuni pots. This maybe a super complex question due to clay process methods vary from different period. So the question is what do you look for in a hongni/zhuni pot?

Something that I look for in every Yixing teapot, and which seems to be a major indicator if the pot is good or not, or if its a real yixing, or not, is the ability to cultivate the teapot aka, natural patina development, smoothening of the outer surface, natural darkening of the clay.

And tricks don't count here, such as:

• cooking the pot in a tea soup

• painting the pot with concentrated tea paste

• showering the outer layer of the pot, with tea

• Rubbing the surface of the pot with polishing clothes, etc.

Youzi
I guess only time will tell...I am looking for a pot to pair Shui Xian tea (I guess it falls under the Yancha category). I own those 4 pots, I have no idea what the origin of zhuni/hongni besides the Si Ting, which seller said it's from Zhao Zhuang (赵庄). 3 of the 4 pots were purchased from reputable sellers that this forum and Old teachat members recommended. One was purchased in-person in China last year. What do you think?

Since you have the pots, it's quite easy, just try shuixian with all and see which one gives you the best result.
After all, "It's the Teapot Chooses the Tea"

Regarding the pots, it's difficult to say, I haven't handled enough Zhuni enough to tell from just pictures. but just looking at those maybe the front and the back one looks the best. The Siting somehow looks off. Could you show more, closer pictures of the body, spout, handle, knob?

[Chadrinkincat]

Speaking of hongni and yancha, anyone have experience using super thin pots like these? I’ve been pondering the idea of getting something similar for yancha. Also any vendor recommendation for one?

[Youzi]

Speaking of hongni and yancha, anyone have experience using super thin pots like these? I’ve been pondering the idea of getting something similar for yancha. Also any vendor recommendation for one?

You've just linked one of the best Yancha vendors
The other one would be Lazy Cat.

[Chadrinkincat]

@Youzi

I haven’t tried any of their teas but I might have to give them a try. Are you familiar w/ their baotai yixing?

Lazycat definitely has good tea. I’m kinda bummed they sold outta space cat rougui before I could buy a second can.

[Youzi]

Youzi

I haven’t tried any of their teas but I might have to give them a try. Are you familiar w/ their baotai yixing?

Lazycat definitely has good tea. I’m kinda bummed they sold outta space cat rougui before I could buy a second can.

he has a website: https://txs-tea.com

I'm not familiar with his yixing. I try to focus on Certain Studios Directly, as that's the only real way to get consistent results with Contemporary Yixing.

[DailyTX]

Something that I look for in every Yixing teapot, and which seems to be a major indicator if the pot is good or not, or if its a real yixing, or not, is the ability to cultivate the teapot aka, natural patina development, smoothening of the outer surface, natural darkening of the clay.

And tricks don't count here, such as:

• cooking the pot in a tea soup

• painting the pot with concentrated tea paste

• showering the outer layer of the pot, with tea

• Rubbing the surface of the pot with polishing clothes, etc.

Youzi
I guess only time will tell...I am looking for a pot to pair Shui Xian tea (I guess it falls under the Yancha category). I own those 4 pots, I have no idea what the origin of zhuni/hongni besides the Si Ting, which seller said it's from Zhao Zhuang (赵庄). 3 of the 4 pots were purchased from reputable sellers that this forum and Old teachat members recommended. One was purchased in-person in China last year. What do you think?

Since you have the pots, it's quite easy, just try shuixian with all and see which one gives you the best result.
After all, "It's the Teapot Chooses the Tea"

Regarding the pots, it's difficult to say, I haven't handled enough Zhuni enough to tell from just pictures. but just looking at those maybe the front and the back one looks the best. The Siting somehow looks off. Could you show more, closer pictures of the body, spout, handle, knob?

Here are a few more photos of the Si Ting. The photos without flash look more shiny, may be lighting issue. I took one with flash, and the texture looks more like it.

[Youzi]

@DailyTX
That Si Ting looks really strange to me. The surface seems odd.. That's not how it should look like. During My research I read about "Toilet Paper" Zhuni, where they wrap the body of the pot with toilet paper to give it a shrink line texture. A common give away of this technique is that the surface of the handle and the spout is different from that of the body (they forgot to apply TP there)

The mesh size is definitely quite large (mesh number is small) Zhuni easily disintegrates into dust, so it's more difficult to make a coarse pot, usually it has to be mixed with other Zisha.

A technique I heard that is used to distinguish real zhuni from fake, is to add boiling water into the pot, and the pot should change to a darker, different color.

[Mark-S]

@Youzi
I thought that these "toilet paper pots" would look more like this?

(https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264641510527)

or maybe this:

(https://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=15168)

[Youzi]

Youzi
I thought that these "toilet paper pots" would look more like this?

(https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264641510527)

or maybe this:

(https://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=15168)

True, those are more obvious and intentional to fake the shrink lines.
In the picture before it look more like the surface texture is not natural. I see similar vertical lines, and even horizontals, but I'm not sure, because to pictures are not focused on these.

[.m.]

DailyTX
That Si Ting looks really strange to me. The surface seems odd.. That's not how it should look like. During My research I read about "Toilet Paper" Zhuni, where they wrap the body of the pot with toilet paper to give it a shrink line texture. A common give away of this technique is that the surface of the handle and the spout is different from that of the body (they forgot to apply TP there)

The mesh size is definitely quite large (mesh number is small) Zhuni easily disintegrates into dust, so it's more difficult to make a coarse pot, usually it has to be mixed with other Zisha.

A technique I heard that is used to distinguish real zhuni from fake, is to add boiling water into the pot, and the pot should change to a darker, different color.

It looks to me that the clay on the SiTing is mixed with little broken bits of shards. It's a common pottery technique. It saves on clay, and perhaps add some structural stability too (the added material doesn't shrink). And if they are zhuni, it is still zhuni pot, i guess.

[DailyTX]

DailyTX
That Si Ting looks really strange to me. The surface seems odd.. That's not how it should look like. During My research I read about "Toilet Paper" Zhuni, where they wrap the body of the pot with toilet paper to give it a shrink line texture. A common give away of this technique is that the surface of the handle and the spout is different from that of the body (they forgot to apply TP there)

The mesh size is definitely quite large (mesh number is small) Zhuni easily disintegrates into dust, so it's more difficult to make a coarse pot, usually it has to be mixed with other Zisha.

A technique I heard that is used to distinguish real zhuni from fake, is to add boiling water into the pot, and the pot should change to a darker, different color.

@Youzi
The handle and sprout have the same texture, it looks like the same clay from the body. The color tone compared with the three other pot, it has more of a reddish purple tone while other three pots have orange-red color tone. It’s one interesting pot for learning experience

[Chris]

@DailyTX Is the pot on the left in your first pic from Chawang Shop? I think you may have mentioned it when I posted another one of their zhuni pots a few months ago.

I've been more curious about the clay recently. For the price, I assumed it can't really be zhuni (much less lao zhuni), but it does seem different than any of my hongni pots. I really like using it with aged sheng.