@Victoria, hopefully this photo shows the pot that I had posted on the wulong page a little bit better than that photo. Like I said, I have no experience with very dark zini clay, so I'd be grateful to learn from what anyone else here can teach me.
@Bok, I'd be grateful if you might feel like posting a photo of your reduction-fired puer pot next to your non-reduction-fired wulong pot one day for a colour comparison, and likewise if you and the others around here might teach me on how to distinguish the two. As always, any comments on my pot are welcome with many thanks.
@wave_code, I think you posted a photo of a dark grey or blue pot a little while ago here. I'm not sure if yours is reduction-fired, naturally-dark, or coloured, but perhaps the others can assist you.
I had just assumed that this cute little pot would like puer, but as I've said elsewhere, it has performed best with high mountain tea (and it did quite badly with my old wet-stored puer, actually), so that's what I'll feed it.
Sometimes yixing pots feel like pet dogs; they're fun to play with, but they've got a mind of their own.
Andrew
Yixing
@Andrew S it’s rather easy: reduction fired Yixing is either grey or greenish(olive green), depending on the base clay. Reduction fired Zhuni looks dark blue-grey.
With prolonged use these might look black or dark green.
Anything brown is not reduction fired as far as Yixing goes. At least not to my knowledge.
With prolonged use these might look black or dark green.
Anything brown is not reduction fired as far as Yixing goes. At least not to my knowledge.
@Andrew S beautiful pot. Is it late Qing / early ROC ? Really nice.
Below all reduction fired.
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Don’t get the question, tell apart from what? Any clay has its characteristics, that’s how I tell them apart.
@Bok, sorry, I meant that the wulong pot that you posted a little while ago looked dark grey / blue to me, similarly to how these pots look dark gery / blue, but I thought that the former was not reduction-fired, whereas these ones all are.
Perhaps a more accurate way of asking is, how to tell old qing hui ni apart from old or modern reduction-fired clays.
Apologies for any confusion.
Andrew
Perhaps a more accurate way of asking is, how to tell old qing hui ni apart from old or modern reduction-fired clays.
Apologies for any confusion.
Andrew
Gotcha.
Well, the grey is a different hue and the grain is not the same either. It's more obvious in real life as the grain and hue is not so easy to discern on pictures.
This pot really is gorgeous - probably my favorite one you've posted from your collection here. I really love the shape/proportions and combined with the reduction firing. Plus it goes so perfectly with that dish. Did they actually come as a pair, or just happened to be a perfect match?
I think its no coincidence I've recently been really fixated by some pots from Gafu, who has done I think a really nice job of taking inspiration from pots of this era without outright trying to just outright copy them.
@wave_code thanks!
Coincidence. The pot is an antique, while the tea boat is a contemporary creation by a Taiwanese potter.
Gafu has some interesting stuff, some are really outright copies though - if you dig into the old books, I’ve found quite a few almost 1:1 examples. He also takes inspiration by early Yamada Jozan (I and II). He seems to collect them as well, if you follow his IG, you see him frequently post antique Japanese pottery of his collection.
But - I’ve heard from friends that the clays are often less than ideal to brew other teas than Japanese ones.
Coincidence. The pot is an antique, while the tea boat is a contemporary creation by a Taiwanese potter.
Gafu has some interesting stuff, some are really outright copies though - if you dig into the old books, I’ve found quite a few almost 1:1 examples. He also takes inspiration by early Yamada Jozan (I and II). He seems to collect them as well, if you follow his IG, you see him frequently post antique Japanese pottery of his collection.
But - I’ve heard from friends that the clays are often less than ideal to brew other teas than Japanese ones.
I've been becoming really interested in those Jozan and similar Japanese pots where the shapes/styles are copied/drawn from Chinese designs. It is my understanding that around that time artists from China were coming to Japan and were teaching these styles? Not sure if this is something better suited for here or the Japanese discussion area since it really goes back and forth. I'm curious outside of just shape how these pots compare with Yixing pots in terms of firing, porosity, etc, but obviously made with local clays instead which can make a big difference.
I was actually going to ask on here about Gafu's clay since he seems to make it himself and what folks thought of it. Despite the inspiration for his shapes If its really best for sencha maybe thats good news for my wallet since that really isn't my thing. Maybe its more to do with the composition of his clay than anything else, and It is always hard to tell just from photos but the pots do look very dense like one would expect from a more typical Tokoname pot.
I was actually going to ask on here about Gafu's clay since he seems to make it himself and what folks thought of it. Despite the inspiration for his shapes If its really best for sencha maybe thats good news for my wallet since that really isn't my thing. Maybe its more to do with the composition of his clay than anything else, and It is always hard to tell just from photos but the pots do look very dense like one would expect from a more typical Tokoname pot.
@wave_code something like that, but I think the exact history is a bit sketchy, not sure how much is myth and what is fact.
I’ve got a few friends who collected some of these Chinese style Japanese ware, yet mostly not good for tea, due to often underfired clay and also the clays properties in itself. They are also often rather crude and the craftsmanship is not very refined yet.
If anything I’d blame Gafu Ito for the opposite, his stuff is a bit too perfect...
In my limited experience with older Japanese teaware in Chinese style, tokoname Shudei from back then is not bad, similar to Hongni or Chaozhou clay in performance. Provided it’s high fired. Bizen seems more on the terrible side...
I’ve got a few friends who collected some of these Chinese style Japanese ware, yet mostly not good for tea, due to often underfired clay and also the clays properties in itself. They are also often rather crude and the craftsmanship is not very refined yet.
If anything I’d blame Gafu Ito for the opposite, his stuff is a bit too perfect...
In my limited experience with older Japanese teaware in Chinese style, tokoname Shudei from back then is not bad, similar to Hongni or Chaozhou clay in performance. Provided it’s high fired. Bizen seems more on the terrible side...
Thanks for the info! Yeah, while I really love some of the shapes of Gafu's pots and I especially seem to really like pots with big flat disk lids, they are certainly a little *too* clean when a big part of the vintage pots charm comes from it being a rough around the edges in just the right way. Sort of like one is the analog warmth and saturation while the other is digital precision in a photo or a recording.Bok wrote: ↑Fri Apr 16, 2021 5:33 amwave_code something like that, but I think the exact history is a bit sketchy, not sure how much is myth and what is fact.
I’ve got a few friends who collected some of these Chinese style Japanese ware, yet mostly not good for tea, due to often underfired clay and also the clays properties in itself. They are also often rather crude and the craftsmanship is not very refined yet.
If anything I’d blame Gafu Ito for the opposite, his stuff is a bit too perfect...
In my limited experience with older Japanese teaware in Chinese style, tokoname Shudei from back then is not bad, similar to Hongni or Chaozhou clay in performance. Provided it’s high fired. Bizen seems more on the terrible side...
One type of custom Yixing that I would enjoy (and I imagine others as well) is Yixing with English quotes on the pot. The pots with Chinese poetry are nice, but without a tea circle proficient in Chinese, they don't have much impact other than the Orientalist appeal of making them seem more exotic, like Chinese-character tattoos.Bok wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 1:05 amOn funnier Yixing news, just saw this from Purple Cloud teahouse "custom made pots" https://www.instagram.com/p/CNoig89gWYv/, which do look exactly the same as the wildly popular custom made ones from Essence of tea: https://essenceoftea.com/collections/yi ... ing-teapot
Seems the potters in Yixing are having a blast recently with "custom made" pots... or the copycats jumping on the train started rolling by EoT.
I think it would also highlight an interesting quirk, which is that British teapots with English on them are often considered a little tacky, possibly because most of these were jokes, political slogans, or advertisements, while Chinese teapots with Chinese on them are often considered artistic because the impression is that these were all poems, even though there were a fair share of political slogans here as well.
If I had the choice, I would go for "Self-realization. I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, '... I drank what?'"
