Improving Southwestern USA clay with Yixing properties?

[nowsharing]

I know that Yixing clay is unique and can't be replicated, but if I wanted to improve my local clay for making puerh teapots, where would I start?

I know that Yixing clay is iron rich and contains inclusions that make it porous yet able to take on a beautiful sheen when burnished.

I live directly on a Southern California canyon (Santa Rosa Plateau) and have access to infinite free clay, so buying clay off the shelf isn't my interest. The more iron rich deposits here fire like Native American redwares, and there are yellow deposits that fire to duani like colors. I have an electric kiln and wheel, and will eventually experiment with wood firing.

My questions are:
- what would be a good temper or grog, and what percentage would be ideal?
- could additional minerals be added to make it more purple?
- (beginner question) can anything be added to raise the firing temperature of the local clay?
- would kaolin grog be useful?

[Bok]

I know that Yixing clay is unique and can't be replicated, but if I wanted to improve my local clay for making puerh teapots, where would I start?

I know that Yixing clay is iron rich and contains inclusions that make it porous yet able to take on a beautiful sheen when burnished.

I live directly on a Southern California canyon (Santa Rosa Plateau) and have access to infinite free clay, so buying clay off the shelf isn't my interest. The more iron rich deposits here fire like Native American redwares, and there are yellow deposits that fire to duani like colors. I have an electric kiln and wheel, and will eventually experiment with wood firing.

My questions are:
- what would be a good temper or grog, and what percentage would be ideal?
- could additional minerals be added to make it more purple?
- (beginner question) can anything be added to raise the firing temperature of the local clay?
- would kaolin grog be useful?

This is an interesting undertaking!

Your questions would need a professional potter to answer I'd say.

The first question though is tea related: which kind of Puerh? There are so many kinds with different properties... for a lot of those "good clay" is not what helps alleviate faults in the tea itself, it is "bad" clay, as in porous clay that filters out some of the unwanted things of the tea.

If you have very good and clean Puerh, then you'd want something more akin to Hongni.

Best strategy for you is too experiment far and wide, I mean if you make the pots by yourself quantities are not a problem. Depending on your skills, the teapot shape and thickness might be a pos/neg factor for the tea enjoyment. For comparison it woul be best if you make all the pots exactly the same, just varying the clay and firing.

In Taiwan, woodfired kiln ware is liked well for Puerh.

Anyways, good luck and please share your findings!

[nowsharing]

Thanks, I drink younger shengs all day every day, so that's my main focus.

[Bok]

Thanks, I drink younger shengs all day every day, so that's my main focus.

Than you'll probably want to raise your pots as thinly as possibly.

[Victoria]

Welcome to TeaForum @nowsharing. I’d recommend reaching out to Shawn McGuire of Great Wheels Studio on Etsy. He can most likely offer advice, he makes teaware in New England, and was a contributor for many years on TeaChat. You can search that older forum as there were several active Teaware Artisans discussing clay and teaware over the years. His Esty shop is https://www.etsy.com/shop/GreatWheelStudio, on IG https://instagram.com/greatwheelstudio? ... c2ODk2ZA==

[debunix]

I've not spent a lot of time reading up about the nuances of Yixing clays, but my favorite wood-fired teawares for sencha and green teas were made with iron rich clays by Petr Novak, and actually have a rather coarse texture.


190113 Kabuse sencha _DEB7351 ppd by debunix, on Flickr


Petr Novak Wood-fired shino shiboridashi - 05 by debunix, on Flickr

His pots I use most often for Puerhs include some made with a different clay with more gray than orange color, but also infuse some lovely tea with a little softening of the harsher edges that come out in the porcelain gaiwans I use for tastings.

[Tyler]

To add to that, in the past he and some other potters had (blogspot) blogs, might be worth checking them out