Yinchen Studio

Vendor news and self-promotion
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Bok
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Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:05 pm

hopeofdawn wrote:
Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:55 am
Hello - I took a break from tea forums for awhile, but recently a pot caught my eye and I was thinking of getting it. However, the downgrading of Yinchen's reputation on this forum and elsewhere is making me pause - this is a pretty pricey pot (for me at least), and I don't want to be taken for a ride.

Just to be clear, I like the design and I don't care if it's a masterwork or whether it pairs well with a particular kind of tea (I have several other yixing from various sources and have never been able to taste the differences in tea when using them). I just want to make sure that a) this looks like it could be an authentic handmade pot and b) it's made out of real yixing zhuni/zisha clay and not something else. If anyone wants to weigh in on whether they think a pot like this is worth the asking price, I'd definitely appreciate it as well.

https://yinchenstudio.com/collections/y ... apot-260ml
I think price usually corresponds to the quality you get... I would not expect that a complicated shape like this one would as low as 599 – if fully handmade. Still clay and workmanship looks reasonably good for a price like this.

I do not know what the obsession with fully handmade is anyways – if you like it and the price doesn't hurt you, then get it.
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hopeofdawn
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Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:23 pm

Bok wrote:
Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:05 pm
I think price usually corresponds to the quality you get... I would not expect that a complicated shape like this one would as low as 599 – if fully handmade. Still clay and workmanship looks reasonably good for a price like this.

I do not know what the obsession with fully handmade is anyways – if you like it and the price doesn't hurt you, then get it.
Thanks Bok! I don't necessarily require my pots to be fully handmade - I mostly just want to try and make sure my money is going towards an artisan working with real yixing clay, and that I'm not getting scammed by paying $600 for a machine made pot created out of some unidentified clay slurry that costs $50 to make.
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ferg
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Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:40 pm

@hopeofdawn
I am far and away no expert on Yixing. I have not read through rest of thread, nor do I intend to.
I would not buy pot at this price, imo. As bok referred to complexity of shape, I would tend to think some type of mould was used. But I could be completely off.
As you stated you have several Yixing, I assume you have an idea what you’re looking for. But have to ask, are you planning on using yourself? 260ml seems to be on larger side.
Or perhaps buying for aesthetic purposes. Personally, I prefer more plain, no frills shaped Yixing. Again, these are just my opinions.
Good luck on what you end up deciding!
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ferg
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 3:42 am

hopeofdawn wrote:
Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:55 am
Hello - I took a break from tea forums for awhile, but recently a pot caught my eye and I was thinking of getting it.
As in recently, are you referring to two days ago when posted up on IG? If so, I would strongly advise to give it a week to think over, before dropping on that price tag.
edit: you can thank me in one week :)

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hopeofdawn
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 11:19 am

ferg wrote:
Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:40 pm
hopeofdawn
I am far and away no expert on Yixing. I have not read through rest of thread, nor do I intend to.
I would not buy pot at this price, imo. As bok referred to complexity of shape, I would tend to think some type of mould was used. But I could be completely off.
As you stated you have several Yixing, I assume you have an idea what you’re looking for. But have to ask, are you planning on using yourself? 260ml seems to be on larger side.
Or perhaps buying for aesthetic purposes. Personally, I prefer more plain, no frills shaped Yixing. Again, these are just my opinions.
Good luck on what you end up deciding!
Hi Ferg,

To answer your questions - yes, 260 ml is bigger, but I have other pots of a similar size. I normally use them when I'm brewing tea while working, because that way I can brew a bigger cup of tea at a time and not have to pay such close attention to my brewing times or ratio of tea to water. I save my smaller pots for more picky teas (dan cong, etc) or more gongfu-style sessions. As for aesthetics - yes, I'm on the opposite side from you aesthetically. I have a couple shui pings already, and one fanggu. I have no interest in collecting dozens of nearly-identical pots - after I've seen the first dozen classic shui ping or fanggu or shi paio pots, they're just not as interesting to look at or handle anymore. At this stage in my tea journey, I am looking for teapots that have more of an artistic flair, ideally without compromising usability. (As mentioned in my earlier post, I've never been able to detect any difference in brews between different yixing clays, so at this point that's not really a consideration.)

I'm a bit curious why you advise waiting a week. Do you think the price will somehow drop? Or are you just trying to save me from buyer's remorse? :)
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ferg
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 1:57 pm

@hopeofdawn

I simply said give a week, because I often change my mind if I sleep on something a few nights. I am not familiar with vendor, and tbh did not realize I was writing on vendor thread. Good thing they haven’t been on in awhile, ha.

Another question, if clay differences are negligible to you, why drop this kind of money for simply a different shape? I could see if you were aiming for a particular clay, or particular shape for a specific tea type.

Again, don’t take my preferences personally. I’m just not a fan of this teapot, from being modern clay to possible use of mould. I could be wrong.

Just wanted to provide some questions and counterpoints for thought.
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LeoFox
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 2:26 pm

Here is a complex full hand pot from the xray group using clean clay. Note this taiwan facing price, which would probably normally be much higher for western audience
SmartSelect_20230315_152404_Facebook.jpg
SmartSelect_20230315_152404_Facebook.jpg (189.04 KiB) Viewed 1893 times
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Baisao
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 3:12 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 2:26 pm
Here is a complex full hand pot from the xray group using clean clay. Note this taiwan facing price, which would probably normally be much higher for western audience

Image
That definitely puts the price of ornate, fully handmade pots into perspective. Based on the rest of their pricing that group isn't gouging consumers.
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hopeofdawn
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:07 pm

Hmm, that's definitely food for thought. While having something half-handmade is not a deal-breaker for me, I did ask specifically if it was half or fully handmade, and they said handmade. So if they're willing to mislead me about that, it makes me wonder what else they might not be telling me about the pot.

It's too bad - Yinchen used to be a reliable shop.
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hopeofdawn
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:18 pm

ferg wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 1:57 pm
hopeofdawn

Another question, if clay differences are negligible to you, why drop this kind of money for simply a different shape? I could see if you were aiming for a particular clay, or particular shape for a specific tea type.

Again, don’t take my preferences personally. I’m just not a fan of this teapot, from being modern clay to possible use of mould. I could be wrong.

Just wanted to provide some questions and counterpoints for thought.
Hopefully this won't come off as defensive, as I've already decided to stay away from this particular pot after the advice given here. But I do think that there's merit in collecting yixing for other things than their clay composition or particular traditional shapes. Speaking for myself only, I do enjoy the yixing I own - they feel nice in the hand, it's very interesting to compare their unglazed surfaces with my other glazed pots (which also have different kinds of clay), I appreciate the long history behind them, and I respect the skill it takes to slab-build a pot, especially to such precise and exacting standards. So I guess I look at collecting yixing in more of an aesthetic and historical context.

Now in my defense, they don't just sit in a cupboard collecting dust - all my pots are in regular rotation for daily tea drinking, including yixing. I just haven't found any that made significant enough differences in the quality of the resulting tea for me to want to spend $$$$ and time chasing down rare clays or particular antique pots. And while I'd love to own a masterwork pot, the reality is that I am simply not wealthy enough to be that kind of collector. :) So instead I just look for modern yixing pots that are (hopefully) not mass-produced garbage and have a little bit of creative flair. Unfortunately such pots appear to be rarer than unicorns these days ....
Ethan Kurland
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 6:09 pm

hopeofdawn, Not knowing where you live, makes giving advice more difficult. If possible w/o too much bother, I think some shopping in person makes sense for you. Cheers
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Bok
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:19 pm

hopeofdawn wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:07 pm
Yinchen used to be a reliable shop.
As in – people had not yet connected the dots and they where first to skip the middlemen and appear on Western IG ; )
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Bok
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:23 pm

hopeofdawn wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:18 pm
Hopefully this won't come off as defensive, as I've already decided to stay away from this particular pot after the advice given here. But I do think that there's merit in collecting yixing for other things than their clay composition or particular traditional shapes. Speaking for myself only, I do enjoy the yixing I own - they feel nice in the hand, it's very interesting to compare their unglazed surfaces with my other glazed pots (which also have different kinds of clay), I appreciate the long history behind them, and I respect the skill it takes to slab-build a pot, especially to such precise and exacting standards.
not defensive at all... everyone has their own preferences and reasoning.
hopeofdawn wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:18 pm
So I guess I look at collecting yixing in more of an aesthetic and historical context.
I can very much relay to that. The visual and historical component is a big part of the enjoyment for me. Some pots have some glow in them when used, it just elevates the tea session so much more. Otherwise we could all be very happily just use porcelain Gaiwans or Shuipings lol
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hopeofdawn
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 9:34 pm

Bok wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:19 pm
hopeofdawn wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:07 pm
Yinchen used to be a reliable shop.
As in – people had not yet connected the dots and they where first to skip the middlemen and appear on Western IG ; )
Actually, I didn't discover Yinchen through Instagram - I had it recommended to me as a reputable vendor who had good (tho not stellar) yixing pots a few years back. I forget if it was this forum or Teachat. And I did get one of their pots, which has a beautiful pour and is lovely to handle and look at. So it is a bit sad they decided to tarnish their reputation by reselling mass produced pots, especially the ones with anime characters and things on them ...
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Bok
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Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:03 pm

hopeofdawn wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 9:34 pm
So it is a bit sad they decided to tarnish their reputation by reselling mass produced pots
As far as I know it has always been an operation of selling their own studios, as well as other studios work. Prices do still realistically reflect what it is.
hopeofdawn wrote:
Wed Mar 15, 2023 9:34 pm

with anime characters and things on them ...
Without holding any licensing rights...
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