Lovely metallic sheen!
And the upturned spout has a certain nobility to it
Taiwanese pots
@wave_code, thank you for starting the thread!
I have two Dong Feng teapots. Both are slip cast, one is more crude than the other. I have used them and while they do work well for the price, they are hardly works of art of impressive craftsmanship. The appeal to me for these two pots is historical. My understanding is that these pots would have been affordable everyman teapots from before modern Yixing became readily available.
The pear shaped pot changes when wet to a marble-like luster, which I haven't seen before in other teapots.
I have two Dong Feng teapots. Both are slip cast, one is more crude than the other. I have used them and while they do work well for the price, they are hardly works of art of impressive craftsmanship. The appeal to me for these two pots is historical. My understanding is that these pots would have been affordable everyman teapots from before modern Yixing became readily available.
The pear shaped pot changes when wet to a marble-like luster, which I haven't seen before in other teapots.
- Dong Feng 1
- DongFeng.PNG (654.17 KiB) Viewed 14657 times
- Dong Feng 1 Bottom
- DongFengbtm.PNG (717.2 KiB) Viewed 14657 times
- Dong Feng 2
- DongFeng2.PNG (783.06 KiB) Viewed 14657 times
- Dong Feng 2 Bottom
- DongFengbtm2.PNG (667.01 KiB) Viewed 14657 times
This is a wheel thrown teapot made by Xu Jin Choi (許進財). It is a surprising 130ml despite being diminutive in size. It is eggshell thin and thus it is also light. It's the thinnest teapot I've ever held.
The clay is probably local and the craftmanship is impressive. The spout is incredibly delicate and the lid is tight with no signs of being ground. It's the antithesis of the chunky so-called wabi-sabi pots that have been popular in Taiwan for a couple decades now. It's affect on tea is perfectly neutral.
More teaware tomorrow.
The clay is probably local and the craftmanship is impressive. The spout is incredibly delicate and the lid is tight with no signs of being ground. It's the antithesis of the chunky so-called wabi-sabi pots that have been popular in Taiwan for a couple decades now. It's affect on tea is perfectly neutral.
More teaware tomorrow.
- Xu Jin Choi
- Eggshell.PNG (469.29 KiB) Viewed 14652 times
- Attachments
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- Xu Jin Choi Bottom
- Eggshellbtm.PNG (491.25 KiB) Viewed 14652 times
This teapot is by 28 year old Qui Zhongjun, from Caotun township, in Nantou county. The lid is inset and the interior is unglazed. The clay is unfamiliar to me but it is high fired and nonporous. Its design is industrial yet graceful. I use this teapot regularly for Japanese teas and Taiwanese greens. The fit and finish is impeccable (note the spout detail).
- Qui Zhongjun
- QuiZhongjun.PNG (400.48 KiB) Viewed 14652 times
- Qui Zhongjun Bottom
- IMG_7618.jpg (84.1 KiB) Viewed 14652 times
- Qui Zhongjun Top
- View recent photos (1).png (389.05 KiB) Viewed 14652 times
- Qui Zhongjun Spout Detail
- View recent photos.png (320.04 KiB) Viewed 14652 times
wow, lots of very nice stuff coming up on here already.
@Baisao very nice pots, all of them. that last one looks amazing- great combo of clay and shape. I wish more info was available about the Dong Feng pots. While they seem not so special in many ways I'm really intrigued by them for the same reason it sounds like you are. I generally favor things which are modest and effective or things that should they get broken are easily replaced identically on a budget - they aren't always the best but they are readily available and do what they need to do. So maybe its that I look for teapots in this way too- I'm always hunting for the Lamy Safari or Casio f91w teapots
. Craftsmanship/workmanship I also greatly appreciate and I think theres room for both. Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken here, but in some ways its a reflection to me of what the Yixing factory pots might have been too before they got older and as prices have gone up with quality/clay changes and collectors- while you have master crafters/artisans doing great work there was also the idea/need for mass manufactured simple yet effective teapots. You can have a teapot that still makes very good tea that is a little fumbly and has tool marks and everything inside. Maybe it isn't collectable or prized for workmanship, but neither are my work boots yet I appreciate them greatly for what they are. If anyone has ways of getting a hold of a variety of these pots at good prices I'd be interested in trying them out and learning more about them.
@Bok I know you have way more nice and interesting pots to occupy yourself with but I'm curious if you come across these a lot?
Also your wood fired pots are very nice looking. They look like they are quite small- around what capacity were you working with? They do look very thick walled, so I could see how maybe they weren't ideal for the types of teas you seem most interested in - but to me they look like they could be great for hei cha where you really want/need to keep the heat up, which as I'm finding can get trickier when you want to still use smaller quantity pots for rarer teas.
@Baisao very nice pots, all of them. that last one looks amazing- great combo of clay and shape. I wish more info was available about the Dong Feng pots. While they seem not so special in many ways I'm really intrigued by them for the same reason it sounds like you are. I generally favor things which are modest and effective or things that should they get broken are easily replaced identically on a budget - they aren't always the best but they are readily available and do what they need to do. So maybe its that I look for teapots in this way too- I'm always hunting for the Lamy Safari or Casio f91w teapots
. Craftsmanship/workmanship I also greatly appreciate and I think theres room for both. Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken here, but in some ways its a reflection to me of what the Yixing factory pots might have been too before they got older and as prices have gone up with quality/clay changes and collectors- while you have master crafters/artisans doing great work there was also the idea/need for mass manufactured simple yet effective teapots. You can have a teapot that still makes very good tea that is a little fumbly and has tool marks and everything inside. Maybe it isn't collectable or prized for workmanship, but neither are my work boots yet I appreciate them greatly for what they are. If anyone has ways of getting a hold of a variety of these pots at good prices I'd be interested in trying them out and learning more about them. @Bok I know you have way more nice and interesting pots to occupy yourself with but I'm curious if you come across these a lot?
Also your wood fired pots are very nice looking. They look like they are quite small- around what capacity were you working with? They do look very thick walled, so I could see how maybe they weren't ideal for the types of teas you seem most interested in - but to me they look like they could be great for hei cha where you really want/need to keep the heat up, which as I'm finding can get trickier when you want to still use smaller quantity pots for rarer teas.
@wave_code they’re literally everywhere... even shopping malls. Yingge near Taipei is famous for pottery, sort of like Taiwan Yixing.
Believe it or not, the rough looking pot is actually very thin walled! Metallic one still medium-thin, the colourful one medium.
All around 100-120ml. I literally was not good enough to control how large or small the became in the end... somehow always in the same sizes
Believe it or not, the rough looking pot is actually very thin walled! Metallic one still medium-thin, the colourful one medium.
All around 100-120ml. I literally was not good enough to control how large or small the became in the end... somehow always in the same sizes
here's one i got in yingge in the spring of 2015:
maybe a bit kitschy in retrospect, but i still really like it. it's a well made pot.
it reminds me of cracked earth:
seems wheel thrown, right?
i don't know chinese, but looks like made in 2014 on the left side:
made by 張政鍾 (Zhang Zhengzhong).
is it common for taiwanese guys to write the year on the bottom? just noticed @Baisao's pot above is also like that.
- Taiwan "Cracked Earth" Teapot
- taiwan-cracked-earth-pot.jpg (225.12 KiB) Viewed 14551 times
maybe a bit kitschy in retrospect, but i still really like it. it's a well made pot.
it reminds me of cracked earth:
- Taiwan "Cracked Earth" Teapot: Interior
- taiwan-cracked-earth-pot-inside.jpg (92.46 KiB) Viewed 14551 times
seems wheel thrown, right?
i don't know chinese, but looks like made in 2014 on the left side:
- Taiwan "Cracked Earth" Teapot: Bottom
- taiwan-cracked-earth-pot-bottom.jpg (83.21 KiB) Viewed 14551 times
made by 張政鍾 (Zhang Zhengzhong).
is it common for taiwanese guys to write the year on the bottom? just noticed @Baisao's pot above is also like that.
haha bok. do you have a pic of it?
I think, originally it’s a European pottery technique:
First you raise the body to the approximate size and shape. Then you use a hairdryer to dry the outside. Then continue raising the body, due to the drying before the skin now cracks on the outside.
Some do throw a bit of clay dust and grit on it before drying it.
It’s actually a very easy effect to do. I’ve done it a couple of times during my pottery lessons.
That’s dope!Bok wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:52 pmI think, originally it’s a European pottery technique:
First you raise the body to the approximate size and shape. Then you use a hairdryer to dry the outside. Then continue raising the body, due to the drying before the skin now cracks on the outside.
Some do throw a bit of clay dust and grit on it before drying it.
It’s actually a very easy effect to do. I’ve done it a couple of times during my pottery lessons.
+1
also, sometimes you put sodium silicate on there before you hit it with the heat gun.
also, sometimes you put sodium silicate on there before you hit it with the heat gun.