Handmade Artisan Design Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zini Clay, 80ml

This is a 80 ml artisan design teapot in Zini Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 苍劲.

The clay. Zini is the foundational Yixing clay — purple-brown, mined at Huanglong Mountain, and the most forgiving of all the ores. It is highly plastic, notably porous, and develops a patina faster than most clays. Even-tempered and genuinely versatile. It rounds out a brew rather than sharpening it, which makes it a safe first pot for someone who drinks several kinds of tea.

The form. The subject here is weathered vigour — in Chinese decorative vocabulary, the aesthetic of old wood and old rock. An original design rather than a version of a canonical form. The maker sets the proportions, the line and the ornament. Judged on its own terms rather than against a classical template.

How it was made. Built entirely by hand — the wall is beaten out from a slab and joined without a mould. Inside the body you can still read the tool marks and the joint line, which is how the method is verified.

Size and tea. At 80 ml this is a solo pot. One person, short infusions, and the small volume means you can push a good leaf through eight or ten steeps without ever brewing more than you drink. Best suited to pu-erh, black tea and aged oolong.

This pot. Catalogue no. 368, 80 ml, US$550. Photographed individually — the images show the pot you receive.

Made by an independent Dingshu potter working outside the titled-master system. We do not attach a name we cannot verify.

New to zisha? Read how to season a Yixing teapot before first use.

Similar teapots

• Handmade Mu Gu Ji Zhi Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 60 ml, $399
• Handmade Artisan Design Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 100 ml, $250
• Handmade Dezhong Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 80 ml, $399

Or browse every Zini pot · the full Yixing catalogue.