Handmade Mu Gu Ju Lun Zhu Yixing Zisha Teapot – Zini Clay, 70ml

This is a 70 ml zisha teapot in Zini Clay, fully handmade, made in Dingshu, Yixing. Its Chinese name is 慕古巨轮珠.

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. This is the Ju Lun Zhu form — 巨轮珠 in Chinese. It is one of the many shapes carried in the Dingshu workshops outside the small set of canonical forms, and it is built by the same slab-and-beat method as the classics. We describe what we can verify: the ore, the method and the proportions.

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 70 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. 324, 70 ml, US$399. 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 Dezhong Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 80 ml, $399
• Handmade Mu Gu Ji Zhi Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 60 ml, $399
• Handmade Artisan Design Yixing Zisha Teapot — Zini Clay, 80 ml, $550

Or browse every Zini pot · the full Yixing catalogue.