ZiSha is the most difficult ceramic clay to master.
Dearest Friends,
You may come across friends who do not understand the reasons for you spending $180-$300 for a Fully-Handmade ZiSha Work. It is not a small sum of money, especially for many of our student patrons here. We deeply cherish our patrons who are still schooling but spend their money here to remunerate our Craftsmen & Artists. Here you can finally pass this un-beautified, non-ASMR'ed: a truthful video of the crafting, on to your friends who are starting their tea journey with you, but take your time, one by one, so that he or she would understand you much better.
Witness the myriad of skills involved in this arduous crafting process of a Fully-Handmade ZiSha pot.
After completing the 3-year course at the YiXing ZiSha school, and even after a FURTHER three years of apprenticeship, a Craftsman may still NOT be able to successfully accomplish a seemingly “basic” Xi Shi or Fang Gu.
Here is Craftsman Yi, dedicating half of her one night’s work, between 10:30pm to 2:30am. Craftsman Yi is a graduate, have previously enjoyed a high paying job as an official translator, as she is proficient in Chinese, English and Russian. However, twelve years ago, on one fateful day she saw how our Aunt Senior Master Cao Lan Fang was working on a pot which Miss Yi had commissioned her to craft. Miss Yi fell in love with the craft and just like a reborn Craftsman, she immediately quit her high paying job, and dedicate herself, lifelong, to the Art of Fully-Handmade ZiSha. She still says, candidly scratching her head, that she did not understand why she just went ahead immediately, but she felt the calling. She loves ZiSha Art crafting, what it means deeply to her.
After 8 years of GRUELLING learning and practice, and her immense heart and dedication to the cause of saving Fully-Handmade ZiSha Art and Craft, she has grown to be our “QC” manager since four years ago. Her daily work, which we allowed her to choose, involves the supervisory role for all our fellow Collaborative Craftsmen’s works, besides herself crafting pots for our earlier list of friends and patrons. Quality control manager, you may reckon her to be. Ever since four years ago, she has a long list of commissioned works stretching a further five years at any time. Each Austere work which our tea masters in China order from her, is between 5000-6500rmb (takes 2 weeks each to prepare/craft/fire). She has a loyal following, our early list of patrons have stuck to her, having grown familiar to her. She is not employed by us at the Cao Family. We believe that each Craftsman is an Eagle herself/himself. Servant leadership, mutual professional respect, and warm feelings between all of us closely, is the way to go.
You can see her being familiar and fast in her decision making process, this stems from her years of learning, practice and her ample planning prior to starting the pot crafting.
NO ASMR'ed video here to present a facade to mask selling fake "ZiSha" pots.
You will also empathise, as crafting is extremely taxing to the neck, back & eye muscles.
Other hardships,
During summer, she can’t switch on AC, during winter she can’t turn on heater.
Switching on the AC, would have dried the craftworks easily: the pots will hence easily crack.
Switching on the heater in the winter, will also dry up the ambient air: the craftworks will also easily crack.
Switching on humidifiers do not save the situation and hence Craftsmen will never switch on their AC nor Heaters during work.
This video was made in quite warm weather at 30°C, and you see Craftsman Yi wearing light.
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We are very fortunate to be drinking tea.
We have not seen in this video, how tough it was for the miners who have ventured into the mines/quarry under stifling conditions within a small tunnel, to explore, inspect and take off ores from the walls of the tunnel. Sometimes, the walls collapse, and some workers unavoidably, die in the process. Many died during the illegal/unsupervised mining years before, as they are trapped inside as the walls collapse.
The ores have to be carried out, then weathered down over months. The ores have to be picked.
Sometimes, the firing kiln may not be too kind to the pots. All eighteen pots after six weeks of work, may all be cracked during firing. Are Craftsmen used to this type of disappointment, heart breaks? Sadly for us to say: yes they are used to it. They view failures, cracks & deformations as unavoidable, totally part & parcel of this profession and commitment.
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A Fully-handmade YiXing ZiSha Work is the best companion for steeping tea.
Our forefathers have gone through 500 years of perfecting Fully-Handmade ZiSha process.
We cannot let it perish in our generation. Our craftsmen are persisting; ignoring the cries of hiring from the jigger-machining factories and the confirmed promise of stable income and easier work.
We continue to work hard to preserve this tea culture.
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