I have heard from a number of sources that zhuni clay is either unattainable or extremely rare and that anyone purporting to sell zhuni pots is probably a liar. I have, however, seen many pots that are supposedly zhuni and even own one. As I understand it the identifying marks for zhuni are a deep orange red colour, wrinkly orange peel or pear-skin texture, and a very high ring tone.
My pot which was made by Zhou Jian Hua wasn't sold to me as zhuni, though it has all of the characteristics listed above. I bought the pot from Michael Ryan who has quite a number of pots for sale which he says are zhuni. Furthermore, Michael is far from the only retailer selling zhuni wares. Considering that these pots aren't exorbitantly expensive, can anyone reconcile this with the common assertion that zhuni is extinct?
i m not a subject matter expert on this, as i m not a pot collector, but in my process of collecting pu-erh teas etc, i've came across many articles on this tea pots.
Zhu Ni, the zhu is akin to the zhu in zhu sha (the fine red paste which the chinese formerly used as a form of ink paste (pad) for their stamps/chops.
any clay as fine as that can be called zhu-ni too.
from what i know, yixing zhu ni pots are not produceable anymore due to the absence of such clay sources.there are many zhu-ni pots around, made the same way as of zhu ni pots, but not the real yixing zhu ni pots.
Quite a lot of taiwanese tea pots are made of zhu ni-like materials.
Originally in the past, people would stir a lot of clay in water and collect the fine suspension in the water after filtering.
Repeated filtering etc resulted in a very fine clay which when fired, becomes very smooth, thin and has a very bright ring tone.
i have three such pots in use currently, only one is from china, the other two are from taiwan, made of clay similar to zhu-ni clays, very fine, but not the real yixing materials.
very good pots, retains heat well, looks good. but i still prefer the coarser yi-xings some how =)
Zhu Ni is typically found at the bottom of the mines and it is hard as a rock it is also called "Shi Huang" roughly translated into "Bone of Rock"
Rare, yes it is semi-rare it is harder and harder to find. Most of the clay has been mined and it has been kept in storage for years and been sold off bit buy bit to artist at high and higher prices. Most of the clay is in private stock today with less and less being mined every year. Just like any clay no matter what the color, they all have different grades. So not all clay even Zhu Ni is top grade.
Color depends on Iron Content of the clay. Wrinkly, Orange Peel and pear skin texture are not specific to Zhu Ni. An artist can mix the clay with larger gains of Zi Sha clay to give it a texture. In addition, the artist might not mix the clay and use a piece of Ox horn to smooth out the clay and make it super smooth almost polished looking or anywhere in between these two extremes.
Therefore, these textures are not typical characteristics of any specific clay.
Ring tones can depend on the firing temperatures of the pot, different clay thickness and if the pot is wet from use. Honestly, the ring tone has nothing to do with the quality of the pot. I know this will be argued but it is true. The main reason for the ring check was to see if the teapot had hairline cracks from misuse or a bad firing. It is imposable to tell the quality of a pot by the ring due to all of the different factors involved.
In fact some teapots are fired a bit lower on purpose some say they just have a different feel to them that seems to some, more comfortable.
So now, you ask how to tell good clay? Honestly, if I write too much here some fly by night Teapot Vendor will copy years of experience paste it on their website and claim they know everything there is to know about Zi Sha. When I finish my website 100% I will have tons of encrypted hard to copy information for all to read and enjoy. Of course, I will not post a link here because the URL police will arrest me if I do.
If you are interested in getting an e-mail from me when I have this kind of detailed information available then e-mail me and I will put you on a list and send you a link when I am done (one day I hope). I plan to have a ton of information about Puerh, Zi Sha, and other things that most vendors will not tell you.
All of the above information is my view from my experience, it is not set in stone, and I am not here in hopes of selling anything. I am only sharing my little but sometimes-useful knowledge about these things. I will never to claim to know everything about anything! So keep your, flaming to your self, thanks.
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.