Zisha clay - source

Hey, Dominic -

I do not claim that your intent was to pass judgment, but you certainly did, even if unintentionally. But it was quite honorable of you to answer the way you did.

If you ever in Bay Area (as a programmer you may) pay a visit to these guys - you won't regret it. "Po" Zhou is a very nice guy, a true teacher and artist and hardly makes any money from the yixing school that he runs. You will be met with warmth and courtesy that are so rare these days. Take a class or two - for $18/day its virtually free. And then go have some of "monkey picked" and/or "phoenix" oolongs at my friend Roys' place at the corner or Powell and Broadway in SF - at "Imperial Tea".

And if you are in Reno, NV I can brew some very nice tea for you at my home, and we can talk programming that ate away about 10 years of my own life :)

Cheers,

Sasha.

Hello Sasha,

I simply gave my opinion and my thoughts, I really try to tread lightly and not ruffle feathers as much as possible here and I am sorry if I did. If you know this "Po" Zhou personally, you should really explain to him how it would help him immensely to add some more detailed information on his clay section, and to add it to his search engine info (metatags) because there is a very large market for real zisha and he would (by my estimation) be the sole source of the clay online in the U.S.! He wouldn't be poor for long.

I'm not a programmer actually, I am a Network Administrator for a bank. So no travel for me. However, what you have described would be like heaven for me. To actually take lessons from a skilled artisan and realise one of my dreams to make my own Yixing teapot. That would be worth it for me to take a vacation to SF just for that, and I just may, honestly. I don't see any trips to Reno in my near future, but that also would be an honor I'm sure. I've been stuck doing programming in my line of work a number of times... in fact (since you seem to be involved in the lab/scientific field) I worked on a classified program that ran fluoride analisys machines and automated the data entry work of entering the results. It actually caused about 4 lab workers to lose their jobs (which was something they had said would not happen), and after that I never wanted to be put in that situation again. I have my fair share of tales as well.

- Dominic

No, I do not know him personally although I spoke to him and some of the yixing experts from China that frequently visit and teach at his school. I would also never give business advice to Chinese. Not that they cannot use it, but they have their own way of doing things and quite successfully too, albeit differently. I also suspect that you very much overestimated the potential market for raw zisha here.

Recently I bought several Oni-hagi chawans by famous masters from a Japanese vendor on Ebay and was stunned by his pricing - it was less than a quarter of what he might have got in Japan. I am talking less than $50 for a huge Chado yonomi signed and in calligraphed pavlonia box, etc. Turns out he sells several such Items a month on Ebay to introduce Japanese tea yakimono to the western buyers. There are people with missions and telling them how to run their businesses is a waste of their and my time.

The lab workers should have found other jobs with no problems - anyone today who knows anything about running analytical equipment is a rarity. You are a New Yorker, are you not? You seem to be one of the dying species of bleeding hearts which could only survive in NY. I admire that despite being a paleoconservative.

Sasha.

If you were close friends with him, it was just a suggestion... I have been asked more times than I can count about zisha online and in person. And I know of two pottery shops in Pittsburgh who have been searching pretty heavily for continuous suppliers. So the demand is fairly big for a niche market, and growing with Yixing teapots becoming more and more common in malls and small shops.

Again, I applaud people who live by their own way and approach business similarly. But still to be one of the only sources of zisha online in the U.S. and NOT advertise it in appropriate outlets is a bit silly.

I'm sure they did find jobs, and I'm actually not much of a bleeding heart... in fact I tend to be the exact opposite about most things. What I am is a decent person who lives by my own set of values and beliefs, and I am honest. When I worked side by side with these people over time, and they opened up and helped me, only to be lied to and lose their jobs is not OK in my book. I'm actually from Pennsylvania, and I'm sure I could be successful in any state of the union without compromising my beliefs or anything of the sort including NY.

- Dominic

That's a bunch of cod's wallop. I have been told by various "experts" in the field that zisha and pu'er are two of the most difficult markets to deal in. They also told me that it's nearly impossible for someone that's living outside of Jiangshu, China to be able to get good pieces at reasonable prices.

The dealers will look you directly in the eye and without even flinching tell you that a factory grade pot that's worth about 15 yuan (not even 2 dollars) is worth thousands. No matter who you think you know here in China, everyone should be suspect; especially if it comes to money.