Lin Hanpeng prides himself on his clay, the work he does in selecting the raw ore, and processing and aging it himself. For the past month, he has been sending us photos of the ore he gathered nearly 3 years ago, as he gets closer to completing his latest batch of teapots – Zhuni dahongpao shuipings. Lin is very excited to see the result of firing this clay, convinced it’s some of the best dahongpao he has processed yet.

The No.4 Mine in Huanglong Mountain opened in 1972 and closed in 1997. The mine sits on the southwest side of the mountain. The mine penetrates deeper than most into the mountain, in some spots reaching as deep as 80m. A report from 1987 shows that only 0.012% of the ore mined at the time contained lüni.

Where does Pear Skin Zhuni come from? How is this bumpy texture created?

Sometimes marketed as being an exotic variety of zhuni clay, or old storage “lao” zhuni clay, pear skin zhuni is produced through a very old technique that is still practiced in Yixing today, called 调砂 Tiaosha.