Capacity: 130ml
This is an Yixing teapot made from 青灰泥 qinghuini, a dark brown/purple clay with small golden flecks. Qinghuini clay ore is found in a layer between zini and duanni Yixing clay ores. It is considered a subtype of zini (purple clay) ore and is in fact a naturally-occurring mixture of zini with some duanni. Once fired, the duanni appears as small golden flecks on the clay. Qinghuini can be used the same as other zini clay teapots, including dicaoqing, and is more absorbent than zhuni, but less than duanni / benshan lüni
This teapot shape is known as Julunzhu 巨轮珠. This pot is known as "half-handmade" as the sculptor uses a molding tool to shape the body, and uses his hands for the handle, spout, holes, and smoothing out the body. In fact, no machine was used in it's shaping as the use of the tool is entirely manual.
You can read more about half handmade teapots in our blog entry here.
This teapot was made by Lin Hanpeng and Chen Chunhong Studio.
Preparation Before Use
Yixing Teapots should be prepared before using the first time. This is called "opening the pot". It removes the dust from firing the teapot.
We recommend rinsing the teapot under warm water two or three times, then filling the teapot with boiling water and emptying it out two to three times. After this the teapot is ready for use.