Heini (Wuhui Zhuni Dahongpao) Limao Yixing Teapot 焐灰朱泥大红袍笠帽 115ml

Volume: Approximately 115ml

This "heini" or "black clay" Yixing teapot is produced by firing original ore Zhuni Dahongpao clay in a low oxygen environment in the kiln. Reduction fired zhuni appears black, even darker than wuhui zini. The clay has the same properties as zhuni fired in oxidation firing, but appears black instead of red/orange.

Firing a teapot in a low-oxygen environment is called “wuhui” 焐灰 which can be loosely translated as “smother with ash to fire.” The teapot is stuffed with dry rice straw, placed in a clay box and surrounded with more rice straw before being covered. When it is fired in this way, the straw uses the oxygen when it burns to ash, reducing the oxygen in the clay box while the teapot is being fired. This creates the reduced oxygen environment that gives the clay its black appearance.

You can read our blog entry here to learn more about the reaction that occurs in a reduction environment to give the clay this appearance in our blog post here.

Zhuni Dahongpao is a special grade of zhuni named for its deep red-orange hue. The small amount of zhuni dahongpao ore (unprocessed clay) was handpicked by Lin Hanpeng from zhuni mined from Xiaomeiyao in Yixing. 

This is an yixing teapot made from a rare type of zhuni clay known as Zhuni Dahongpao. The ratio of dahongpao ore to regular zhuni ore is said to be 1:100, or 1kg of zhuni dahongpao ore for every 100kg of zhuni ore. Dahongpao zhuni has a greater amount of Fe2O3 iron oxide than regular zhuni giving it a deeper red-orange hue. It also contains a lower percentage of Al2O3 aluminum oxide than regular zhuni, making it more difficult to fire without breaking. The range of temperature for firing dahongpao zhuni successfully is very narrow. It also has a higher shrink rate than regular zhuni, sometimes shrinking as much as 40%.
You can read more about Zhuni Dahongpao here, and more about zhuni clay here.

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.

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.