"Shui Ping" Style Yixing Teapot

Teapot style: "Shui Ping" Style Yixing Teapot 水平紫砂壶

Clay type: Original Ore Da Hong Pao Clay from Huang Long Mountain 原矿大红袍朱泥

Artist: Zhou Shu Yuan

Craft: Fully handmade

Strainer type: 14-hole strainer

Capacity: 125ml

Length (body only): 7.5cm

Height without the lid: 5cm

The creation of Shui Ping or horizontal teapot was connected with the practice of brewing Gongfu tea in the southern regions of China.  When preparing Gongfu tea, a small teapots filled with a generous amount of tea leaves and then placed within a larger vessel, often referred to as a "tea sea" or tea bowl. After topping up with hot water in to the teapot, hot water is then poured over the surface of the teapot multiple times, encouraging the tea leaves to release their flavours more readily.  Occasionally, certain small teapots would float evenly and steadily in the hot water, maintaining a perfectly level position without tilting or sinking.  their appearance resembled that of a horizontal surface.  This distinctive trait prompted the name 水平壶 (Horizontal Teapot). 

About Da Hong Pao clay: among the Red Zisha clay, Zhu Ni stands as the best and within Zhu Ni, the finest is undoubtedly Da Hong Pao.  Da Hong Pao clay is exceedingly precious because of extremely low mining yield.  The original Da Hong Pao ore is sporadically scattered within layers of Zhu Ni clay.  It doesn't form a separate stratum. Usually, only a few grams of clay can be selected from several patches of Zhu Ni on a single layer of ore. Moreover, a more primitive approach of using small stone mills for grinding and manual mixing is generally employed, and the clay is only usable after ageing. Zhu Ni clay exhibits a high level of shrinkage and has a low success rate in the production of finished pieces.  Da Hong Pao clay has a shrinkage rate of 30%, which is even higher than that of Zhu Ni and nearly three times that of Zi Ni.  The clay is exceptional viscosity makes it prone to sticking to tools during the crafting process, leading to difficulties in shaping. Evening when crafting smaller teapots, the success rate is only around 60%, and for medium to large-sized teapots, its rarer.   

This teapot would be superb choice for brewing any oolong teas. 

Only one in stock, so the pot photographed is the pot you will receive.

Please Note:

We have carefully photographed this item as best as possible – please be aware that different device screens can render colours and subtle tones slightly differently.

Preparation Before Use
Yixing Teapots should be prepared before using the first time. This is called "opening the pot". It removes the dust/sand from firing the teapot.

We recommend rinsing the teapot under warm water two or three times, then wipe gently inside and outside of the pot with a new non-scratch sponge scourer to remove sediment trapped in the unglazed clay. 

Then, filling the teapot with boiling water, wait for 10 minutes, empty the pot; repeat one more time, the new Yixing teapot is ready for use.

Daily cleaning and seasoning

Empty the leaves after each use, rinse with boiling water, drain, wipe water away with clean soft cloth, and then lid off, place the body upside, let it air dry for one or two days. 

Do not ever use any detergent or soap than water to clean the pot. 

Do not let the potcome into contact with other strong smell such as cooking fume, cigarette smoke, perfume.