I have heard from a number of sources that zhuni clay is either
unattainable or extremely rare and that anyone purporting to sell
zhuni pots is probably a liar. I have, however, seen many pots that
are supposedly zhuni and even own one. As I understand it the
identifying marks for zhuni are a deep orange red colour, wrinkly
orange peel or pear-skin texture, and a very high ring tone.

My pot which was made by Zhou Jian Hua wasn't sold to me as zhuni,
though it has all of the characteristics listed above. I bought the
pot from Michael Ryan who has quite a number of pots for sale which he
says are zhuni. Furthermore, Michael is far from the only retailer
selling zhuni wares. Considering that these pots aren't exorbitantly
expensive, can anyone reconcile this with the common assertion that
zhuni is extinct?

BTW, true zhuni or not, the pot is very good.

Cheers,

Cameron

(Cameron Lewis) wrote in message om>...
> I have heard from a number of sources that zhuni clay is either
> unattainable or extremely rare and that anyone purporting to sell
> zhuni pots is probably a liar. I have, however, seen many pots that
> are supposedly zhuni and even own one. As I understand it the
> identifying marks for zhuni are a deep orange red colour, wrinkly
> orange peel or pear-skin texture, and a very high ring tone.
>
> My pot which was made by Zhou Jian Hua wasn't sold to me as zhuni,
> though it has all of the characteristics listed above. I bought the
> pot from Michael Ryan who has quite a number of pots for sale which he
> says are zhuni. Furthermore, Michael is far from the only retailer
> selling zhuni wares. Considering that these pots aren't exorbitantly
> expensive, can anyone reconcile this with the common assertion that
> zhuni is extinct?
>
> BTW, true zhuni or not, the pot is very good.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Cameron

i m not a subject matter expert on this, as i m not a pot collector,
but in my process of collecting pu-erh teas etc, i've came across many
articles on this tea pots.

Zhu Ni, the zhu is akin to the zhu in zhu sha (the fine red paste
which the chinese formerly used as a form of ink paste (pad) for their
stamps/chops.

any clay as fine as that can be called zhu-ni too.

from what i know, yixing zhu ni pots are not produceable anymore due
to the absence of such clay sources.there are many zhu-ni pots around,
made the same way as of zhu ni pots, but not the real yixing zhu ni
pots.

Quite a lot of taiwanese tea pots are made of zhu ni-like materials.

Originally in the past, people would stir a lot of clay in water and
collect the fine suspension in the water after filtering.

Repeated filtering etc resulted in a very fine clay which when fired,
becomes very smooth, thin and has a very bright ring tone.

i have three such pots in use currently, only one is from china, the
other two are from taiwan, made of clay similar to zhu-ni clays, very
fine, but not the real yixing materials.

very good pots, retains heat well, looks good. but i still prefer the
coarser yi-xings some how =)

(Cameron Lewis) wrote in message om>...
> I have heard from a number of sources that zhuni clay is either
> unattainable or extremely rare and that anyone purporting to sell
> zhuni pots is probably a liar. I have, however, seen many pots that
> are supposedly zhuni and even own one. As I understand it the
> identifying marks for zhuni are a deep orange red colour, wrinkly
> orange peel or pear-skin texture, and a very high ring tone.

Zhu Ni is typically found at the bottom of the mines and it is hard as
a rock it is also called "Shi Huang" roughly translated into "Bone of
Rock"

Rare, yes it is semi-rare it is harder and harder to find. Most of
the clay has been mined and it has been kept in storage for years and
been sold off bit buy bit to artist at high and higher prices. Most
of the clay is in private stock today with less and less being mined
every year. Just like any clay no matter what the color, they all
have different grades. So not all clay even Zhu Ni is top grade.

Color depends on Iron Content of the clay. Wrinkly, Orange Peel and
pear skin texture are not specific to Zhu Ni. An artist can mix the
clay with larger gains of Zi Sha clay to give it a texture. In
addition, the artist might not mix the clay and use a piece of Ox horn
to smooth out the clay and make it super smooth almost polished
looking or anywhere in between these two extremes.

Therefore, these textures are not typical characteristics of any
specific clay.

Ring tones can depend on the firing temperatures of the pot, different
clay thickness and if the pot is wet from use. Honestly, the ring
tone has nothing to do with the quality of the pot. I know this will
be argued but it is true. The main reason for the ring check was to
see if the teapot had hairline cracks from misuse or a bad firing. It
is imposable to tell the quality of a pot by the ring due to all of
the different factors involved.

In fact some teapots are fired a bit lower on purpose some say they
just have a different feel to them that seems to some, more
comfortable.

So now, you ask how to tell good clay? Honestly, if I write too much
here some fly by night Teapot Vendor will copy years of experience
paste it on their website and claim they know everything there is to
know about Zi Sha. When I finish my website 100% I will have tons of
encrypted hard to copy information for all to read and enjoy. Of
course, I will not post a link here because the URL police will arrest
me if I do.

If you are interested in getting an e-mail from me when I have this
kind of detailed information available then e-mail me and I will put
you on a list and send you a link when I am done (one day I hope). I
plan to have a ton of information about Puerh, Zi Sha, and other
things that most vendors will not tell you.

All of the above information is my view from my experience, it is not
set in stone, and I am not here in hopes of selling anything. I am
only sharing my little but sometimes-useful knowledge about these
things. I will never to claim to know everything about anything! So
keep your, flaming to your self, thanks.