From a Yixing cart‑track to a tea tray
In late autumn, Michael Zhan took a detour from his usual Fujian–Yunnan sourcing loop to explore the clay alleys of Dingshu, a Yixing suburb where zhuni workshops still fire in courtyard kilns. At the end of a narrow lane lined with piles of purple‑brown saggars, he found a modest studio run by a third‑generation zhuni specialist. The craftsman works only with aged zhuni, a rare Yixing clay prized for its buttery texture and tightly packed particle structure, which yields an almost vitrified surface after a single high‑temperature firing. The pig was pulled from one lump of clay, spun on a hand‑wheel and shaped without joins — a technique that demands decades of practice and eliminates any weak point where reheated tea could cause cracking. Michael chose this particular piece for its flawless, seamless body and its playful yet dignified expression. The craftsman smiled and noted that pig‑shaped cháchǒng are beloved year‑round, not just in the Year of the Pig, because their round belly symbolizes household prosperity and contentment. After a 14‑hour wood‑firing at 1,180°C, the clay turned a soft terracotta that will slowly absorb tea oils, deepening to a glossy amber over months of use. Michael inspected every piece for hairline cracks and tested each one’s stability on a wet tea tray before selecting a small batch of twenty — all stamped with the studio’s chop on the base. This pig is the most endearing of the lot.