So far just a couple of entries having to do with our visit to Yixing. (Summer 2019).
The center of Yixing teapot production is in Dingshan, or Dingshu, west of the center of Yixing. We spent four days seeing ceramic sites as well as visiting with teapot makers. This post includes photo albums of the old pottery village, the Qian-shu Dragon Kiln site, the China Zisha Museum, a contemporary tunnel kiln, and a visit to Deng Li’s teapot shop and a pottery tool store.
Zhen Wei, Sue and I visited YaYa’s and her mother’s studio each day, watching a demonstration by YaYa, and then having a chance to attempt to work with the clay and tools ourselves to make a pot. The process was one of pounding out thin slabs, cutting them into discs and rectangles and paddling them into rounded forms. The spouts and handles are formed from coils. YaYa gives a couple of days a week to teaching young would-be teapot makers the necessary skills in a community center adjacent to her studio, and that is where we worked, with lots of assistance and encouragement from her and her students.
