What types of clay were used to make Yixing teapots?

4. What are the different types of clay used for making teapots? The clay of Yixing is known collectively as zisha (purple sand), and there are three basic types: zisha, a purplish-brown clay; banshanlu, a buff-coloured clay, and zhusha, a cinnabar or deep orange-red clay.

What is Yixing zisha teapot?

Yixing teapots were also commonly known as zisha teapots. They are also called Qing Shui Ni when the clay is not mixed or colored. Today zisha teapots are characterized by the use of purple sand clay. These Yixing purple clay teapots and other stoneware feature a purple-red brown color.

What is special about Yixing clay?

This is the core of why yixing is unique as a porous brewing vessel. Most porous vessels are not additive; they are subtractive. Because yixing clay is so fine and dense in its porousness, it retains what it absorbs better than other ceramics can.

What is the most expensive clay?

Porcelain
Porcelain. This is by far the strongest type of clay. It is also the rarest and most expensive.

What are the unique properties of the Yixing clay?

Yixing clay has very special characteristics chemistry composition and texture, a 4% 0f the water absorption rate, a very low thermal conductivity, and other unique qualities, it already is confirmed and is received that Yixing clay is best raw materials for made teapot in whold world.

Are Yixing teapots fired?

Pine wood is used as fuel for the kiln. Yixing teapots are fired for 3 days and 4 nights in the wood kiln.

Why are Yixing teapots so small?

The reason behind this is that the small amount of water allows the tea leaves to infuse quickly. This lets the taste of the tea become strong but not bitter. Leaving your tea leaves to brew too long will add bitterness to the taste. When you have a larger amount of water, you have to brew it longer.

What was the original name of Yixing zisha clay?

Originally it was called Tuanni (团泥/group or mixed clay), which referred to a mixture of different kinds of Zisha. Most people were illiterate at that time, and in the Yixing dialect the words Tuan (团) and Duan (段) sounded quite similar, so the two characters changed.

Which is the most common type of zisha clay?

Zini (紫泥) is the most popular and the most common of all Zisha. It is the original clay which gave Yixing its fame, centuries ago. The “Yixing Purple Sand Mineral” (宜兴紫砂矿料), by Zhu Zewei (朱泽伟), also known as “The Zisha Standard”, distinguishes 21 kinds of Zini.

Which is the rarest of the Zisha categories?

Lüni (绿泥) is the rarest of the common Zisha categories. Only around 2% of all Zisha is Lüni. It is named after the color of the raw ore. Like most Zisha, Lüni is from Huanglongshan (黄龙山); therefore, it is mostly referred to as Benshan Lüni (本山绿泥), aka Original Mountain Lüni.

What kind of Zisha is tuanni or duanni?

Tuanni/Duanni (团泥/段泥) is not a single type of Zisha, but a mixture of the others. Usually, it is a mixture of Zini and Lüni, or Lüni and Hongni. Because of this, Duanni can be anything.

What makes Yixing clay ( Zisha ) so special?

Yixing clay is known as zisha, which means “purple sand”, as supposed to purple clay. The secret of Yixing lies in the “sand”.

What kind of clay is used for Yixing teapots?

Zi Ni is widely accepted by the market as a great general purpose clay for YiXing teapots. Genuine purple clay was extracted from the ZiSha undressed ore in Huang Long mountain (黄龙山), a mountain located in the YiXing, JiangSu province locality. Zi Ni ZiSha clay has a high content of iron (Fe);