from the old kiln roads of dingshu
Michael Zhan walked the narrow alleys of Dingshu village on a damp November morning, the air thick with iron‑rich clay dust. This batch of zisha was mined from a small family‑held seam near the old Number 4 Mine — a clay body with an unusually high mineral load that fires to a deep, almost charcoal hue. The potter, a quiet woman in her sixties who learned slab‑building from her father, shaped each shipiao over two days: cutting six slabs by hand, joining them without hurry, then carving the single‑hole filter with a bamboo pick. The teapot was reduction‑fired in a dragon kiln, held at temperature for fourteen hours, then cooled over three days. The result is a dense, low‑porosity stoneware that absorbs tea oils slowly — after ten or twelve sessions it begins to build a gentle patina. Michael brought only eight of these back from the autumn 2025 visit; this listing is one of the last from that lot. We recommend dedicating it to aged sheng pu’er — the thick walls and flat lid temper heat just enough to push a tea’s resinous notes forward without scalding them.