Sourced from the last family kiln still firing Ru ware with wood alone
I first visited the workshop in Ruzhou during a procurement trip for our sister site tea.gratis — Michael [Zhan] had been tracking small-output Ru kilns for three seasons. Most studios had switched to gas or electric, but this family still fired with pine and fruitwood in a step-kiln on the slopes of the Ru River. The gaiwan you see here was thrown by the kiln-master’s daughter, a third-generation potter, from a clay blend that mimics the lost Song dynasty formula: locally sourced porcelain stone, quartz, and a small amount of iron-rich yellow earth. The crackle glaze is poured thin — barely 0.2 mm — so it vitrifies to a soft ice-crackle rather than a thick crazing. We negotiated a lot of forty pieces, all pre-inspected by Michael, and paid the workshop directly. The first batch arrived in Berlin in autumn 2023; this is one of the last unsold. Each gaiwan has its own crackle map, and the patina it will draw over years is entirely yours.