From a Kunming workshop to your chaxi
Sandry Law first came across this tray during a spring sourcing visit in Yunnan — not for tea leaves, but for the artisans who craft the tables that hold the gaiwan. A small family-run woodshop outside Kunming, founded by a former carpenter who trained with his grandfather in Dali, produces a limited number of solid-wood trays each year. Sandry spent two afternoons there, watching how they select walnut planks that are air-dried for at least three years, checking for straight grain and no sapwood. The 40×60cm version is the largest they make before moving to custom banquet tables. Each tray is routed from a single piece, with a subtle slope toward the centre drain that took months to perfect. The copper basin underneath is hand-bent from a single sheet, with folded corners that add rigidity without welding — a technique Sandry says you rarely see beyond Yunnan’s high-end furniture district. He brought home three to test: one stayed in the Kunming office for daily use, one went through a stress cycle of 50 sessions in a Guangzhou tea house, and the last landed at the Hamburg warehouse as the master reference. This tray is built on that reference — same plank, same slope, same calm. Sandry still calls the workshop every season to check on supply and to see what new wood he can source for the community.