Build a pot
I have to say it's a new word
During the Tang and Song dynasties, people liked to sencha tea, used to use wide-mouthed small-footed bowls, bowls in the tea matter, called cups, Jianzhan is a classic in the cup-shaped tea vessel; the Ming Dynasty people have not been interested in ordering tea, the method of brewing tea and modern people are very close, began to be enthusiastic about the pot, purple sand pot and then on the tea altar.
The term Jianzhan pot may seem unreasonable, but it spans several dynasties and hints at the evolution of ancient Chinese tea utensils.
Rao Songda is a pottery artist who has been practicing for many years, and he probably fired Jianzhan for many years, which makes him feel that he lacks novelty.
Author: Rao Songda
Jianyang's soil is not only a pot, why not try to burn a pot?
With this idea, Rao Songda began to graft the process of Jianzhan to the teapot, and several months of experiments proved that the experience of the old ancestor was not wrong, and the raw materials of Jianyang were not suitable for the pot at all. First of all, the tire soil particles of the jianzhan are very coarse, the plasticity is not strong, and it is OK to make a thick tire, but it is not so easy to make a spout, a pot button, and a pot handle; secondly, the glaze water of the jianzhan has strong fluidity, suitable for attaching to the curved and smooth utensils, and the shape of the pot is complex, there are many concave corners, the glaze water cannot be evenly covered, and the glaze color of the burned is unbearable.
A pot blank in Rao Songda's studio
The craftsmanship of jianzhan and the shape of the pot seem to be somewhat incompatible, which makes Rao Songda a little distressed.
However, tea people who understand the characteristics of Jianzhan will find that jianzhan pot is a rather tempting tea vessel. Jianzhan high iron tire soil makes the mud pot have the texture of an iron pot, and the jianzhan pot can release iron ions and soften the water quality, at the same time, there is no rust problem, which is better than the iron pot; the Jianzhan pot strengthens the insulation effect of the jianzhan pot, and it is very important to maintain high water temperature for brewing northern Fujian oolong tea.
Rao Songda was reluctant to give up the construction of the pot, he made a series of adjustments in the process by refining the tire soil and increasing the viscosity of the glaze water. Until a few days before the Spring Festival in 2019, he was still firing pots on the edge of the dragon kiln. It is estimated that the kiln god grandfather wanted him to have a good year, just on the twenty-eighth day of the Waxing Moon, several Jianzhan pots were steaming red and came out of the cassette bowl, and after cooling, Rao Songda was pleased to find that these Jianzhan pots, without deformation, without jumping glaze, were almost perfectly born.
Rao Songda's Jianzhan pot is tall, straight and spirited; the iron crystal glaze of Jianzhan naturally forms the colors of Ugin, persimmon red, purple gold, tea powder and other colors in the process of wood burning; the spout is small and sharp, and the water is tight and powerful, which is a teapot that can be used as a hand.
A pot spanning several eras; the same raw material, adapted to different types of utensils; the fun of tea utensils, is among them.