Lao Ni means Old Clay, or clay that had been aged before going into the kiln. I've learned from old yixing masters and most of them have recipe clay passed on by their masters and to their students, some have been aged more than a Century.
Gu Jing Zhou once said before his master passed away, they together made some pots using the master Lao Ni. The result are Masterpieces, with the finest recipe clay and tradition which will pass on for generations.
Good Recipe Lao Ni is like Jade, said master He Dao Hong... both are minerals at the end of the day. Yixing shares a lot of characters that jade has. The more you use, the more luster it will show. It will glow like Jade with human touch and get lighter by time.
These two pots in the front are from the same master, same clay and made at the same time (I guess). You can tell by these pics that there is luster shine to them, even after so many years. The funny thing is, if you cradle it inside your hands, it will suck up all the oil from your palm, glowing like a gem. Almost like when a puppy has been waiting for her master to come home all day, once you stepped inside the house, the puppy lit-up. Fun....
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10 comments:
Hi Toki, is that gold filling in the pot's cracks?
Toki,
Love the pots. The dog analogy is brillant.
Peace
Dear Phyll it is gold filling and, how are you doing my friend? : )
Thanks Matt, I keep thinking my puppy (when he was young) all the time. - T
Cool pots. I love the way you convey a sense of their material, genesis, and vitality. They are not just objects when you talk about them ... they have life.
Dear Sal-Thanks for your kind words. I very much agreed that they have life... may I suggest "Pot Chi" : ) T
Teaparker let us hold some of his old zhuni pots and let us experience what you describe: old zhuni pots are so soft that they quickly become part of your hand and warm up through the body contact. It's like a caress.
Thanks for sharing.
From my understanding, yixing clay basically has clay 泥 and sand 沙. Good clay is one made with 沙. Such as Ben Shan Lu Ni, Di Cao Qing etc..That 'sand' texture helps filtering the taste and shines itself over time, become 'jade' as master He spoke of. 'Jade' here means sort of a cubic-effect quality that sand texture delievers. Just few notes from what I heard..
Stephane - It's so funny we are feeling the same thing in different corner of the world : ) Happy that you enjoyed.
This is such great information, as always! Thanks Chri42.
Toki
For example, Lu Ni is 'sand' layer between Zini and Jiani. And Di Cao Qing is one contained with 'Ji Yan', a silicon-like dots, that becomes 'sand' after heating. It's one that performs 'high absorpness without losing aroma' as what the Chinese describes as good yixing clay. Whereas Zhuni is of pure 泥-clay. So it brews an honest taste other than working up. But what should distinguish is from big particles or other normal clayware that just performs 'arsorbing' including aroma.
HI, IF I MAY ASK ..... HOW ON EARTH DO YOU GET HOLD ON SUCH MASTERPIECES. ARE THEY FROM OTHER COLLECTORS? Bloody nice.
Thx
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