Golden Pumpkin Yixing Zisha Teapot

The pumpkin or gourd is a classic teapot shape, representing good blessings and heath in Chinese folklore. The body of this teapot, divided into six parts, is made from Qing Shui Ni; the ‘stem’ on top is the handle for the lid, while the other stems form the spout and handle, all made of Jiao Ni. Within the body are nine filter holes, providing both good filtering of the tea while also allowing it to pour smoothly. The overall shape of the pot is quite cute, looking like a small, mature pumpkin.

Jiao Ni: Jiao Ni is a special type of craft utilized in teapot-making wherein several different types of clay are divided into pieces, stacked together, cross-cutted, and then patted into one whole piece adopting the variety of colors and textures from the individual parts, generating a wholly unique color and type of clay at the end.

Su Rongrong is a teapot artist and crafter born in 1987 in Yixing. Influenced by pottery art from a very young age, her bond with Zisha teapots is unbreakable - and this bond is evident in her pieces, with their fine workmanship, smooth lines, and overall novelty, each maintaining its own unique style. Her work has been featured in large-scale exhibitions and has earned several awards, and is deeply loved and widely collected by Zisha teapot lovers.

Her signature reads along the bottom of her pots, “Made by Su Rongrong”: 苏荣荣制

Qing Shui Ni: The ore for this purple clay is a type of mica-rich hematite, often used for drinking mugs in ancient times. Because this clay contains relatively fewer impurities than other raw materials, and because it does not change shape or glaze when firing, it is widely used for crafts. It is mellow and ruddy as well, often earning the name of “red purple clay” or Hong Qing Shui. The clay has a quaint look to it, and after using a teapot made of this material for brewing the same type of tea over and over, the taste of that tea in further sessions will gradually deepen. For these reasons and others, both teapot makers and tea drinkers love this kind of clay.

Yixing County is known as the Pottery Capital of China for its extensive 6500-year history of the craft. The area boasts abundant resources of argil, tea, bamboo, and charcoal, each of which contributes an important base material for the making of pottery. Yixing Zisha products have earned countless prizes both at home in China as well as abroad, with a few exceptional works presented as national gifts during international diplomacy.