Cai Shao “Xuan Hu” Tea Bowl
Tea Cups
De Hua Porcelain
Yi Xuan CeramicsThis fully handmade cup is one-of-a-kind and available while supplies last
Crafted By Yi Xuan
Museum-level, monumental, dramatic, and fully one-of-a-kind, this is artist Yi Xuan’s tribute to the old-school Song Dynasty matcha bowl.
Big enough to hold a full gaiwan or yixing teapot infusion, this is the ideal solo gongfu vessel - reflecting tea’s aromatics like the fine high-fired porcelain it is, but with deep sculptural beauty that elevates the tasting experience.
Technical Specifications
- weight : 315 g
- apprx. capacity : 140 ml
- width : 8 cm
- height : 6 cm
- firing : Cai Shao
The way she hand-sculpted this cup makes it look rough-hewn, like it was excavated from an ancient Song Dynasty kiln site, but with a shimmering swirling iridescence - an artifact of the extreme heat of her three day firing process that gets so hot she has to build her work from a special hand-blended porcelain mix instead of traditional clay which would otherwise break apart in the kiln.
This gaiwan is not glazed- its color comes entirely from iron-oxide dusts present in her porcelain reacting to the heat of the firing.
Yi Xuan stamped this cup with her seal in the middle of the base for a beautiful contrast where the character 玄 fills in.
This truly one-of-a-kind piece is the exact tea bowl pictured. Yi Xuan’s process and her kiln make for stunningly unique pieces that can never turn out the same again. Once this individual piece finds a new home, it is gone.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Yi Xuan
Dehua County Yi Xuan Ceramics Research Institute |
Cai Shao Ceramics Studio Research Center
Master potter, artist and researcher Yi Xuan heads her own officially-recognized Ceramics Research Institute, accredited by the Dehua Ceramics Development Committee as a Research and Development site for collaboration with ceramics craft university programs. She primarily works with national-level ceramics masters and graduate program professors doing experimental kiln firings, researching new techniques and collaborating as an artist and kiln master.
Her wood-fired kiln is based on years of research on ancient firing techniques, along with modern science and collaboration. Due to the immense amount of work to do a firing, Yi Xuan only fires three times a year, with most space devoted to university research projects. This means her own body of work is tiny and mostly reserved by collectors before firing.
Yi Xuan and Verdant Tea
In November 2023, we were lucky enough to be introduced to Yi Xuan through a classmate that studied with one of the professors with whom she collaborates. We became quick friends.
Yi Xuan decided to make a few of the pieces held back for her own personal collection available to us as a cultural exchange to share Dehua’s ancient and ever changing ceramics tradition.
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