Verdant Tea

This large modern-style teapot from Ming Xin Tang features a unique design with two different glass inserts: a generously-large brew basket to give your leaves plenty of room to infuse as you watch them unfurl, and a bonus steam-percolator glass insert designed to continuously steam your tea leaves and drip down over low heat. The wood handle makes for an elegant pour as you show off your finest teas.

This creamy blue-green Ru glaze teapot celebrates the tradition of bringing new life to old pieces through gold repair work. As ancient pieces are excavated, instead of preserving cracked shards, modern collectors are repairing these relics with gold so that they can be used in tea brewing the way the original artist intended. This gold work has spurred the growth of a new craft, adding adornment to the repairs- a modern dialog with ancient pieces. This Ru pot draws on the goldwork tradition with a golden motif of its own, a contrast to the lightly-crackled Ru glaze itself.

The dramatic and tall looping handle on this celadon teapot is notoriously difficult to form and fire, but the effect is gorgeous, like a little kettle or a picnic basket. Hand-finished and fired in a traditional Longquan kiln, this celadon is highly vitrified like glass, making it a non-reactive material that helps bring out incredible aromatic depth in your tea.

This is part of master potter Lai Xiahong’s “Back to Nature” Forest Series, drawing inspiration from the natural landscape of mountains and forest surrounding her home in Yixing. Her work scouting and personally excavating her clays from the hillsides brings her deep into nature, which comes through in Lai Xiahong’s hand-sculpted forms like this unique cup, one of Lai Xiahong’s first ‘non-teapot’ pieces she has ever made available. The cup evokes a tree stump, or hollowed out gourd, surrounded by roots- a nod to the bounty of nature as the cup is filled. The warmth of the Duan Ni clay will continue to grow deeper over years of use.

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong brings together fine clay and a modern, organic sensibility to traditional forms. This classic "Xi Shi" teapot is a perfect example of her hand crafted work. The lovely Da Hong Pao Ni clay will age beautifully with almost any kind of tea, gaining more depth and luster over years of brewing.

This beautifully-small Yixing teapot from master potter Lai Xiaohong was hand-made and hand-finished in the traditional Han Xiang form. It is all too rare these days to find teapots in the 100ml-150ml size since they are harder to make than larger pots, but it is so rewarding to use a pot like this and be able to steep through the same leaves over a dozen times with a single kettle of water and really see the flavor and aftertaste develop. Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong is famous for her hand-excavated and blended Di Cao Qing clay, a rich, dense and mottled clay that Lai Xiahong blends from minerals settled in her trough after months of careful aging. The warm Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong brings together fine clay and a modern, organic sensibility to traditional forms. This Long Dan, or Dragon’s Egg teapot is a perfect example of her hand crafted work. This stunning Hei Ni clay ages beautifully with almost any kind of tea, gaining more depth and luster over years of brewing.

Yi Li Zhu means pearl, a fitting name for a teapot with such a graceful pearl-like pot body. Award-winning master potter Lai Xiaohong truly shines with her work on simple powerful shapes like this one, setting off each detail with perfect balance. Lai Xiaohong excavates and blends her own clay, and is particularly famous for her Di Cao Qing’s mottling and the way it builds a luster and patina over time.

The gu xiang is one of Lai Xiaohong’s favorite forms, a shape she keeps coming back to thanks to its balance and grace. This unique Gu Xiang features a tall curved lid handle and boldly-offset spout, giving the pot poise and energy. Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong is famous for her hand-excavated and blended Di Cao Qing clay, a rich, dense and mottled clay that Lai Xiahong blends from minerals settled in her trough after months of careful aging. The warm Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

Much of Lai Xiaohong’s career has been a meditation on the various shapes inspired by the moon. This special ban yue or “half moon” teapot is one of her oldest most classic forms, perfectly balanced with graceful sweeping lines and a perfectly integrated spout. Lai Xiaohong hand-crafted this teapot with strikingly beautiful Qing Hui Ni for a lifetime of use.