Verdant Tea

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong brings together fine clay and a modern, organic sensibility to traditional forms. This taller "Bao Zun" 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.

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong brings together fine clay and a modern, organic sensibility to traditional forms. This "Shi Lun Zhu" form teapot is a perfect example of her hand crafted work. This uniquely speckled chen pi clay will age beautifully with almost any kind of tea, gaining more depth and luster over years of brewing.

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. This meticulously hand-built Wen Dan form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built Feng Pou form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 Qing Xiang teapot is a perfect example of her hand crafted work. This stunning Zi Ni clay ages beautifully with almost any kind of tea, gaining more depth and luster over years of brewing.

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. This meticulously hand-built Yu Tiao form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built Sheng Tiao form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built Li Xiang form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 Zho Zhi teapot is a perfect example of her hand crafted work. This stunning Zi Ni clay ages beautifully with almost any kind of tea, gaining more depth and luster over years of brewing.

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. This meticulously hand-built gu xiang form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built Zhuo Ci form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built Xi Shi form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and features a playful carved bird. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built You Xiang form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 sensibility to traditional forms. This meticulously hand-built "Si Yuan" form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. The warm Da Hong Pao Ni clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

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. This meticulously hand-built Shi Piao form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built He Mei form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art. 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 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. This meticulously hand-built Gu Xiang form shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art with a swirling effect created by mixing Di Cao Qing and Duan Ni clay together in layers. The warm Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

This stunning Huang Jin Duan Ni teapot is part of Lai Xiaohong’s award-winning masterwork series combining the strength and elegance of classic form seamlessly with natural detail. The craft and time required to form a pot that transitions so perfectly between stark and clean abstraction to elegant touches of bamboo tests Lai Xiaohong’s skill and demands many dozens more hours of work to execute with her level of effortlessness. This stunningly light and delicate pieces features bamboo that seems to burst forth from the pot body. The intentional notches in the sides and lid handle evoke a scholarly object of contemplation. Bamboo is part of the traditional Chinese scholarly motif, used in writing implements and the furniture of a writing studio. Over time, fine bamboo gets deeper and redder, just like this incredible Huang Jin Duan Ni clay will continue to grow deeper with every use.

This stunning Qing Duan Ni teapot is part of Lai Xiaohong’s award-winning masterwork series combining the strength and elegance of classic form seamlessly with natural detail. The craft and time required to form a pot that transitions so perfectly between stark and clean abstraction to elegant touches of bamboo tests Lai Xiaohong’s skill and demands many dozens more hours of work to execute with her level of effortlessness.  Qiu Lin or “Contemplating Autumn” is a bold and striking study of the shapes a tree can form, the ripple and channels in the bark, the burls that tell the tree’s story. Lai Xiaohong carves these deep channels in meticulous detail to show off the beauty of trees sweeping twisting shapes in the autumn as leaves begin to fall. The gnarled lid handle and spout show off the age and history of the tree this pot is a tribute to.

This stunning Huang Jin Duan Ni teapot is part of Lai Xiaohong’s award-winning masterwork series combining the strength and elegance of classic form seamlessly with natural detail. The craft and time required to form a pot that transitions so perfectly between stark and clean abstraction to elegant touches of bamboo tests Lai Xiaohong’s skill and demands many dozens more hours of work to execute with her level of effortlessness. Qiu Fu, or the “Allure of Autumn” evokes the deeply meaningful concept of Yun (韵）used in tea, music and dance to describe a sensation that lingers with you, reverberates and transforms on itself long after the experience of art has passed. This piece evokes the reverberation of a gnarled tree branch viewed as a reflection in a still pond lit by moonlight. As a light breeze sweeps across the pond it creates ripples, reverberations, and transforms the still life into a dynamic and moving piece full of energy. Lai Xiaohong captures the poetry of this scene in clay.

This stunning Huang Jin Duan Ni teapot is part of Lai Xiaohong’s award-winning masterwork series combining the strength and elegance of classic form seamlessly with natural detail. The craft and time required to form a pot that transitions so perfectly between stark and clean abstraction to elegant touches of bamboo tests Lai Xiaohong’s skill and demands many dozens more hours of work to execute with her level of effortlessness.  Yi Fan Feng Shun or “Smooth Sailing,” is unique in the forest series in the way it captures the motion of wind and water moving through a deep forest space, the way wind makes leaves ripple in harmony with each other, the way water moves across stone in hidden forest streams. Indeed the lid handle almost evokes a leaf caught and bent in the wind as it is carried away. This feeling of being transported effortlessly complements the joy of brewing gongfu tea as an afternoon flows by.

This stunning Zi Ni teapot is part of Lai Xiaohong’s award-winning masterwork series combining the strength and elegance of classic form seamlessly with natural detail. The craft and time required to form a pot that transitions so perfectly between stark and clean abstraction to elegant touches of bamboo tests Lai Xiaohong’s skill and demands many dozens more hours of work to execute with her level of effortlessness.

This teapot is a meditation on the overflowing abundance of spring, with bamboo and natural elements almost growing into and around the pot body. The stunning sculptural detail evokes the twisted irregularities of prized scholarly objects of contemplation- found objects in nature set up in the scholar studio to inspire. The deep Zi Ni clay will continue to grow more lustrous and beautiful over time.