Zisha pots

These two teapots that I collected happened to have a common design but made by two different potters with two different types of zisha.. You can spot that the one on the left is slightly fatter in the middle while the one on the right is slightly fitter. Both teapots show a rough texture which appears to have traces of sand particles uniformly spread on the outside.

Yixing zisha teapots should have traces of sand particles on the surface, if you touch it you will feel the sand particles. This is because the raw material is basically rock taken from the mountain. These rocks are then ground into smaller particles before the zisha is beaten into strips of clay-like matter. This is left for a couple of months for the zisha to achieve its plasticity (mouldability). With this plasticity, the potters are then able to mould the teapots into various shape. As a result, real zisha  (in mandarin means purple sand) will have both the look and feel of sand particles on the outside. Another tip to check if you teapot is really made from zisha is that when hot water is poured over it, the water spreads evenly on the surface and quickly evaporates into thin air (due to minute pores of the zisha). Another thing you would want to find out is that if the pot you own is really hand made and not moulded by machines or slip-casted. Very simple, open the cover and look inside the teapot. If it is hand made, you should be able to see some scratch marks (a bit like marks left over by brushes) at the bottom and internal wall of the pot. These scratch marks are evidence of potters scrapping out the clay to smoothen out the wall of the pot. Machined made or slip-casted pots will have no such traces.

Brush marks at the bottom

Teapot shaped in a mould

Water spreads nicely over zisha pot