This is an yixing teapot made from yuankuang huangjin duan clay (original mine gold duan clay) 原矿黄金段, a rarer kind of duanni with a rich golden color.
You can read more about Huangjin Duan and the category of duanni clay, here in our blog entry.
This teapot is made in the style of 明式壶 mingshi teapot. This pot is known as fully handmade as unlike most Yixing teapots that are half handmade the sculptor does not use a molding tool to shape the body, but instead shapes everything, including the body, by hand. Fully handmade teapots require more labor and more skill to construct. Each one is entirely unique, reflecting the style of the artist, Lin Hanpeng 林汉鹏. This pot holds around 200ml.
You can read more about fully handmade teapots in our blog entry here.
Preparation Before Use
Yixing Teapots should be prepared before using the first time. This is called "opening the pot". It removes the dust from firing the teapot.
We recommend rinsing the teapot under warm water two or three times, then filling the teapot with boiling water and emptying it out two to three times. After this the teapot is ready for use.
Seasoning
Some recommend seasoning the teapot by placing it in a pot full of boiling hot tea to sit and absorb the flavour and tea oil, speeding up the seasoning of the teapot and giving it a premature shine. This is not necessary, the teapot will season naturally as it is used.