The Art of Teapot Care

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:09:34 +0800

The care of Zisha teapots is a profound art that requires patience and meticulous care. In daily use, we must not only avoid contact with oily substances but also frequently caress and handle them with clean hands, allowing the teapot body to gradually display its warm luster through careful handling.

Once a Zisha teapot is contaminated with oil, it easily develops a “thief’s light” and develops spotted patterns. Both the interior and exterior of the teapot must not be contaminated with oil. Every tea activity requires clean hands for tea preparation, firstly to prevent tea from being polluted by foreign odors, and secondly to ensure the teapot receives proper care. During the tea drinking process, caressing and handling the clay teapot with clean hands is very necessary. The body fluids secreted by human hands have beneficial effects on purple clay, and even bamboo, wood, horn, and jade materials - this has been confirmed by many enthusiasts, though it cannot yet be verified through instrument analysis. Generally speaking, in the first year of initial care and use of a new teapot, the appearance and color will show considerable improvement, the clay color will become more subdued than the original, and the lid and spout will become more tightly fitted and smoothly turned. From the second to fifth year, tea stains will make the inner and outer colors of the teapot walls consistent. The teapot will basically shed its dry atmosphere, gradually display elegant luster, and show obvious tea enhancement. After five years, the sensory changes of the teapot become extremely slow, making it difficult to achieve major breakthroughs in ten or twenty years. However, the teapot’s luster becomes more elegant like jade, with warm luster, and when placed as a desk ornament, it increasingly shows its serene beauty.

Care on 画陶轩 · 宜兴紫砂

The Art of Teapot Care