Due to popular demand - we've made a batch of unpainted cups, with same body as out dragon, cherry blossom and orchid cups. Here's the writeup from the originals...
Over the past couple of months we've been working with an ex-forger in Jingdezhen over several iterations to try to imitate as closely as we can this style of cups that we know and love from the Ming Dynasty.
We tried to do everything as closely as possible to the originals - the glazes were made by the last remaining Chinese National Treasure, specialising in this traditional type of ash glaze. The natural clay was wedged by foot in the traditional manner, rather than the standard machine wedging that is almost ubiquitous these days. This produces a clay that is less homogenous and has more character. The cups were thrown by hand and hand painted. Finally they were wood fired.
We're very happy with the results and have been using these cups daily. They make very nice cups for drinking Puerh tea, Luibao and Wuyi Yancha.
The base is marked with the characters 放下 - a mark we're using for a range of teaware we're developing.
Please note: This most recent batch of these cups were fired at a higher temperature than previous batches. It has made for a nicer finish, but some crackling may happen in the glaze over time. This is natural and often a sought out effect. It does not affect the integrity of the cup, just the appearance and character of the glaze.
