Yixing is a town of one million, and one hundred thousand are potters in the teapot industry. I was there a few days ago with my IB coordinator and her wonderful husband. We went to a little open air pottery shop and studio, not much bigger than a bedroom and met the owner, his potter wife and their apprentice Ding Da Shaung. I fell in love with Ding, she is extremely petite and looks like a Native American potter. Those little hands of hers could flatten a slab of clay 1/16th of an inch thick, adjoin it, and pat it round in just a few minutes. She then placed it in a plaster mold, banded it and attached a base. While it dried to leather hard we created a tiny lid with a slab, added a lip and molded it, too. No water, no mess, no slab roller, and the nicest clay ever. Every artist loves to feel clay, it is that tactile right brain thing we enjoy. I got to play with the clay, make a pot and drink green tea all at the same time.

Yixing has the nicest karma, no wonder a “live terra cotta army of potters” reside there! I could live there and make pots till the end of time. Get my own little studio and sell those crazy Americans Chinese teapots. I left my green-ware pot, to be fired. Maybe someone will buy it, low and behold it will be made by a Texan!