惠祥雲 · 祥雲軒
Potter · Yixing, China
Xiangyun Hui
Zhu Ni teapots, shaped by hand in the town where he was born.
His story
Raised among potters
Xiangyun Hui was born in the 1960s into a family of potters in Yixing, Jiangsu. He learned to make teapots from his father as a boy, and today works from his own studio, Xiangyunxuan (祥雲軒).
He is regarded as a 15th-generation descendant of Hui Mengchen (惠孟臣), the Ming-dynasty teapot maker whose small pots are still a reference point for gongfu tea.
In the 1990s, worried that the best zisha ore was being mined out, he began buying and storing good raw clay. He is known among Yixing potters as "the clay keeper" (藏泥翁).
The clay
Why Zhu Ni
Every pot in this collection is made of Zhu Ni (朱泥), a red Yixing clay. It shrinks a lot in the kiln, so fewer pots come through firing intact.
His studio works by a simple rule: honest clay, careful work, shapes that stay pleasing to look at, and a pot that pours well every day.
The body
The body is built and shaped at the bench with wooden tools.
The filter
A ball filter behind the spout keeps leaves in the pot as you pour.
The lid
The lid is fitted to its own pot so it sits snug.
The seal
Each base carries a carved inscription and his seal.
The pots
One of each
Twelve Zhu Ni pots, from a 100 ml pot for one to a 180 ml pot for sharing. Each is a single piece.
Custom orders
A pot made for you
Xiangyun Hui also makes teapots to order: a shape you have in mind, a particular size, or your own inscription carved on the base. Tell us what you are looking for and we will ask him what is possible.
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"In one pot, a world; in one grain of sand, a paradise."一壺一世界，一砂一淨土 — carved on the base of several of his pots