The Maker
The people behind the pieces in our ceramics shop. Each works by hand, in their own kiln, in their own way.
GUANGZHOU · TASTING CUPS
Liang Xiangzhao
梁向昭 · Yihe Studio 乙禾
Liang Xiangzhao was born in Foshan in 1976 and has worked in ceramics for nearly thirty years. He is a recognized inheritor of the Xicun kiln, a Guangzhou kiln that flourished in the Northern Song dynasty, when its wares were shipped across Southeast Asia and beyond, and whose technique had been lost for centuries. He spent years bringing it back, studying under Yaozhou-kiln masters and collecting what remained of the old wares.
At his studio, Yihe, each cup is shaped by hand and glazed with minerals used as they come from the ground, with nothing added to push the color. Fired for hours above 1,300°C in a kiln the studio designed itself, the glaze settles differently on every piece: thin and iron-brown at the rim, pooled blue-grey inside, streaked where it ran. No two leave the kiln the same, which is why we name each one.
His mark, 乙禾, is stamped on the base of every cup. These are the cups we pour into at the tea house.
Artist · Liang Xiangzhao 梁向昭, Yihe Studio
Form · Stemmed cup
Glaze · Unrefined mineral glaze, fired above 1,300°C
Volume · about 35 ml
A stemmed cup in deep plum, with streaks of blue and white flaring out from the center of the bowl, like light moving across a night sky.
Shaped and glazed by hand at Yihe Studio, Guangzhou. About the maker →
One of one · the cup in the photos is the one you'll receive. Hand-wash only.