How to Identify Handmade Tenmoku

Hand-pulled forming is an ancient technique in which pliable clay is pulled into various shapes by hand on a rotating wheel. It requires high skills and a lot of physical effort from the master craftsman. Therefore, the shapes made by hand-pulled forming are rich in variety and can be custom-made according to the customer's preferences. Additionally, the density of the body made by hand-pulled forming is better, making it less prone to deformation.

  Machine pressing is a product that evolved with the advancement of modern technology to save the significant amount of time wasted in hand-pulled forming.

 Handmade Tenmoku can be distinguished from machine-pressed Tenmoku in the following aspects:

 Firstly, you can feel the texture by touching it. Hand-pulled Tenmoku feels heavy and substantial, while machine-pressed Tenmoku feels light and thin.

 Secondly, you can examine the bottom of the Tenmoku. Machine-pressed Tenmoku has a flat and smooth bottom without any wheel marks. Handmade Tenmoku, however, naturally has wheel marks on the bottom from hand-pulled forming, and irregular hand-pulled forming lines inside. Some have concentric circles, while others have varying depths. A closer look will reveal these details.

 Thirdly you can touch the wall of the Tenmoku with your hand to see if there are traces of hand-pulled forming.

 The fourth type is the hand-pulled lamp, which has a spiritual quality, while the machine-pressed ones are rigid and lifeless.

If you want to truly learn how to distinguish handmade teacups from machine-pressed ones, you must go to Jianyang and see the real objects. The more you see, the more you will naturally appreciate the differences between the two.