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Qian Zhangfa is a pottery artist in the small capital seat of Changxing County in northern Zhejiang. Although he lives in a small town, pottery artists frequently come from Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing to visit him at his studio in Changxing and he is frequently invited to exhibit his masterpieces in these large cities or even in foreign countries.

Born in 1966, Qian comes from a family that has nothing to do with art. His parents are no artists. Of the four brothers, however, Qian Zhanfa and his elder brother take great interest in art. His elder brother is specialized in bonsai and rockery while Qian Zhangfa devotes himself to purple-clay teakettles. And he married into a family of experienced workers of purple-clay teakettles. His wife is his best partner in his career. Qian worked about eight years in a purple-clay plant in Changxing before Qian and his wife went together to a similar plant in Yixing. The couple studied the art of making teakettles for about two years before they came back to Changxing in 1997 and founded Qian Zhangfa Teakettle Art Studio.

The rockeries his elder brother made and gave him inspired Qian Zhangfa a great deal. Qian Zhangfa designs rockery-imitation teakettles. With careful studies of rockeries, he has transplanted the artistic features of rockeries to his teakettles. His teakettles look simple but radiate verve, and they are something quite unique and unseen before.

His achievements since then make him look as if he were born to be a master manufacturer of purple-clay teakettles.

With his teakettle as one of the final 25, he won a bronze medal at the 2007 Korean Biennial, a world pottery event in which 2,444 artworks presented by 1,436 artists from 66 countries and regions were displayed. His prizewinning teakettle is now in the collection of the Korean National Pottery Museum. In recent years, his teakettles have won numerous top prizes at home and abroad.

Another teakettle that made Qian famous among his peers is a teakettle made in 2003 in commemoration of Deng Xiaopings 100th anniversary birthday. One side of the teakettle presents Deng Xiaopings famous remark about reform: wading across the river by feeling the stepping stones. Its front side features a portrait of Deng Xiaoping, originally created by Li Qi, a prominent painter. The handle of the teakettle is created in the shape of the Chinese character 百, hinting at Dengs 100th anniversary birthday. Pottery artists and collectors thought highly of the creation. It was elected as one of the 2003 top ten purple-clay teakettles of China.

Zhu Yucheng, vice president of China Crafts Artists Association, comments that making breakthroughs in the traditional purple-clay teakettles is not easy and that Qians artworks highlight the physical beauty of overall shape, spontaneity of lines and harmony of proportion.

At the invitation of Hangzhou Tangyun Museum, Qian Zhangfa last year created eight imitation teakettles in the style of Chen Mansheng (1768-1822), an epoch-making purple-clay master of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The museum wanted imitations because it treasures the precious originals so much that it does not want to display originals. Qian Zhangfa was their final selection after a nationwide search. The year-long work has inspired Qian a great deal. He has decided to study the style of Chen Mansheng further and create another 18 teakettles in Chens style. □