Yixing teapot artist Shen Xifen
(Art name: Liuxin, born in Yixing in 1967)
Her numerous honours include: Jiangsu Master of Skills; Jiangsu Provincial Ceramic Art Master (3rd session, 2023); Full Senior Arts and Crafts Artist; Full Senior Rural Revitalization Artisan; one of the “Top Ten Craftsmen” of Jiangsu Light Industry; Jiangsu Craftsman; renowned talent under Jiangsu’s “Three Leads” (leading skills, industry development, and common prosperity) Local Talent Program; celebrated teapot maker from Yixing, the Pottery Capital; Head of the Wuxi Municipal Skill Master Studio; Wuxi May 1st Women’s Pacesetter; Representative Inheritor of Yixing’s Intangible Cultural Heritage; and Senior Tea Art Master.


Since 1982, she has studied Zisha pottery creation and design under distinguished masters Xu Anbi and Gu Zhipei. With over 30 years’ experience in teapot-making, she has built a solid foundation in Zisha craftsmanship. Her works are noted for their distinctive shapes, scrupulous material selection, refined artistry and exquisite workmanship. She specialises in ribbed, square, floral and plain Zisha wares.
Her pieces have been permanently collected by the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution, Tianjin Museum, Xiamen Museum, Wuxi Museum, Shandong Museum, China Zisha Museum, and many others, and have won a host of gold awards in arts and crafts competitions.
In June 2014, she gave a live teapot-making demonstration on the CCTV-3 programme Variety Gala: Who Does Not Recall Jiangnan, presenting the Zisha craft – hailed as the “Oriental Purple Jade” and a “Treasure of Ceramics” – to a national audience and spreading the beauty of Zisha art. In 2016, led by Mr. Shi Juntang, President of the Yixing Ceramic Industry Association, she attended the 50th Annual NCECA Conference in the United States and a Sino-British ceramic artist exchange, during which her teapots Qin Feng and Jin Feng were exhibited at the British Museum.


