Who actually made it
The workshop, the city and the name of the technique. We visit, or we do not list it.
About Qi House
We go
and meet
the makers.
Qi House began as a list of workshops we liked and could not buy from abroad. It is now a small shop that carries their work — and writes down everything we learned standing in their studios.
How it started
A list on a phone, and a lot of phone calls.
The first entry was a censer. It came from a kiln in Dehua, it cost less than a good dinner, and there was no way to buy it from outside China without wiring money to a stranger.
We had spent years working in cross-border commerce, and the problem was familiar in a specific way: the objects were excellent, and the route to them was not. Most of what travels instead is the version made for export — simplified, cheaper clay, safe shapes, and an English description written by nobody in particular.
So we started going to the workshops. We asked what the clay was, where it came from, how long a piece takes, and what the maker would refuse to do even if we paid for it. Then we wrote it down and put it on the product page.
Qi House is not trying to be the biggest shop for this. It is trying to be one you can trust with a first purchase — and a second one, for someone else.
Sourcing & authenticity
Five questions before anything is listed.
A piece is only listed here after we can answer all five in writing. If we cannot, it stays off the site.
What it is made of
Grade and origin stated plainly, along with what it is not. No jade treated to look like something it isn't.
How it holds up in use
We use one of everything ourselves first — pour from it, burn it, wear it, wash it.
Whether it survives the post
Fragile pieces get a dedicated crate. If a piece cannot be shipped safely, we say so rather than risk it.
Whether we would own it
The last check is the honest one. Plenty of good work has not made it past this question.
And if we get it wrong
30 days to send it back, unused. We cover return shipping when the fault is ours.
Care guide
Most of these objects improve with use.
Instructions come in the box, and the Companion will answer for the exact piece you bought. The essentials:
Rinse with hot water only — no soap, ever. Dedicate a zisha pot to one kind of tea and it will season into it over a few months. Celadon can take boiling water; it dislikes thermal shock, so warm it first in winter.
Store sticks away from sunlight and cooking smells; the resin takes on whatever surrounds it. Burn in a ventilated room with the censer on a heat-safe surface, and let the ash cool completely before emptying.
Jade likes being worn — body oil keeps it lustrous. Silver tarnishes faster near salt and chlorine; wipe it with the cloth provided and it comes back. Filigree is fine but soft, so store it flat rather than hanging.
Hand-wash xiangyun silk cold, dry in shade, and expect it to soften with each wash — that is the point of the process. Keep brocade off metal hooks. Bamboo likes to breathe, so leave the lid ajar in humid weather.
Packing & gifting
Arrives as something you can hand over.
Everything is packed so that it can be given away without extra work — and so that it survives the journey.
Double-boxed
Inner presentation box, outer shipping carton, cushioned with moulded pulp rather than plastic.
A card in English
What the object is, who made it, how to look after it. No translations that read like a manual.
Gift message
Write it in the order note and we include it handwritten. Prices are left off the card.
Insured in transit
Every parcel is insured. If it arrives damaged, send a photo and we replace the piece.
Come and look at the collection.
Twelve pieces to begin with, and a person at the other end of the email who has actually held them.