Sourced by Michael Zhan — an Anji workshop with three generations of bamboo craft
I first visited this workshop in the hills outside Anji on a sourcing trip for a tea-table concept that didn’t yet exist. The owner, a third-generation bamboo worker, showed me a prototype of a low table with a built-in drainage channel — originally designed for a Chaozhou tea house that never opened. The bones were there: a 100cm span of laminated bamboo, light enough for one person to carry but sturdy under a full gongfu session, with a sloped channel that funnels water into a hidden tray beneath. What struck me was the surface. They had abandoned conventional varnish in favour of a high-temperature pressing that sealed the natural sugars and rendered the bamboo almost impervious to humidity. The workshop uses Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) harvested at four years, when the lignin content is ideal for stability. After cutting, the strips are stacked cross-grain, heat-pressed, and then hand-sanded for six passes — enough to close the pores without creating a plastic-like film. We went through three iterations before the channel pitch matched our draining speed standard. This lot is from the September 2025 batch, finished just as the weather turned cool enough to prevent expansion checks. Every table carries the workshop’s stamp and comes with a small bottle of camellia oil for first feeding.