Set-up after moving to Shanghai in 2018 XIN PIN is a carefully curated selection of products discovered, designed and made whilst exploring China. It culminated in the launch of an online store selling Chinese craft for the modern home. It showcases the interesting and often overlooked beauty of Chinese crafts and traditional products, made bespoke or ordered directly from a local maker.
Founder, July 2018 - June 2022
Fine stoneware bowl with stripe glaze by Shanghai ceramacist Guo Yu Hong. Da Gang Ni 大缸泥 ‘big pot clay’ from Yixing near Shanghai, is a grainy stoneware traditionally used to make the big Chinese storage pots.
Handmade leather pumps from Da Mei Hua a traditional Chinese shoemaker. This Shanghai brand has been producing their shoes since the 1940s, and four master makers still stitch these high quality slippers and pumps by hand.
Double happiness basket wishes luck and happiness with the double ‘xi’ character (a traditional symbol of good luck and happiness) intricately woven in to its centre. Made by hand in Hunan from bamboo.
Blue Nankeen is a traditional Chinese hand-printed fabric using a stencil techinque . A soybean and lime paste is applied through carved wood or paper stencils on to thick homespun cotton. The fabric is dipped up to ten times in tubs of natural indigo dye and the paste is scraped off to reveal the design.
Tin watering can handmade by Mr. Chen, who has been a tinsmith for 50 years in Xinchang and at 76 still opens up the shutters of his traditional shop to display his useful wares.
Traditional Chinese cleaver and scissors produced by Zhang Xianquan in Hangzhou. They have been making high quality steel since 1628.