Taya Zinina

Taya is an artist and passionate tea lover, born in Russia and now living in Hong Kong. Her tea journeys through China are spent searching for farmers, craftspeople, and kindred spirits who love tea and culture as much as she does. In an ancient mountain village near Chengdu, she befriended a young couple devoted to preserving their heritage, and found hand-woven cotton rice sacks from the 1950s drying on their balcony. These sacks were used by farmers across China, patched and mended year after year, and stained a warm brown by the rice itself. Back in Hong Kong, she spent weeks cleaning and finishing the sturdy old cloth. When she first laid a finished piece beneath her teaware, she felt a deep connection with the art of time and the hands that wove it. These chabu are culture, history, imperfection, and time: life itself. Her hope is that something that moved her so deeply can now grace tea tables around the world.