Ruby-red cup
Entranced by these hard-to-control color variations, Tsai continued experimenting at home. Often he used whatever was at hand: eggshells, sawdust, rice husks, oyster shells.... After his research into glaze production, he would then conduct experiments, firing them in different types of kiln (tunnel kilns, gas kilns, coal kilns, etc.), gaining practical understanding about their differences and unique qualities.
In 1974, he rented a house in Shihlin, where he used about 35 square feet of space on a stairwell landing to build his first kiln. It was there he created his first work on classical examples: a "ruby-red glazed cup." To test the market, he took the work to Taipei's "Antique Street" to have it appraised. It was well received, and soon there was growing demand for his work. His creative confidence swelled, and he threw himself even more vigorously into researching glazes.
"Once I had a kiln at home, I would write out the ingredients for a glaze and then give them to my wife before I went off to work. My wife, who was interested in ceramics too, would fire some test pieces based on the glaze formula I had given her. After I got off from work, I would look at the results and adjust the ingredients, and the following day my wife would test it out for me again." In this way husband and wife, by dint of constant experimentation, created some startlingly beautiful glazes.
Later, Tsai left the tile factory to work at a kiln at Yingko, Taoyuan County. Then, at a friend's invitation, he became a partner in a new ceramics factory. Finally, he decided to create independently. In 1974 he rented a workshop in Yingko of about 200 square feet with a potter's wheel and some second-hand glazing accessories. There, he went hard at work forming, using the glazes he had developed from many years of toil. Because he couldn't afford his own kiln, he rented one nearby. Not long afterwards, the word got out that his glazes were unlike anyone else's, so that many neighboring potters started coming to him to have test tiles glazed and fired. His reputation grew.
Focusing on creative work, the following year he opened a workshop in Peitou specializing in various kinds of small vessels, china and utensils. The workshop received much favorable attention, and antique dealers, both local and from Hong Kong, came calling. They commissioned him to make reproductions of "oil-spot" glaze, Jun ware, ceramics with copper red, underglazed blue-and-white ware, as well as Yue celadon and other glazes. Tsai also began to hire formers and other specialists, so that he could devote himself to researching glazes and bisque.
"Exquisitely styled, accurately colored, classically elegant": That is how master calligrapher Chang Ta-chien described Tsai's work. The photo shows the whole Tsai family posing for a shot with Chang at his residence.