[Photo provided to China Daily]

Asked why he started the project, Huang simply said, "(It's because) I had nothing to kill time!"

His first zisha teapot was one on which he engraved a Chinese zodiac animal and gifted it to a friend. It triggered his interest to produce more such wares.

He said in Yixing, he wrote in the morning and spent the afternoon carving on earthenwares, sometimes one and at most eight pots. 

He chose the distinctive characters from Shui Hu Zhuan because of a personal interest. He began to draw those outlaws in 1960 and he thought highly of the independence, courage and integrity of them.