Exploring the manufacturing process of four famous porcelain[blue-and-white porcelain] in Yunde Town (the whole process)

Blue and white porcelain, also known as white blue and white porcelain, often referred to as blue and white, is one of the mainstream varieties of Chinese porcelain, under the glaze color porcelain.Blue and white porcelain is a cobalt ore containing cobalt oxide as raw material, on the ceramic body painted decorative, and then covered with a transparent glaze, high-temperature reduction flame once fired.Cobalt is blue after firing and has the characteristics of strong coloring, bright color, high firing rate and stable color.The pattern after firing is covered by a transparent glaze film, the surface is bright and soft, smooth and not protruding, it appears crystal clear and bright.It is characterized by good color preservation, long-lasting.

The manufacture of circular ware is a kind of traditional ceramic forming technology in Jingdezhen.It relies on the hand pulling of pottery car into rough shape, and then makes use of ceramic pattern, which is widely used in daily-use porcelain (cup and dish) production.After the founding of New China, due to the adoption of advanced mechanical production methods, the manual circular device almost retired from Jingdezhen’s stage.Science and technology are also productive forces, but for the traditional, with a certain degree of lethal force.

1. Rub the mud

The purpose of kneading mud is to empty the air bubbles in the mud and make it more compact.In the absence of this process, it is easy to appear in the body contains bubbles, the body dry-fired deformation is easy to rupture.

2. Blank

Jingdezhen traditional round tool is made of the body according to the final type, which can be used for later printing.

3. Print blank

Good rough, after a certain time of natural shade dry (must be in a certain humidity and temperature conditions natural shade dry, not sun. For billet forming, the billet must be slanted on the slab and not placed upright. Otherwise may produce the bottom of the blank crack), you can enter the printing process.The purpose of the printing blank is to make the hand-formed circular ware uniform after firing.After the billet is naturally dry by hand, the semi-dry billet is placed on the earth grinding tool and clapped by hand.

4. Blank

The sharp billet is the finishing of the printed billet to make it smooth and round further.

5. Dang Li Glaze

Round making, if there is no decoration in the device, you need to put on the inner glaze first.The glaze on the outside of the object is the second dip in the later period.Glaze is a vitreous thin layer attached to the surface of ceramic body, which has similar physical and chemical properties to glass.Glazes are usually made of quartz, feldspar, clay, etc.The methods of glazing include spraying, blowing, soaking, pouring and swamping.The inner glaze (the inside of the object) and the bottom glaze (the base of the object) we adopt the traditional roll glaze method, we use the outer glaze method.

6. Brush

The billet of good billet of inside glaze, can enter drawing billet process.The green flower material used for drawing billet needs to be ground for a long time in advance, and the formula is indescribable in every studio.

7.Mixing Water

The charm of blue-and-white porcelain is like the position of freehand painting in Chinese traditional painting, and the beauty of blue-and-white not only in fine painting, but also in the beautiful and delicate layers of traditional Chinese painting and painting. And it all comes from mixing water.

8.Exterior Glazes

Draws the finished porcelain billet, needs to carry on the second glazing process.At this point, the bottom of the cup has not yet formed.Immersion method needs to master the body, glaze and porcelain expected to have a comprehensive understanding and grasp.The length of time the porcelain billet is immersed in the glaze water directly affects the quality of the porcelain after firing.

9. Foot-digging

After glaze is applied outside porcelain billet, after glaze surface is naturally dry, can enter the process of digging bottom foot.Because what we make is to have the thing of foot, need to leave the billet of the outermost circle of bottom foot when digging, and must keep the same of outer circle, this needs very strong control ability and ability.

10. Underwriting and glazing

11. Glazed feet

Glazed feet, the initial state is in the ceramic wheel hand-made small round mud cake.After drying again in the ceramic wheel spin out the corresponding shape, and each cup one-to-one.

With glaze foot branch burning technology, only in the official kiln firing court porcelain, the use of glazed foot branch burning porcelain pottery foot is full of glaze, that is, beautiful, smooth and not to scratch the surface of furniture, but because of the complexity and difficulty of this process, Modern ceramic industry only uses this process to make expensive high-grade porcelain.

12. Full Kiln, Burning Kiln

The porcelain billet to be burned is distributed reasonably in the kiln body, which is called full kiln.When the kiln is full, it needs to be arranged according to the structure of the kiln body and the size of all the billet body to be burned properly, and set aside a reasonable flue of fire, otherwise it will affect the atmosphere of the kiln body when the kiln is fired, leading to the failure of the firing.

Jingdezhen traditional blue-and-white porcelain used reduction firing, we fired the temperature of 1330 ° C, burning time of about 10 hours.

13. Open a kiln

After 12-18 hours of natural cooling, in the kiln body temperature drops to normal temperature, can open the kiln.This is the most exciting moment in the entire production process.

Finally, we need to test the porcelain and polish the bottom of the kiln.