There are many kinds of ceramics in Jingdezhen. They're all fascinating handicrafts. Next, I'll introduce you some of the common types. As a ceramic lover, do you know them?
Blue and white porcelain is made of ore which contains cobalt oxide, painted patterns on porcelain surfaces, and then covered with a transparent glaze, burned by the high temperature flame. This is the production of blue and white porcelain. Glaze that contains obalt presents blue color after firing, with strong and bright color, high firing rate, color stability. At present, the earliest blue and white porcelain specimens were found in the Tang Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, the mature blue and white porcelain appeared. In Ming Dynasty, the blue and white porcelain became the mainstream of porcelain. Then it reached its peak in Qing Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, people also created the malachite Green glaze blue, bean green glaze blue and white porcelain and so many other series.
People add some kind of oxidation metal to the glaze, burn in a certain temperature and atmosphere. Then it will present different color, so called color glaze. The traditional color glaze has the following kinds. A blue glaze colored by iron; a red glaze colored by copper; a blue glaze colored by cobalt. In history, many dynasties have outstanding masterpieces of color glaze, such as Qing glaze and Jun Hong in Song Dynasty and so on. The difference between color glaze and ordinary glaze lies in the special firing process and formula of color glaze. The glaze of color glaze, must go through 1250 degrees Celsius above high temperature calcination, so can show its smoothness, colorfulness and every line of patterms are true to life.
The glaze color of the discolored glaze will vary with the light source. Using the white glaze of high-grade porcelain as the bottom and the mixed rare earth oxides such as metal oxide, non-metallic oxide and cerium and erbium as the coloring elements, the glaze was made by certain process treatment. After physical and chemical changes, it became a new solid solution. It is so amazing that it can change color under different light sources, such as light purple in the sun, blue in the fluorescent lamp, dark green in the mercury lamp, orange red in the high pressure sodium lamp.
