The thin-bodied tea cups of the Cicada Wing series produced by Dehua Kiln, under the light, the delicate texture of the cicada wings is fully revealed, and the tea flows freely in it, giving the viewer a sense of freedom.
Here, the thickness of a piece of porcelain not only reflects the level of porcelain making technology,
It is also one of the factors that determine the artistic value of porcelain.
For this kind of art treasure, ancient and modern are not a problem, nor is the real value.
What can truly reflect the value of a work must be its craftsmanship, followed by its history.
You must know that a piece of thin-bodied porcelain needs dozens of processes to complete, and this may not necessarily lead to successful firing.
If it is a large product, painting alone will take 2-7 months.
Just these work capitals make them extremely valuable.
Not to mention adding artistic value.
These thin-bodied porcelains, as long as they are successfully produced, are extremely precious handicrafts.
They embody the characteristics of our country's traditional arts and crafts and are also a model of the combination of calligraphy and painting art and porcelain art.
And with such top-notch technology, Jingzhen will naturally not let it go.
Therefore, thin-bodied porcelain is also one of the most prestigious special craft products among the traditional porcelain varieties in Jingzhen.
The characteristic is that the porcelain body is as thin as an eggshell, transparent, and the body is made of pure glaze. It is as thin as a cicada's wing, as bright as glass, and as light as a floating cloud.
The thin-bodied porcelain made in Jingzhen is actually similar to that made in Dehua Kiln.
It's just that the emphasis is different. Dehua is white porcelain. On the basis of thin body, it pays more attention to white as jade.
But Jingzhen is different. The eggshell porcelain it makes is very good in all aspects and is more famous.
Jingzhen has a long history of making thin-bodied porcelain.
As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, production began here, and its porcelain is "thin and moist".
In the Ming Dynasty, the production technology was further improved, and the "egg curtain cup" was "only afraid of being blown away by the wind".
In the Qing Dynasty, thin-bodied porcelain reached a higher level, and its porcelain was "pure with glaze visible and almost no fetal bones visible."
After the founding of New China, Jingzhen's skills in making thin-bodied porcelain made new developments.
Modern products are thinner, brighter and more beautiful in shape.
Especially in recent years, in order to make this product even better, Art Porcelain Factory, one of the key factories that produce thin-bodied porcelain, has gathered a group of experienced technical personnel to carry out work in molding and pastel decoration.
Bold innovation has led to greater development in the production of thin-bodied porcelain.
In the past, only small products could be produced.
Now we can produce large-scale products.
past,
Thin-bodied porcelain is usually painted on one side, but now it has been developed into double-sided painting.
In this way, the decorative patterns on the inner and outer layers of the porcelain body, when viewed against the light, look like colors chasing the moon, looming, covered with light and mist, as if there is a painting within a painting, and stillness within movement.
In the past, there were only about 40 varieties produced, but now the number has increased to hundreds.
In the past, it could only be produced in small quantities, but now it can be produced in large quantities.
Product quality is now even better.
Of course, even now in Jingzhen, making thin-bodied porcelain is a special craft, and not everyone can make it.
During production, raw materials must be carefully selected, and after strict refining, they must be drawn into rough shapes by hand.
Then use various tools to refine the rough blank with a thickness of about ten millimeters until it is as thin as an eggshell, and then bake it in the kiln.
According to Jingzhen's standards, only porcelain with a body thickness within 1mm can be called eggshell porcelain.
The thickness of fine thin-bodied porcelain is only between 0.5 mm and 1 mm, and the pattern on the back can be clearly seen when facing the light.
So it is light, beautiful, exquisite in workmanship and has good light transmittance.
Among them, the classic ones have already been mentioned before, including blue and white, pastel and other types.
There are blue and white patterns painted on the thin body, which is called blue and white thin body porcelain;
Depicted with pastel patterns, it is called pastel thin bodied porcelain.
No matter which one you make, you must have a suitable embryo, which is a step further than firing eggshell pottery.
You should know that the body of thin-bodied porcelain is thin and has low strength, and is easily broken and deformed during the production process.
Its production requires more than 40 processes from ingredients, drawing, sharpening (repairing), glazing to painting and firing, all by hand and fired in three times.
During production, it is necessary to possess highly skilled operating skills and implement strict process regulations.
When making ingredients, in order to prevent thin-body products from deforming during firing and to improve the whiteness and transparency of the product's glaze, it is necessary to increase the content of alumina in the blank and magnesium oxide in the glaze.
With this technology, it will definitely be more convenient to process the blanks, especially the sharp blanks and artistic processing are the most delicate.
The rough blank needs to be trimmed hundreds of times, including rough trimming, fine trimming, and fine trimming, before the rough blank with a thickness of 2 or 3 mm can be trimmed to about 0.5 mm.
The production of thin-bodied porcelain is extremely demanding, especially repairing the blank, which is the most difficult and critical.
The process of trimming the embryo depends entirely on the skill of the workers.
Finally, after more than a hundred iterations, the rough blank of 2 or 3 millimeters thick can be trimmed to the thickness of an eggshell.
At the critical moment, one less cut is too thick, and one more cut will ruin the work. If you are not careful, a short breath will cause all the previous efforts to be wasted.
Such a clay body must withstand the test of high-temperature baking at more than 1,300 degrees Celsius, without cracking or deformation, in order to be successful in the end.
You can imagine how precious and rare it is, so people call thin-bodied porcelain a magical treasure.
Special attention should be paid here, after the embryo is completed, that is, after the trimming is completed, the glaze is not applied directly.
Before glazing, the blank is bisque-fired at a temperature of 750 to 800°C.
When glazing, use the drip glaze method for the inner glaze and the spray glaze method for the outer glaze.
A special cushion cake is used for boxing to ensure that the fine blanks are loaded smoothly into the sagger.
The firing temperature is also completely different from that of ceramics. The firing temperature of eggshell porcelain is 1280℃~1320℃.
With previous experience in making eggshell pottery, it is relatively easy to make eggshell porcelain now.
The main thing is to change the tire mud, and it needs to be made thinner because a layer of glaze needs to be applied on the outside.
Compared with eggshell pottery, eggshell porcelain can hardly see the fetal bones, that is, only the transparent glaze can be seen.
When you first started making it, you would definitely encounter various problems, so the only thing Chen Wenzhe could make at first was cups.
He made the famous Twelve Flower Cups from the Qing Dynasty. During the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, each dynasty made a set of twelve cups, which can also be called the Twelve Flower God Cups.
After he became familiar with the craftsmanship and felt that he could produce high-quality products, he finally completed a set of Kangxi pastel December thin-bodied flower porcelain cups.
Of course, I later made a Yongzheng enamel plum blossom bowl, which is what it should be.
After these works were successfully fired, Chen Wenzhe understood why Jingzhen ceramics are famous for their characteristics of being "as thin as paper, as white as jade, as bright as a mirror, and as loud as a chime".
Because their craftsmanship is really awesome!
It was also at this time that he truly understood that the porcelain that truly deserves the term "paper-thin" should be thin-bodied porcelain.
Thin bodied porcelain should be as thin as cicada wings and as light as silk yarn.