“If you can make thin-bodied porcelain, it’s easy to make Song Dynasty shadow celadon!”
Looking at the thin layer of transparent glaze, the whole thing seemed transparent, and holding a teacup as light as weight, Chen Wenzhe felt a little emotional.
This kind of porcelain really looks like it has been transformed into jade, with a glass luster, and the blue and white flowers, green leaves and red flowers on it, it is simply beautiful!
"No wonder we want to make colorful and pastel colors. Compared with the indifferent blue and white, the colorful ones are more beautiful!"
Chen Wenzhe admits that he is a layman. Although he likes elegant blue and white, he prefers exquisite five colors, gorgeous pastels, and colorful fighting colors.
"Do it bit by bit, first imitate Song Dynasty Yingqing!"
I have been exposed to Songying celadon for a long time, but Chen Wenzhe has never imitated it.
Shadow celadon, also known as Ying celadon, is a treasure in the traditional porcelain making process of the Han people. Its predecessor is blue and white porcelain.
Its glaze color is bluish white and elegant, the glaze surface is clear and clean, the body texture is firm and greasy white, and the color is as warm as jade, so it was known as "fake jade" in history.
Most of the shadow celadon at that time had thinly carved transparent flying phoenix and other patterns.
These patterns are carved on the body by highly skilled ceramic artists and then fired with transparent green glaze at high temperatures.
It can be seen from this that the shadow celadon of the Song Dynasty mainly pursued two extremes, namely, as thin as paper and as white as jade.
Of course, Song Yingqing is a kind of blue and white porcelain, which can also be said to be celadon.
Its glaze color is between green and white, green with white, and white with flashes of green.
In addition, the porcelain body is extremely thin, and the carved patterns can be seen both inside and outside when exposed to light. Therefore, it is called "shadow green" instead of "white jade", but jade is the ultimate pursuit of all porcelain.
The glaze color of "Ying Qing" is mainly divided into two categories.
First, it is white with light cyan flashing, and the thick part flashes dark green, which is smooth and fine, crystal clear and transparent.
Therefore, the ancients called it "fake jade", which has the reputation of being as crystal clear as jade;
The second one is light blue with flashes of yellow. This glaze color "shadow blue" porcelain is the most abundant.
In addition, among the "shadow green" glaze, there is also a kind of brown color that is painted around the utensils, which is called "stippling".
In the Song Dynasty, the position of pointillism was random and natural, and the area was often small. The colors had very obvious differences in shades, with the center being the thickest and showing an iron spot color.
No matter what color it is or what craftsmanship it is, it is no longer difficult for Chen Wenzhe to bake this kind of thin-bodied porcelain.
Chen Wenzhe didn't plan to spend too much energy on making Yingqing this time, so he only made bowls, plates and dishes.
The production is a bit more, mainly because there are more patterns on the shadow green.
During the production process, he was able to connect with some skills that he did not commonly use.
You should know that "Yingqing" decorations are mainly carvings, scratches, printings, and a small amount of piled plastic patterns.
Chen Wenzhe came into contact with these skills very early and used them extensively, but he has never deliberately improved their skill levels.
There's nothing to say about printing, it's mainly about using tools to engrave.
The engraving and scratching are actually a type of carving. If it was just for carving, there would be no need for him to practice more.
Mainly because there were many types of Yingqing patterns in the Song Dynasty, so Chen Wenzhe was interested in practicing them.
Early Yingqing vessels mostly have no decorations, or have a small number of extremely simple patterns, such as arabesques, water ripples, etc.
After the middle period, the patterns become complicated, and engravings and printings appear in large numbers.
Common ones include chrysanthemum petal pattern, lotus petal pattern, pomegranate flower, hibiscus flower, daylily pattern, cloud dragon pattern, dragon piercing flower, lotus pattern, chrysanthemum, peony, wind-piercing peony, baby playing peony,
Wave pattern, wave five fish pattern, water wave double fish pattern, lotus pond double fish pattern, etc.
The carvings and patterns of "Ying Qing" are mostly simple in composition, giving people a sense of elegance.
For example, to create a wave pattern, just use a comb-type tool to draw a few random arcs on the vessel, and then use a pointed tool to draw a few random arcs on it to create a picture of surging water waves.
If you add a few more small fish, it will be more interesting.
The "Baby Playing with Peonies" is the most exquisite, generally showing the pattern of two children chasing among the peonies.
If the craftsman's knife skills are skillful, the general pattern will be carved smoothly and powerfully, and the baby's innocent, lively, brilliant and lovely image will be vividly portrayed.
Such exquisite products consume too much energy, so I can't do more.
After all, some decorative patterns are quite complex, especially those of babies playing with peonies.
After finishing the Yingqing, I must make a few egg curtain cups. As mentioned before, these are fine thin-bodied porcelain cups from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.
Jingzhen thin-bodied porcelain was developed on the basis of the shadow celadon of the Northern Song Dynasty. The actual creation and firing should have started in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, and it had reached a high level of success in the Chenghua period.
The more famous products are the egg curtain cups and Liuxia lamps from the Wanli period.
As mentioned before, the Egg Curtain Cup was made by Hao Shijiu, whose surname was Wu in the Ming Dynasty.
He was born into a porcelain-making family, and his porcelain-making skills were comprehensive and superb.
The thin-bodied porcelain produced is as thin as an eggshell and is extremely wonderful.
His most famous works are the "Egg Curtain Cup" and "Liu Xia Zhan".
The "Egg Curtain Cup" was once hailed as one of the nine pinnacle porcelain products in history. It only weighs half a baht (twenty-four baht is one tael). It is as light as a floating cloud and is ingenious.
There's nothing much to say about this. If you know how to make eggshell porcelain, it won't be difficult to make an egg curtain cup.
Therefore, Chen Wenzhe focused on making "Liuxia Zhan". This kind of porcelain is even more beautiful. It has the reputation of being as bright as a pearl and as colorful as a danxia.
Li Rihua, a man of the Ming Dynasty, wrote a poem praising it: I went to the market in search of cinnabar, and the sound of pines and clouds came from the sky; Ping Jun lit up the cloud lamp and went to the Jiuqu Spring of Fanlan Pavilion.
In addition to these two types of cups, Hao Shijiu is not only good at making thin-bodied porcelain, but also good at making antique porcelain.
The pots made are light green in color and elegant in style, very similar to those made by the official kilns and Ge kilns of the Song Dynasty.
Everyone knows the difficulty of firing Guan kilns and Ge kilns in the Song Dynasty.
And knowing that his works are similar to those from these two famous kilns, you will know how good his works are and how difficult they are to be copied.
In addition to making porcelain, Hao Jiu is also good at poetry, calligraphy and painting.
His calligraphy is similar to that of Zhao Mengfu, a great calligrapher of the Yuan Dynasty.
He decorated the porcelain with poems, calligraphy and paintings, and the porcelain became more exquisite and more popular among people.
His kiln was called "Hugong Kiln". All the products of Hugong Kiln were searched for at high prices, and it became famous all over the world.
What is commendable is that Hao Shijiu does not seek profit from this. He is still a "Xi Men Weng Guo". His family is depressed and he lives a poor and frugal life, but he strives to improve his skills.
Fortunately, Chen Wenzhe's calligraphy and painting skills are now very good, otherwise he would not be qualified to imitate Wu Haojiu's works.
Now he is very proficient in the technology of making eggshell porcelain. Combining the style of Wu Haojiu during the Wanli period, it is not difficult to imitate several egg-curtain cups.
Therefore, this time he planned to spend all his time imitating the Liuxia lamp.