If you want ancient precious official kiln porcelain but can't buy it, then go ahead and make it. Why should you hesitate?
But it had been fired before, so Chen Wenzhe knew very well that the turquoise green glaze was a low-temperature monochromatic glaze that was fired twice using copper as a colorant.
This is a low-temperature glaze with copper as the colorant. The firing temperature is low, and copper is used to develop the color. This is too friendly to Chen Wenzhe.
Chen Wenzhe already has a high degree of confidence in the firing temperature at which the copper element develops its color.
Although he can't say what color he wants, he can control the burning, so it's pretty much the same.
What he is most concerned about now is mixing some techniques, that is, softly firing turquoise green glaze and pastel.
In fact, the emergence of turquoise green glaze is really an accident that is not unexpected.
As we all know, turquoise green glaze is one of the glaze varieties created by the imperial kiln during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. It is a type of imitation stone glaze porcelain that imitates turquoise.
Since ancient times, turquoise has been a favorite gemstone for Chinese people.
Its color is green with blue or yellow, exuding a charming and noble atmosphere.
However, turquoise is a gemstone after all and a non-renewable resource.
Emperor Yongzheng had always been thrifty. Between porcelain and gemstones, he chose porcelain without hesitation.
With the emperor's instruction and the efforts of the craftsmen of the Jingzhen Royal Kiln Factory, they successfully fired a glaze color consistent with the color of turquoise, called turquoise green glaze.
Turquoise green glaze is a low-temperature single-color glaze that is fired twice with copper as colorant. Please note that it is clearly a low-temperature glaze here.
Modern people have already fired high-temperature oil turquoise green glaze, which is definitely more advantageous than low-temperature glaze, but now that Chen Wenzhe is doing antique craftsmanship, he naturally does not pay attention to high-temperature oil turquoise green glaze.
This low-temperature glaze continued to develop during the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties. By the Qianlong period, turquoise green glazed porcelain had become very popular.
Although turquoise green glaze is a monochromatic glaze, the firing of Qing Dynasty porcelain was not dogmatic.
They will add other glaze colors, patterns or techniques on the base color of turquoise green glaze.
This kind of "mixture" of porcelain not only does not destroy the beauty of the turquoise green glaze, but also makes the sense of nobility and mystery more complete.
Turquoise green glaze was mainly fired during the Yongzheng and Qianlong years. Although it was fired in Jiaqing and Daoguang after Qianlong, the color and porcelain body were slightly inferior to those of the previous generation. The overall color of turquoise green glaze after Jiaqing was darker.
It can be said that after Qianlong, the history of porcelain gradually lost any innovation, and all developed on the basis of the previous dynasties.
But this does not mean that the later porcelain is not beautiful enough or innovative enough.
When walking back from Jiaqing, there are actually a lot of antique porcelain, which can give people a refreshing feeling.
For example, a treasure that Chen Wenzhe saw was quite famous.
At least it is relatively well-known in the collecting circle. It is a representative work of the Jiaqing period.
It was a small elegant vessel, very characteristic of the Qianlong period. After all, Jiaqing belonged to the son and Qianlong was the father.
Will the father's aesthetics affect his son to some extent?
This Jiaqing treasure is also controversial. The reason is that many people describe Jiaqing as deviating from the aesthetics of ancient porcelain.
It is a turquoise-green pastel dragon vase from the Jiaqing period. The overall shape is quite classic and regular.
Why did Chen Wenzhe think of it? It must be because of the dragon bottle, and he happened to be making mixed porcelain with pastel and turquoise green glaze.
This is a dragon bottle, and Chen Wenzhe already knew the value of the dragon bottle clearly before.
So why is this piece of porcelain described as a dragon bottle? Because there is a dragon on it, a red chilong.
Many people describe it as inelegant because of this dragon.
Pink, this is Jiaqing’s aesthetic.
In addition to this, whether it is the shape, the glaze color of the utensils, or the production of pastels, they have all reached the top level of the official kilns.
In particular, it has the characteristics of Qianlong, but this dragon is not elegant enough, but it has a fun meaning.
Is this considered innovative? If you take a closer look, you will see that its composition and antique charm are quite strong.
Generally speaking, this turquoise green treasure is not simple. It is a valuable item of the palace, and of course ordinary people have no chance to own it.
This treasure is made in the form of painting, and then it is composed of passion flower pattern and jade chime pattern.
Of course, this kind of meaning is still the same, which means continuous auspiciousness.
When the entire shoulder goes down, there is actually a carmine red dragon attached to it. It is entrenched in the changing position of the bottle, giving it a creative feel of a new product.
From the perspective of Emperor Jiaqing, he still put in some effort. He added some of his own ideas to Qianlong's bottle.
The whole dragon looks up with its head raised, the shape is quite accurate, and it is quite beautiful.
But this interesting work has been criticized by many collectors.
However, if you don't complain about this dragon, then look at the turquoise green glaze of this treasure, it is still very beautiful.
Its glaze color is uniform and thick, and it also has the foundation of the Qianlong period. The seriousness of the craftsmen reflects its extraordinary quality.
Although there is a dragon coiled on it, everything is in line with the aesthetics of the time, so it is a truly good treasure.
As for the expression "elegance" or "indecentness", just good-looking is enough, and aesthetics vary from person to person.
This piece of porcelain can be said to have met all of Chen Wenzhe's recent requirements for making porcelain.
And when he finished this very creative and beautiful piece of porcelain, Chen Wenzhe began to give up his mind again.
If you want him to spread his thoughts and create at will, a lot of porcelain needs to be made, so the designed porcelain requires too much craftsmanship.
Therefore, he now returns to the right path and makes a piece of pastel porcelain seriously.
In fact, the turquoise green in low-temperature glaze is not difficult to fire, so Chen Wenzhe is more focused on firing fine pastel porcelain, which is more difficult to produce.
We modern people are more exposed to pastel porcelain. Many colorful porcelains, which look very beautiful, are generally pastel rather than multicolored.
The characteristics of pastels are that they are beautiful, beautiful and colorful!
Of course, it is not Wucai, because it has too many advantages compared to Wucai.
It's just that pastel is still relatively difficult to make.
Especially when the creation of fire-making was just beginning, the pastel technique was rarely used.
With no other choice, we can only use five colors, and only a small part of them are pastels.
Pastels were founded in Kangxi and reached their peak in Yongzheng.
In the late Kangxi period, based on the production of enamel colored porcelain, Jingzhen kiln began to fire pastel colored porcelain, but the production was relatively coarse.
During that period, only the flowers of red flowers were dyed with pastels, and other decorations were still made in five colors.
Pastel porcelain is another colored porcelain created and fired by the Qing court in addition to enamel porcelain.
It is to apply arsenic-containing foundation on the fired glaze, apply the pigment and wash it off with a pen. Due to the emulsion effect of arsenic, the color will produce a powdery effect.