Jingzhen’s traditional porcelain making includes two techniques: firing in a firewood kiln and hand-molding.
That is to say, what people call the porcelain industry has two major industries: "firing" and "making".
Regarding the firing of porcelain, JDZ kiln workers have a saying: "One is full, two is fired, and three is turned off."
It summarizes the three aspects of wood kiln firing techniques, namely filling the kiln with boxes, adding firewood for firing and extinguishing the fire at the right time.
It’s all about experience, and it all needs to be accumulated in real production practice.
For example, every time the kiln is fired, there will be a unique lighting ceremony.
In front of the kiln, there are piles of chopped masson pine as porcelain fuel, and workers responsible for various processes are busy.
Their busyness is to meet the necessary conditions of "one full, two burning and three flameout".
Before firing the kiln, the kiln must be filled first. Fulling the kiln means moving the saggers filled with porcelain blanks into the kiln room and stacking them in layers.
Because the blanks fired in the wood kiln must be placed in cylindrical saggers, and the saggers are lifted one by one. The weight of the sagger and the blank is not light, and the higher it goes up, the more strength it requires.
Moreover, strength alone is not enough. It must be vertical from top to bottom. If the lower layer is slightly uneven, it is likely to collapse during the kiln firing. That is not a small loss.
Therefore, filling a kiln is a technical job.
Therefore, man kiln is an independent trade, and there are also specialized trade gangs. It is not something that ordinary people can get involved in.
Of course, the most precious thing about wood kilns is their difficult firing technology.
The master who handles the piles must have superb skills and extremely high ability to control the kiln fire.
During the 30-hour firing process, you need to pay attention to when to heat up, when to keep warm, and when to add firewood.
During this process, Master Zhuang must be kept close at hand.
During this period, you must continue to add firewood and fire, and always observe the temperature of the kiln with your "sharp eyes".
Therefore, firing in wood kilns is extremely difficult, and the yield is also very low, only about 40%.
The distinctive feature of Jingzhen’s traditional porcelain-making firewood kiln is that it uses traditional porcelain kilns and uses original ecological wood fuel. It relies entirely on the workers’ production experience and skills to master and manipulate complex processes, which we modern people call
physical changes and chemical changes.
This kind of technology makes each clay body, after being roasted at high temperatures, become the most exquisite and beautiful porcelain.
In the huge contrast between simplicity, nature and complexity, science is full of magic.
The finished product made in this way is rare, but extremely warm.
The yield rate of wood kilns is low, so they are scarce.
There is nothing we can do about this, because the calorific value of wood kilns is low and the temperature gradient in the kiln is large.
The firing temperature of blue and white should be above 1300 degrees. If the temperature is too low, the green material will smudge, and if the temperature is too high, it will become gray and very difficult to burn.
Therefore, firewood kilns are very difficult to make and are very scarce.
However, Chai kiln porcelain is very smooth.
Because the wood kiln uses pine wood, pine oil will be produced when burned, and the pine oil will penetrate into the carcass and form a unique glaze.
The result of this is that it is as gentle as jade and can be played with for a long time. It is a "warm plaything".
And all these contacts are based on the wood kiln and the craft of watching fire.
The firekeeper, also known as the stake master, needs a lot of experience.
If ordinary people want to gain enough experience, they will definitely need a long period of exploration and practice.
But Chen Wenzhe didn't need it, so he chose to make a breakthrough in the kiln-firing technology.
Being able to master this craft well should bring all his skills to a great breakthrough.
Therefore, when he was learning to make porcelain recently, he would not be left behind even in the final step of firing in the kiln.
Every time he had an immersive experience in his dream, he would stare intently at the fire at the kiln door.
One by one, he would continue to add firewood to the entrance of the kiln.
And "watching the fire" is the most critical thing in the wood kiln firing stage.
Generally, this kind of person is the chief engineer of the wood kiln.
It is because Master Baizhuang is in charge of the firing of a kiln of porcelain.
Therefore, in the porcelain making industry, making porcelain is very important, but firing porcelain is even more important.
Because no matter how good you make it, if it doesn’t burn well, it’s all in vain.
Speaking of large-scale porcelain, it often takes several months, half a year, or even a year to make a single porcelain embryo by hand.
During firing, it is often fired in the kiln several times.
And as long as there is a problem in one of them, this piece of hard work that you have spent several months on will have no choice but to be scrapped.
This is the importance of kiln-firing technology, but now, there are still people who don’t pay attention to this technology.
Chen Wenzhe learned about the situation in Jingzhen and found that many Zhuang masters had difficulty passing on this craft.
Until now, this craft can only rely on family inheritance.
The inheritance from father to son, and from son to grandson, has great flaws. However, if we don't do this, it will be difficult to pass it on.
Because burning a kiln is more than just watching the fire. It is really a hard job that most people are not willing to do.
Even some masters do not want their descendants to do such things.
Although it is a fire-firing technique, the preparations are all sloppy.
Before lighting the fire, the saggers filled with porcelain to be fired should be piled into the kiln one by one.
This is a hard job, and if you are small, the physical exertion will be too much to bear.
The sagger filled with porcelain is very heavy, and it takes a lot of effort to stack it high.
In this way, the kiln union workers spent sixteen or seventeen hours a day in the kiln.
Build the kiln, install the kiln, add firewood, open the kiln...
Every type of work needs to be done once. Only by settling down and persisting in firing wood kilns can you achieve something in the end.
Generally, a wood kiln fires the kiln every three days, and theoretically you can practice in front of the kiln more than 100 times a year.
After ten years of continuous work, you will eventually learn excellent kiln-firing techniques.
Only by relying on more than ten hours of practical experience every day can we go from grassroots workers to masters.
Dozens of manpower, hundreds of pieces of porcelain to be fired, and tens of thousands of kilograms of masson pine firewood are required. This traditional kiln-firing technology is costly, the temperature is difficult to control, and the firing risks are high.
When the kiln is full, if the saggers are not stacked properly, they will all collapse;
If the temperature is too high, the porcelain will melt inside the sagger;
If the temperature is too low, the glaze effect cannot be produced.
When you were an apprentice, you saw the kilns failing every day. How could you not work hard?
Firewood kiln is both physical labor and mental labor.
If you are helping others to burn a kiln, if it fails, you must consider the feelings of others.
At this time, you have to think about whether it is your own problem or whether there is something wrong with the quality?
If the sagger is not good, contact the manufacturer.
If there is any aspect in the kiln that you have not noticed, you should reflect on where the problem lies in the kiln.
Each time from ignition to firing, it takes 20-30 hours.
Masters at other workstations can take shifts.
But as the master guard, you must always stay there to ensure the stability of the fire temperature.
Therefore, the production of porcelain, "whether it is creative shapes or exquisite patterns, is inseparable from this last fire."