Since you want to make emerald blue porcelain, you must understand the entire production process of this kind of porcelain.
First of all, we must understand the difference between Kangxi emerald blue and sapphire blue.
Kangxi emerald blue is the name people give to the glaze color of Kangxi blue and white, and is the representative color of Kangxi blue and white.
The mainstream is green and rich, with clear layers, which is the pinnacle of blue and white porcelain in the Qing Dynasty.
Sapphire blue is a darker color than dark blue, more purple, and represents calmness, wisdom, etc.
It is a crystal clear blue, which is more flexible than ordinary ones.
The sapphire blue glaze of Kangxi period has orange peel brown eyes and bubbles, which are relatively evenly distributed.
Of course, some glazes also appear to flow.
The Ji-blue glazes produced during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods were all imitated from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, with plates and bowls being imitations.
The early period of Qianlong was similar to that of Kang and Yong.
However, it became more refined in the later period. By the late Qing Dynasty, there was very little Ji-blue, and the glaze was not even enough.
Today's sapphire blue glaze firings are mostly imitations of ancient official kiln products, among which Jingzhen's sapphire blue glaze has reached a very high level.
If you want to imitate the emerald blue works of the Kangxi period, let’s not talk about the glaze color, but just the craftsmanship. The first thing to pay attention to is the signature.
Among the emerald blue works of this period, double-circle models, flower-leaf models, and animal models are common, and there are also many objects without mark.
This point needs to be understood clearly, because it is not just a word.
Then there are the tires. Kangxi blue and white tires are mostly heavy and feel a little heavy on the hand.
At the bottom of the artifact circle, brown eyes and dot-like deposits formed by firing in wood kilns are common.
The second is the painting style. The works of this period still have the legacy of the late Ming Dynasty.
Some use double lines to outline the pattern and then fill in colors;
Some use various methods such as splitting with axes and chapping with hemp.
Let’s talk about the decorations. The content of the Kangxi blue and white decorations includes swords and horses, ancient allusions, dragons, phoenixes and auspicious beasts, figures, animals, plants, and long texts.
The last thing is the materials. There are two kinds of blue and white materials used in Kangxi blue and white porcelain.
One is Zhuming material and the other is Zhejiang material.
Pearl material, blue and white hair color is emerald blue;
The true color is bright blue and verdant, no floating feeling, bright and bright, clear but not muddy, bright but not vulgar.
Some are sapphire blue, bright blue but not fiery.
It is very different from the blue and white flowers of other dynasties in the Qing Dynasty. It has very obvious characteristics of the times and has formed a new artistic outlook.
Zhejiang material is not good, the blue and white color appears gray-black, gray-blue, and feels floating and mixed.
The color of Kangxi blue and white is multi-layered, and Jimo is divided into five colors.
The Kangxi blue and white material refining method is the fire calcination refining method used in the late Ming Dynasty.
Blue and white hair color is purer, richer and brighter.
The firing level of blue and white porcelain is first recommended by Yongxuan of the Ming Dynasty, and the one that can rival the Su Ma Li Qing is the emerald blue and white porcelain produced by Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.
Friends who are familiar with ancient porcelain know that pearl material is an extremely commonly used blue and white material.
Especially after the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, pearl materials gradually became the main green material.
The pearl material is rich in iron, and a small amount will naturally flow downward after firing, making the picture blur like a fairyland. It has a rare ancient flavor and natural artistic conception, which is very rare.
So how can you get emerald blue? It depends on how the pearl material is used.
"Zhuming material" is made from calcined natural cobalt earth ore and is a typical blue and white material.
The quality of calcined and refined pearl ingredients is better than that of raw ingredients directly, and the color is also stable.
There are grades according to different ingredients. The cobalt oxide content of ordinary products is less than 2%, and the cobalt oxide content of high-grade products can reach 8-9%, so the hair color often changes.
Here is the key point, the content of cobalt oxide, or the amount of cobalt oxide, determines the color of blue and white hair.
This is also true for Yuan blue and white. The amount of cobalt oxide determines the shade or lightness of the blue and white hair color.
The pearl material used in the past must have been natural, so it was difficult to know how much cobalt oxide it contained.
This is the fundamental reason why the firing of emerald blue is highly random. As long as this point is controlled and suitable pearl materials of the same kind are prepared, emerald blue can be fired stably.
In ancient times, or during the Kangxi period, they were limited to technology and knowledge of mineral materials, and could not do this.
Because the natural pearl material has a large dispersion, it contains not much cobalt, the most manganese, and the second most iron.
The reason why pearl materials appear cyan is due to the role of cobalt.
Cobalt has a more elegant hair color than manganese, iron, nickel, copper and other metal oxides.
Natural pearl material, showing a calm blue color!
Although the cobalt oxide used to synthesize pearls shows a very brilliant blue-purple color, it is always different from natural pearls and lacks some ancient flavor.
The real Kangxi blue and white has the saying that ink is divided into five colors!
This refers to the mid-Kangxi period, when the emerald blue and blue flowers were made of pearl material. The blue color was slightly green and purple, and the colors were rich and colorful.
During the Kangxi period, craftsmen had already mastered the properties of cobalt materials.
They use the water-dividing chapping method, the ax chopping method, the hemp chapping method, etc. The shades are too natural, the blue and white flowers are beautiful and green, and the hair color is bright and fresh!
The picture is divided into shades and shades, and the scenery has levels of distance and nearness!
By dividing ink into five colors, the meaning of Chinese painting is vividly expressed on porcelain.
To do all this, we must study the pearl material.
Only if you are very familiar with the characteristics of pearl materials can you accurately grasp the appropriateness of the pen.
Because of its various characteristics, pearl materials are mostly used for decorative works, and landscape paintings are rare.
Because of its high difficulty in painting, the firing effect is also unsatisfactory.
For example, hard color and blue and white were all considered extremely expensive during the Kangxi period.
Chen Liu, a man from the Qing Dynasty, said in his book "Tao Ya": "The blue and white flowers of the Yong (Zheng) and Qian (Long) dynasties are far inferior to those of the Kang (Xi) kilns. However, the blue and white ones of the Kang (Kang) dynasties
Although the Qing Dynasty of the Xi Dynasty is not as rich and beautiful as the Qing Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, it can still stand alone in this dynasty."
Kangxi's emerald blue and white is like the blue of the Buddha's head. In order to perfectly express its charm during firing, it requires the cooperation of several aspects.
First of all, the fetal bone of Kangxi porcelain has the highest density, followed by the pink-white glaze, which is equally important as the fetal bone.
It is attached to the tight fetal bones, tight and flat, delicate and white, with a jade-like halo on the glaze surface.
The pink and white glaze forms a strong contrast with the bright blue and white flowers, making the emerald blue color even more charming.
Judging from these characteristics, or from various signs, there are actually several key points in order to accurately fire emerald blue.
One is temperature, which must be high, but how high it will be is not certain.
Firing emerald blue porcelain definitely requires high temperature, but it does not necessarily mean that it can be fired at a fixed high temperature.
There must be a reason for this, and the only reason is the raw materials.
Therefore, the next step is to control the stability of the raw materials. Only when the materials are stable, that is, the various elements contained in them are stable, can the firing temperature of Indigo be controlled.