Garlic bottles, named because they taste like garlic, began in the late Warring States Period and became popular in the Qin and Han Dynasties. They are made of copper and ceramics.
The official kiln mainly fired celadon. During the Daguan period, the three most popular glaze colors were moonlight, pink blue and green.
The body of official porcelain is thicker, the azure glaze is slightly pink, and the glaze surface has large patterns.
This is an effect caused by the different expansion coefficients of the tire and glaze after heating.
The porcelain feet are unglazed and turn iron-black after firing. The glaze at the mouth is thin and the fetal bones are slightly visible, which is commonly referred to as "purple mouth iron feet".
This is a typical feature of official kiln porcelain in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Very few official kiln porcelains of the Northern Song Dynasty have been handed down to the present, and they are very rare and valuable. It is because of these characteristics.
Now, Chen Wenzhe can control these characteristics at will.
It can be said that he can fire the porcelain into whatever shape he wants.
After making these three pieces of pure official kiln porcelain, the official kiln porcelain can be finished this time.
Systematically imitating the official kilns gave Chen Wenzhe a deeper understanding of the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty.
And as his skills improve, the skills of all the craftsmen in Yi Nian Tang are also improving.
"Huh? This is purple gold soil? Where did you find it? Is this Jun kiln porcelain?"
Processing is the first step in the production of Jun ceramics, and raw materials bear the brunt.
Without raw materials, mud and glaze cannot be processed.
This is like the saying, "It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice."
It seems that these people under him have opened up all the joints of the entire ceramic production line.
It seems that this is normal, otherwise he wouldn't be able to make any porcelain and can complete it smoothly.
Without a strong logistics system, this would be impossible.
Chen Wenzhe is still very interested in the clay used by his men because he found that these people are actually more professional than him.
There's nothing you can do about it, it takes time to do anything.
And he remembered that the time was too short, and no matter how capable his subordinates were, they would not be able to find more suitable raw materials in a short time.
However, as long as he makes a request, there are countless people helping Chen Wenzhe complete it.
And as time goes by, this degree of completion will become higher and higher.
Just like now, the Jun kiln porcelain clay here is already better than when he used it.
Earth material is the most commonly used raw material in Jun ceramics and is mainly used to prepare drawing mud and grouting materials.
General soil materials are either found in the mountains by Jun Ceramics manufacturers or brought to the factory by soil diggers.
No matter which method you use to obtain china clay, it is not easy.
Usually some professional masters go to the mountains to look for minerals and soil, and bring some back for testing.
If the test is successful and usable, people can send more.
For example, for Jun kiln porcelain clay, you need to go to Daliu Mountain to find it, where there is yellow gangue soil, purple gold soil at the foot of the mountain, etc.
These types of soil are exposed on the surface, so they are easy to find and mine.
Regarding finding soil, masters once summed up a rule, that is, "soft soil comes from sunny slopes, and hard soil comes from shady slopes."
The quality of various types of soil is also different.
For example, yellow gangue soil is dark yellow in appearance, sometimes mixed with gray, and contains more iron.
Chen Wenzhe is becoming more and more professional now and knows more and more about the industry because he is willing to spend money.
Now the entire ceramic industry knows that Chen Wenzhe is a major financial backer.
Therefore, some of his men will receive warm reception no matter where they go.
It is not as good as the high-quality purple gold soil we see now, which is the product obtained in this way.
Of course, if you want to get these high-quality purple gold soils, you can't just spend money.
The buyers under him are often invited by the soil diggers to go out and look at the soil.
Generally, the person who digs the soil will first send some samples. After the firing test, they feel they are valuable and usable, and the factory will send someone to take a look.
It is composed of personnel from the factory's supply department, technical department, laboratory, processing workshop and other relevant departments, and jointly conducts soil and mine inspections.
When looking at soil, you mainly look at its quality and storage capacity. Generally, the soil samples sent are of very good quality.
But if it is mass production, I don’t know whether it can be supplied and whether the quality can be guaranteed. The main purpose of on-site inspection is to solve these problems.
This is the convenience of modern people, everything can be bought with money.
This was difficult to do in ancient times.
For example, looking for native people, they usually mine in mountainous areas.
Generally, for high-quality porcelain clay, you need to dig a tunnel to dig the soil tens of meters underground, commonly known as digging an earthen well.
An earthen well that goes straight down and then is dug to one side is called a vertical well.
There are also wells that are dug diagonally with a certain slope, which are called step wells.
When fetching soil from a vertical well, first fill a basket or basket with soil down the well, tie the basket tightly with a rope, and use a windlass to winch the soil up.
In Bujing, the soil is put into a basket and placed on a special trailer, and people pull the trailer to the ground.
Later, when the step well was electrified, a slope climber was used. A small mine cart was filled with soil and pulled with a wire rope. When the electric switch was pushed, the soil was pulled out of the mine pit. This saves people a lot of effort.
The mining of earth wells was initially carried out by manual digging, and later some also used detonators and explosives for mining.
Drilling earthen wells involves certain risks, so it is important to ensure safety.
Generally speaking, the ceiling above the earth well must be fixed and supported to prevent landslides.
The earthen shaft must also have an air duct, which is a ventilated place connected to the mine shaft, to prevent the thin air underground from suffocating people.
As the saying goes, "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't catch the tiger's cubs." Therefore, when looking at soil, you should also go down to the earth well to see it yourself.
Only in this way can we know how thick the soil is, what the storage capacity is, and how many years it can be used to ensure the long-term stability of product quality.
There are specialties in the art industry. For example, Chen Wenzhe is good at integrating superior resources to make better porcelain.
Among the various processes he used to make porcelain, some people did it more professionally.
For example, soil selection is a very professional industry everywhere.
Just like the higher-quality purple gold soil he sees now, it can definitely not be obtained by simply digging up the mountain.
And the soil he saw now, some of the best quality, had been aged for thirty or forty years.
These high-quality porcelain clays were all saved from the 1970s and 1980s.
At that time, there were very few cars and tractors. In Shenji Street, where Jun porcelain was made, manual trucks were usually used to deliver soil or coal to the porcelain factory.
There is a donkey in front of the frame truck, which can save a lot of manpower.
The soil delivered by Shenge mainly includes flint slope soil, Dongpo soil, Huaishuwan soil, Luowang soil, Xisi soil, etc.
On the other side of Mojie Street, the soil sent to the shrine was carried by horse gangs with animals.
At that time, the three major factories in Shenge not only produced Jun porcelain and colored glazed porcelain, but also mass-produced other ceramic varieties.
For example, the state-owned Porcelain Factory produces fine pottery, Junci No. 1 Factory produces stoneware, and Junci No. 2 Factory produces glazed tiles.