The body is dried, bisque-fired, and glazed, then dried again, bisque-fired, and glazed.
Repeat this three to four times, and finally fire it into a thick glazed celadon that is as warm and moist as jade.
Celadon decoration techniques include engraving, scratching, printing, decals, ticking, hollowing, kneading, stacking, stippling, and exposed tire etc.
Finally, there is the celadon firing technology. The Longquan celadon firing process is divided into six stages: drying, oxidation, constant temperature, reduction, high-fire oxidation, and cooling.
Thick glaze celadon is difficult to fire, and the jade-like effect cannot be achieved if the temperature is too high or too low.
Artists control the firing temperature, time and atmosphere with the help of thermometers, observation of flame color, and other accumulated experience over the years.
Longquan celadon uses iron as the main colorant, the basic color of the glaze is green, the hair color is pure, and the glaze is similar to jade.
Longquan celadon can be divided into two categories: Ge kiln and Di kiln. The Ge kiln celadon has a black body with open slices, while the Di kiln celadon has a white body without opening. The glaze color is pink-green and plum-green as its distinctive features.
Skill practitioners mainly produce in family workshops and pass on family inheritance, with family members as the technical backbone.
It is also because of this inheritance method that the firing technology of Longquan celadon has never been passed down.
In addition, Chen Wenzhe is very thoughtful, so after collecting these pieces, he has a very good understanding of the modern Longquan kiln.
Modern Longquan kiln is still different from ancient Longquan kiln, especially the kiln mouth, glaze, etc. are different.
In the modern Longquan kiln, the kiln has been reformed, the celadon glaze has been re-developed, and the firing technology is different from the ancient times.
There are even some contemporary celadon artists who have invented new technologies such as Gedi kiln combination and slice control.
Of course, Chen Wenzhe has not yet reached the stage of innovation. He is still in the stage of imitation and re-invention.
However, the Longquan kiln porcelain he imitated is the most classic standard porcelain.
Really good Longquan celadon is as warm and moist as jade, has the connotation of jade culture, and is known as the beautiful artificial jade.
In the "Book of Songs" in ancient my country, there is a saying that "the words of a gentleman are as warm as jade", which refers to a virtuous person as a jade.
The glaze color of Longquan celadon blends with the turquoise tones of nature, in line with the classical aesthetic ideal of "Tao follows nature."
Longquan celadon does not contain harmful substances such as lead and cadmium. It is fired into daily-use porcelain such as tableware, tea sets, and wine sets, and is used in daily life;
Exquisite craft porcelain for home display;
Elegant art porcelain is widely collected by museums and connoisseurs;
Even now, our government has given Longquan celadon to international friends as a national gift.
Longquan celadon does not have a very rich color in terms of appearance, but it has a relatively simple "green" color, which has earned it the reputation of "thousand peaks of green".
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How is a piece of Longquan celadon with excellent workmanship, beautiful shape and warm glaze fired?
The first step must be to refine the clay. This is a very critical point in all porcelain firing processes, which is the selection of raw materials;
For the firing of Longquan celadon, purple gold clay is an essential raw material.
After obtaining the raw material of purple gold clay, it needs to be crushed, soaked and other processes before it can be formed into the mud material for making Longquan celadon.
Once you have the right clay, you need to design the shape.
It's just that when Chen Wenzhe fired standard ware, he didn't need to design the shape of the porcelain.
The appearance of Longquan celadon requires multiple steps such as drawing, trimming, and decoration.
Before drawing, the porcelain clay needs to be kneaded according to certain rules.
Once it is uniform, it can be placed on the drawing machine.
Then use your feet to control the speed of the turntable, and use your hands to shape the porcelain clay.
After the drawing is completed, the object needs to be dried, and then trimmed and decorated.
The decoration techniques of Longquan celadon mainly include engraving, sculpture, carving, etc., and a small number of them use color painting.
After completing the first production, it will be grilled.
Generally, porcelain is fired in one go.
Longquan celadon needs to be bisque-fired after the shape and decoration are completed, that is, the embryo is put into the kiln and fired to 800-900 degrees to finalize the shape.
After bisque firing, the porcelain embryo needs to be glazed three times;
Every time you apply glaze, you need to wait for it to dry before proceeding with the next glaze - the characteristic of Longquan celadon's "thin body and thick glaze".
It is formed in this way, and this is also a key step in the formation of "Thousand Peaks Green Color".
Traditional Longquan celadon is fired in Long kiln.
In modern times, convenient and fast liquefied gas kilns are basically used for firing.
Put the glazed and dried porcelain into the kiln chamber and fire it to about 1300 degrees before turning off the fire.
Generally, it takes more than ten hours of continuous firing. After the kiln temperature cools down, the firing of Longquan celadon can be completed.
Since the production of Longquan celadon requires three glazing and two firing processes, the firing is very difficult;
In the past, when dragon kilns were used for firing, the yield was only about 10 to 20 percent.
Nowadays, the yield rate of firing in liquefied gas kiln is only 70-80%.
After many layers of experience, Longquan celadon has the charm of "when the rain passes, the sky becomes clear and the clouds break the virginity, and the plums become sour and turn blue".
Of course, Chen Wenzhe is retro-firing and re-creating the ancient Longquan kiln firing technique, so he will choose to use a wood kiln this time.
However, it would be too troublesome to use a wood kiln for firing.
Often, as soon as it gets dark every day, the day's work begins.
Because it takes half a year to prepare for one kiln firing.
Of course, Chen Wenzhe doesn't have to go to such trouble, because he doesn't need to do many of the processes himself.
In this way, with the cooperation of many people, he can speed up the firing of porcelain in the kiln.
Chen Wenzhe had already done this very skillfully when he was in South Vietnam.
This morning, Chen Wenzhe was sitting next to the kiln, changing the knives in his hands and repairing the blanks meticulously.
The roulette wheel spins, and along the scraper, the mud crumbs roll up and fall on the table.
After a while, a piece of celadon clay was completed.
Next to the kiln, there are neatly stacked firewood and qualified purple gold soil after processing.
After working hard for a few days, he has almost finished what he is supposed to do. Chen Wenzhe is going to open the kiln and fire celadon today.
There are many people who like celadon nowadays, but how many people really understand Longquan celadon?
Once I got in touch with it, I wanted to know more about it, because the beauty of celadon is really intoxicating.
However, I really don’t know much.
And if you want to understand, you have to start with the material of celadon. The main ingredients are mud and glaze.
The clay is kaolin, the clay from Di's kiln is white, and the clay from Ge's kiln is cinnabar.
From the literal meaning, it can be seen that the porcelain with iron body has a relatively high iron content, which is similar to that of Ge kiln.
The firing process of iron tires is particularly difficult and the yield is even lower.