Hello! Today I will write about a Chinese city I would very much like to visit: Jingdezhen (景德镇), renowned for porcelain production. Known as the porcelain capital, it has a long history of ceramic manufacture. […]
Hello! You have probably seen Portuguese tiles with blue decoration on white faience, or Chinese vases with blue brushwork. That blue comes from a cobalt-based pigment. This article explores its history and its use in ceramics. […]
Hello! After a break from the blog, I am returning with this post about Arita porcelain. These wares are made around Arita in Nishimatsuura district, Saga prefecture, on the Japanese island of Kyūshū. […]
Many materials burn or melt in the heat of a ceramic kiln. Plant ash is among the most traditional glaze ingredients, especially in East Asian ceramics, and is associated with celebrated glazes such as celadon, chun and tenmoku. […]
Hotaru-de, literally “firefly hand”, involves piercing a ceramic piece, covering it with glaze and firing it. The glaze closes the openings in the surface, producing the distinctive decorative effect discussed in this article. […]
Hello! I would like to introduce Portuguese faience, a ceramic tradition that greatly influenced Brazil. Its porous body is usually coated with a glaze opacified by tin oxide, creating a white ground for painted decoration. […]
Continuing my exploration of Japanese aesthetics, I turn to shibui. Drawing on Sōetsu Yanagi, I discuss the tea ceremony, the appreciation of chawan and the relationships between restraint, simplicity and the Buddhist ideal of beauty.
What is kohiki? This technique developed in the Korean peninsula in the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Joseon dynasty. It belongs to a family of ceramics with an overall white appearance. […]
Hello! Last week we explored the elegance of Chinese Song-dynasty ceramics. Today we will consider the strength of Japanese Bizen ware, whose origins lie in high-fired Sue ceramics from the Kofun period, dated here to the 3rd–7th centuries CE. […]
Hello! In the previous post I introduced Song ceramics from northern China. Today I will explore representative wares from the south, where celebrated kiln centres developed during the Song dynasty, including Jingdezhen. […]