Oriental Serenade
“Culture, kitsch, or kitsch culture? Oriental Serenade reflects the West’s fascination and centuries-old emulation of the arts of China. The passion of the red brushstrokes is made more vibrant by the serene pastel landscape.”
—Eric Alberta, from Paint by Number, a 2003 calendar from Workman Publishing, New York.
luminously glowing first red, then bright yellow
“Ceramics require a fire that begins gently and then rises to an inferno of red heat, at minimum, and yellow or close to blazing white heat at optimum. If you look inside the fire as it reaches temperature—and potters have done just this for thousands of years—you will see the pots or sculptures luminously glowing first red, then bright yellow in the swirling gaseous flames. It is a blinding, awe-inspiring sight, and it is fraught with dangers for the ware—and sometimes for the person attending the fire.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.
ci (tz’u) or porcelain
“The Chinese call any high-fired clay body that makes a clear ringing sound when it is struck ci (tz’u) or porcelain. In the West, a body is considered true porcelain if, in addition tot these criteria, it is white and translucent. Porcelain is made of kaolin (white china clay), feldspar, and silica. Kaolin is named for the hill of Gaoling (Kaoling), which lies to the north of Jingdezhen (Ching-te-Chen). Kaolin is 40 percent alumina, 46 percent silica, and 14 percent water. It is highly refractory and pure white. Petuntse (china stone or literally, “small white rocks”) is a naturally occurring white, feldspathic powdery rock that occurs in China. It was added to kaolin to make porcelain. In the fires of a very hot kiln, petuntse melts and surrounds the refractory particles of kaolin, giving the body strength and making it smooth, almost glassy. Porcelain is fired to 2,280–2,370°F.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.
the legendary opalescent chuns
“Song [dynasty] workshops excelled in firing techniques, methods of forming, carving, design, and glaze making. Glazes were quiet and subdued in appearance, yet, if you held a teacup in your hand or gave a bowl more than a glance, you would notice subtle variations. The longer you looked, the more you saw. . . . There were shimmering celadons, silky whites, iron-rich dark tenmokus (sometimes with the shadow of a single, saturated golden leaf fired into the interior of a bowl), and the legendary opalescent chuns (jun) with tints of blue and purple and red. In chuns, bubbles are suspended inside the fired glaze, thus bending and refracting the light, making the eye see blue, though there are indeed no blue colorants in the glaze. Reds, and purple flashes, came from the copper.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.
the wonderful calligraphic blue and white porcelain dishes for which the Ming dynasty is best known
“. . . it is the wonderful calligraphic blue and white porcelain dishes for which the Ming dynasty is best known and which were most popular in China and, as they were exported, throughout the Western world. Skilled artists dipped their brushes in cobalt and painted blossoms, birds, acrobats, magnolia trees, lovers, flowering branches, pavilions, and swirling vines and scrolls on porcelain dishes, teapots, bowls, teacups, vases, jars, ewers, and plates. There is something mysterious about the deep rich blue of cobalt together with the arctic white of porcelain that elicits a passionately positive response in all but a very few who behold the combination. Blue and white evoke a sense of serenity, purity, and, perhaps royalty in the user or viewer.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind‘s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.
Plain white hotel china
“Hotels and restaurants rely on simple round white plates, “hotel china.” ‘Round and white has been the industry standard for a number of reasons,’ Julie Gustafson wrote in the online magazine Hotel & Motel. ‘White goes with everything, so there’s no need to change dinnerware with the change of carpet and curtains. And chefs love a plain white background to set off their food.’ . . .
Plain white hotel china has also entered the home. . . . It is dishwasher safe, inexpensive, and unobtrusive.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.
opacity and whiteness
“Most paper has 2%–10% ceramic as a so called filler material; some papers have even more. The ceramic is actually a very important active ingredient providing paper with opacity and whiteness, while controlling the flow of ink in writing and printing. Without the ceramic, ink would be absorbed by and smear into the paper. The ceramic also can provide color. Ceramic has been used for many centuries as an important paper additive, with china clays, such as kaolin, having very long histories as the applied a material.”
—Victor Greenhut, from Ceramics for Paper in Wachtman, ed. Ceramic Innovations in the 20th Century. As quoted in Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, by Suzanne Stauback, 2005.
Lustreware
“Islamic potters used cobalt on creamy white tin-glazed ware to great effect. Images of people and animals were considered idolatrous and were forbidden, but as is often the case, restrictions led to creative solutions. Working within the rules of their religious leaders, Islamic potters covered their wares with curvaceous calligraphy, delicate flowers, leafy vines, and intricate geometric patterns. . . .
Lustreware was an innovative answer to the stricture against metal tableware. Islamic potters discovered that if they painted designs on their already fired pots using powdered gold or silver or copper (metal oxides) mixed with a bit of water and perhaps clay, and then refired these pots at low temperatures in a reducing (smoky) kiln, the designs emerged from the kiln with a soft metallic sheen.
Lustreware is more understated than brightly gilt enamels or shiny metal pots, and has a rich and subtle complexity of tones that can only be achieved with skillful firing.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.
The invention of glassmaking
“The invention of glassmaking was . . . dependent upon ceramics and in fact, in scientific circles, glass is considered a ceramic. The first glasses . . . were glazes. The Egyptians discovered that by mixing ashes (potassium), ground-up sand (silica), and natron (salt from dried lake beds), they could give their pots a shiny coating. What they were doing was “fluxing” the silica. They learned by accident or through experiment that if they took a bowl of this glaze, especially one that had more flux and less silica, from the kiln while still molten, it could be poured into a clay mold and then cooled to form an object. Glass was equated with gems and was as highly prized.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.
Bernard Palissy (1510–1590)
“In the sixteenth century, French potter Bernard Palissy (1510–1590) stunned the public with his brightly glazed platters covered with high-relief snakes, frogs, lizards, fish, lobsters, shells, flowers, leaves, and vines. Nothing like these highly original trompe l’oeil dishes had been attempted or conceived of before. Palissy’s plates were encrusted with amphibians and reptiles so realistic they looked as if they were alive, and his artifice of mixing animals, shells, and flowers in juxtapositions that would never be encountered in nature dazzled the public.”
—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind’s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.