• Detailed introduction from prominent Chinese ceramic artist and scholar
• Unveiling China's finest traditional porcelain-making techniques
• Over 600 authentic, on-site images, full color
• Showing photos of Jingdezhen in the 1990s
The Art and Practice of Chinese Porcelain is the first book to systematically and comprehensively introduce the traditional porcelain-making techniques of Jingdezhen. Richly illustrated, these pages contain essential artworks and selected techniques, as curated by Bai Ming, a Chinese ceramic artist of international renown, whose impressive creations are made with Jingdezhen materials, using the authentic Jingdezhen methods. This illuminating volume provides key insights into Bai Ming’s teaching, research and practice, and highlights the fundamentals of the porcelain-making process. With more than 600 images, painstakingly collected and photographed over seven years, this is a beautiful and scholarly showcase for the porcelain style of an ancient town and an invaluable document of representative works.
Contents
Foreword (second edition)
A note
Jingdezhen, the Porcelain Capital
Quarrying and processing porcelain clay
Quarrying and initial processing of porcelain clay
Making Petuntse
The Porcelain Workshop Structure
Refining and preparing clay
Shaping
Throwing a zhatai bowl
Impressing, trimming and painting rings on a zhatai bowl
Wedging and Throwing
Wedging
Throwing a straight-edged teacup
Throwing a vase
Throwing a large bowl with a wide mouth
Throwing a one-meter diameter plate
Throwing a very large vase
Dressing
Cutting off
Slab-construction
Trimming
Trimming a small or medium sized vase
Trimming a very large vase
Trimming a straight edged teacup
Glazing the foot
Water replenishing
Glazing
Decorating techniques
Blue and white
Blue and white hunshui decoration
Decorating a lotus plate using the fenshui technique
Blue and white folk landscape decoration
Straight-edged cup decoration
Antique imitation blue and white decoration
Underglaze red decoration
Applying underglaze blue and red to a large vase decorated with a reef motif
Engraved decoration
Engraving a lotus motif
Overglaze decoration
Tools
Pine and crane fencai decoration
Antique imitation fencai
Xincai overglaze decoration with Yuewei Cottage motif
Jingdezhen Kilns and Firing
Jingdezhen kilns
Firing overglaze decoration
Transporting wares
Loading and firing the kiln
Tools for loading, firing and unloading
Appendix
Rice straw packing
Select Bibliography
Bai Ming, a renowned contemporary Chinese artist and writer, he is a tenured professor at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, where he serves as the Chair of the Ceramics Art Department and Executive Deputy Director of the Tsinghua University Art Museum. He is also the Secretary-General of the Ceramics Art Committee of the China Artists Association, Deputy Director of the Ceramics Art Research Institute at the China National Academy of Painting, a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) under UNESCO, a member of the China Artists Association, a member of the China Oil Painting Society, a distinguished professor at Hubei University of Technologys School of Art and Design, a visiting professor at Guangxi Arts University, Art Director of China Ceramic Art Network.
