Materials and Techniques: Porcelain and Lacquered

WoodChinese Art (Group 2)

Prepared by:Fangonil, ElyzaJo, SeuljiLeaño, AbigailQuintela, ClaudineReyes, FrancesSalvador, NancyVerastigue, Patricia

1IND-2, ARTHST2

What is lacquer?(Definition and its uses)

Lacquer a somewhat imprecise term for a clear or

coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as required.

produced from the sap of the lac or sumac tree, it is distilled to form a natural polymer

In terms of the decorative arts, lacquerware refers to variety of techniques used to decorate wood, metal or other surfaces, some involving carving into deep coatings of many layers of lacquer.

Types of Lacquers

Types of Lacquers Urushiol-based Lacquers* Nitrocellulose Lacquers Acrylic Lacquers Water-based Lacquers

Urushiol-based Lacquers The original lacquer was a varnish

resin derived from the sap of a tree indigenous to China and Japan. Its active ingredient is urushiol. It is highly resistant to water, alkali, acid, and abrasion, and has a very hard and durable finish. They are unique amongst lacquers in that they are slow-drying and water-based.

Nitrocellulose Lacquers These are quick-drying solvent-

based lacquers containing nitrocellulose. 

Acrylic Lacquers This is an acrylic synthetic polymer

developed in the 1950s for automobiles. It is similar in many ways to nitrocellulose lacquers, but offers a superior quick-drying time and is used extensively in automobiles

Water-based Lacquers Because of health and environmental

risks inherent in using solvent-based lacquers, less toxic water-based lacquers have been developed that often yield acceptable results.

HISTORYof Lacquered Wood in China

Chinese Lacquer ArtChina is the earliest country in the world

using natural lacquer. In the early 1970s, archaeologists unearthed a red lacquer wood bowl in an excavation in the Neolithic Hemudu remains in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. It is estimated that the bowl was made 7,000 years ago, the oldest existing lacquerware in the world. Traditional Chinese lacquer art applies natural lacquer liquid from lacquer trees. Starting from red lacquer wood bowls and painted potteries in the Neolithic age, Chinese lacquer art enjoyed rapid development in the Warring Period (770-256BC) and the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), thanks to the upgraded productivity of the time.

Examples of Chinese Lacquered Wood

Red lacquer wood bowl, est. made 7,000 years ago

Materials: WoodTechniques: Slightly shiny red paint identified as lacquer via

chemical methods and spectral analysis. Several layers of lacquer (up in their hundreds) would be applied which will then take

weeks to properly harden and dry.Features: Convergence mouth, oval melon shape, circle foot

Painted fish-pattern lacquer vessel, Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)

Natural pigments, such as red cinnabar and black carbon, created vermilion (a red orange shade) and black designs

Lacquerware from the Han Dynasty (c. 206 B.C.—220 A.D.)

Decorative lacquer became increasingly popular during this dynasty for its ability to protect and

preserve.

Lacquer dish, possibly Gansu province, Western China, Ming dynasty (c. A.D.

1489)Decorated with a famous scene on the front and a poem on the back. Inlay techniques used in the manufacture of bronzes were

transferred to lacquer making, incorporating materials such as silver, gold or mother-of-pearl from the Near East. Refined carving techniques depicted increasingly detailed

scenes. The ongoing development of lacquer arts brought increasingly complex designs

rendered in deep relief.

What is porcelain?(Definition and its uses)

Porcelain Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating

raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 °C (2,192 °F) and 1,400 °C (2,552 °F).

Made through technological processes like proportioning, molding, drying and firing.

Compared with pottery, porcelain has tougher texture, more transparent body and finer luster.

Chinese definition of porcelain (tzu) resembles the Western definition of "Stoneware", besides having as a key feature that it should ring when struck.

Properties associated with porcelain

low permeability and elasticity considerable strength hardness brittleness whiteness translucency and resonance high resistance to chemical attack and thermal

shock

The properties listed above explain why porcelain gradually

replaced pottery in ceramic history.

HISTORYof Chinese Porcelain

HistoryPorcelain originated in China.

Porcelain manufactured during the Tang Dynasty (618–906) was exported to the Islamic world, where it was highly prized. Porcelain items in the restrictive sense that we know them today could be found in the Tang Dynasty, and archaeological finds has pushed the dates back to as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). By the Sui Dynasty (581–618) and Tang Dynasty (618–907), porcelain had become widely produced.

HistoryIn the Shanghai dynasty, China became the

first country to produce white stonewares similar in composition and properties to what we call porcelain. At this time, ceramics played a secondary role to bronze and jade. Occasionally used for ritual, they performed a largely utilitarian function in everyday life.

The widespread use of the word ‘China’, generally designating Chinese porcelain, is indicative of the tremendous acclaim such works attracted in the West.

For centuries, China was the only country able to produce fine quality porcelain so prized abroad. And it was not until the early eighteenth century that Europeans began to master the art of porcelain manufacture for themselves.

MATERIALS

Materials Kaolin clay is the primary material from which

porcelain is made, even though clay minerals might account for only a small proportion of the whole. The word "paste" is an old term for both the unfired and fired material. A more common terminology these days for the unfired material is "body", for example, when buying materials a potter might order an amount of porcelain body from a vendor.

MaterialsThe composition of porcelain is highly variable, but the clay mineral kaolinite is often a raw material. Other raw materials can include:

feldspar ball clay glass bone ash steatite quartz petuntse alabaster

Types of Porcelain

Types of Porcelain Hard paste and soft paste Blue and White Porcelain White Porcelain Celadon Ceramics Qing Dynasty Porcelain Underglaze Black Porcelain Tang Dynasty Ceramics Earthenware Pottery

Hard paste These porcelain that came from East Asia,

especially China, were some of the finest quality porcelain wares. they were formed from a paste composed of kaolin and alabaster and fired at temperatures up to 1,400 °C (2,552 °F) in a wood-fired kiln, producing a porcelain of great hardness, translucency, and strength. Later, the composition of the Meissen hard paste was changed and the alabaster was replaced by feldspar and quartz, allowing the pieces to be fired at lower temperatures.

Soft paste dates back from the early attempts by

European potters to replicate Chinese porcelain by using mixtures of clay and ground-up glass (frit) to produce soft-paste porcelain. Soapstone and lime were known to have been included in these compositions. These wares were not yet actual porcelain wares as they were not hard and vitrified by firing kaolin clay at high temperatures. As these early formulations suffered from high pyroplastic deformation, or slumping in the kiln at raised temperature, they were uneconomic to produce and of low quality. Formulations were later developed based on kaolin clay with quartz, feldspars, nepheline syenite or other feldspathic rocks.

Early Qing Dynasty Era 

(1644 - 1911)

Blue and White Porcelain

Underglaze Blue Porcelain is the best known type of

ceramics. It is often referred to as 'Blue and

White' from its blue cobalt oxide painted below the

glaze. The reason Chinese Porcelain became so

famous is probably because it was traded widely by

Europeans from the 17th century onward. By that time, China had already been exporting Blue and White Porcelain to the

Middle East and Southeast Asia for centuries.

Time period: 1400 to 1700 A.D.

White PorcelainWhite Porcelains

began to be made on a large scale at

Jingdezhen and at many other southern kilns from the time of the Song dynasty (960

- 1279).  The most famous of the early

Porcelains was qingbai (pronounced ching-

pie).  Whiteware Ceramics were traded throughout Southeast Asia.  Until eclipsed by

Blue and White Porcelain  in the 14th

century, it was the dominant Chinese Ceramic of its era.

Qingbai Ewer with Phoenix Head 

Sung Dynasty period (960 - 1279). Time period: 1000 to 1400 A.D.

Song Dynasty celadon porcelain with a fenghuang spout, 10th century,

China.

Celadon Ceramics Celadon is a western word used originally to describe

the green glaze of Ceramics from Longquan in China. The glaze is made of clay mixed with wood ash and is 2-5% iron, and must be fired in an oxygen reduced atmosphere. 

The Celadon method began to be used in the 7th century in China. By the time of the Song dynasty (960-1280), the skills of the potters had advanced to a high degree that fine vessels had a jade-like appearance and texture. By the 14th century, motifs such as lotus flowers and stylized chrysanthemums were incised for decoration.

Time period: 1000 to 1600 A.D.

Qing Dynasty

PorcelainPotters began using bright colours to adorn plates and

vases with meticulously painted scenes. Porcelain

ceramicists began producing five-coloured ware by applying

a variety of underglaze pigments to floral, landscape and figurative scenes - a style

which was (and is) highly sought-after in the West. 

The artefact originates from the Early Qing

Dynasty (1644 - 1911).  Its mark indicates it was

produced during the reign of Kangxi (1662 -

1722) Time period: 1700 to 1900 A.D.

Qing Dynasty PorcelainDuring the Yung Cheng era (1723-1735) Porcelain was enhanced by the development of fencai enamel in a wide range of colors and tones.

Underglaze Black Porcelain

Long before the Chinese made Blue and White

Porcelain using cobalt, a black iron oxide was used

to paint motifs below a clear protecting glaze. This technique, used at

Cizhou in northern China, developed

independently from the Celadon production in

southern China.

Ming Dynasty Era (1368 - 1644)

Time period: 1400 to 1700 A.D.

Tang Dynasty CeramicsEarly Chinese Coloured

Stoneware is often called Sancai which means three-colours. However, the colours of the glazes used to decorate the wares of the Tang dynasty (618 - 911) were not limited to three in number. In the West, Tang Sancai wares were sometimes referred to as egg-and-spinach by dealers for the use of green, yellow and white. Though the latter of the two colours might be more properly described as amber and off-white / cream.

Sancai wares originate from northern China. At kiln sites located at Tongchuan, Neiqui county in Hebei and Gongxian in Henan, the clays used for burial wares were similar to those used by Tang potters. The burial wares were fired at a lower temperature than contemporary whiteware.

Time period: 1000 to 1600 A.D.

Earthenware PotteryEarthenware is the earliest type of

pottery and is known to have existed for the past 10,000 years. Secondary clay was formed on the pottery wheel or rolled into strings and laid on top of another to form the pot. Earthenware was commonly fired in simple open pits and therefore found in most early civilizations. Firing temperatures normally reached 400C to 700C.

It is thought that most of the Earthenware found its way on trade ships as necessities of the men sailing the ships. Their limited number suggests that Earthenware was never made for export.

Time period: 1000 to 1600 A.D.

Sources http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/

40Arts4658.html http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Chinese

%20Art%20Teachers%20guide.pdf http://ceramics.chalre.com/ceramic_types.htm http://www.chinesefurniture.co.uk/wood.html http://www.doityourself.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacquer http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com