Curriculum Materials: Amazing Animals in
Art
|
|
|
Image 8 Christophe-Ferdinand Caron Essays: Questions: |
Technique
The cups from this tea service are made of hard-paste or "true" porcelain, which requires two special ingredients. The first is kaolin, a type of clay that retains its shape, even in very high temperatures, and turns a white color after firing. The second important ingredient is petuntse, a stone that gives porcelain its translucent quality. In the manufacture of porcelain, all the materials are first finely ground up, or pulverized, and washed and filtered. The proper mixture of kaolin and petuntse, referred to as the paste or body, is combined with water to make a plastic substance that can be shaped either on a potter's wheel, by hand, or in baked clay molds. These teacups were shaped in molds.
Usually the shaped WARE is covered with a GLAZE and then put into a KILN and fired at a very high temperature. When fired, the body becomes vitreous, or glasslike, and impermeable. Enamel colors and GILDING are painted over the glaze, and the ware is fired again at a lower temperature.
|
|