3600 years of artistic heritage: Porcelain

Porcelain generally refers to China, where porcelain was first discovered, but today it is made all over the world.

Porcelain contains high amounts of kaolin, which makes porcelain white, and can be found all over the world, but large, high-quality kaolin deposits are rare.

There are countless recipes of porcelain clay, usually including quartz, feldspar, ball clay, etc., but each ingredient changes the properties of the clay, and its color may appear slightly gray. At this time, pigments and glazes are used as colorants. The whitest, translucent, high-quality clay must be free of foreign matter, and this is one of the reasons why porcelain prices vary.

The price of porcelain pieces also varies according to other conditions in terms of decoration; hand painting, different patterns, luster application and so on. To create porcelain, it is necessary to go through several steps from sculpting, molding, glazing and multiple firing stages. Compared to other ceramics, porcelain is almost translucent like glass with a non-porous surface and is very durable when fired at really high temperatures (1200-1300 degrees Celsius depending on the type of kiln and the product).

Porcelain is difficult to work with and is prone to cracking when drying. Molding can also be tricky compared to other ceramic clays. Porcelain clay has a memory and unfortunately does not forget mistakes… To aid this and to produce more accurate pieces I often use slip molds for complexity.

Lenka Zeidanli