After the blue and white color patterns of the three pieces of blue and white porcelain were all successfully drawn, Xiao Zhang's blue and white porcelain firing finally reached the most critical step, that is, glazing!

The glazing of this blue and white porcelain is very particular.

It can be said that there are many sayings about this glazing method.

First of all, except for this porcelain plate painting, Xiao Zhang's other two Ruyi jars and large bowls belong to the blue and white porcelain of the utensils.

This kind of glaze needs to be applied inside and out!

That is, the inside of the vessel is glazed, and the outside is also glazed.

If this is a small piece of blue and white porcelain, such as a tea cup or cup, a small bowl, etc., the inner glaze needs to be glazed in advance!

It is also known as the Dangli glaze!

For this kind of utensils, if there is no decoration in the vessel, it needs to be glazed first.

The glaze on the outside of the ware is the second dipping glaze in the later period.

The glaze applied to the outside of the vessel is applied to the outer glaze.

If it is a large piece of blue and white porcelain like Xiao Zhang's firing, the inside of the vessel is glazed with a large brush, and the outside of the vessel is glazed outside!

And there are many more sub-categories.

Of course, now Xiao Zhang uses liquid glaze, in the earliest days, the glaze is solid powder, also called glaze powder.

Liquid glaze, also called wet glaze, its modulation of water requirements are very strict, Jingdezhen fired blue and white, whether traditional or modern, used to modulate glaze are mainly Changjiang water, occasionally there are some special particulars, will use rainwater, of course, mainly because the cost of distilled water is too high.

In addition to blue and white porcelain, Jingdezhen is also very famous for pastel, but pastel has higher requirements for water.

Water contains minerals such as calcium and magnesium ions, as well as floats and some organic substances, which will have a certain impact on the glaze, especially the color glaze, such as the color of the flower glaze.

According to legend, the glaze of Longquan was brought to Jingdezhen, and the glaze was applied after mixing the water of Jingdezhen, and the effect of firing was different from that of Longquan, except for the influence of the kiln, it may also be the difference caused by the trace elements in the water.

The enamel washing is also very important, if the impurities are not washed and the glaze is directly applied to the blank tire, the glaze will be prone to black spots or ore spots, and even the surface of the bulging phenomenon.

At the same time, before glazing, the surface of the blank tire must be kept clean, of course, the glazing must also ensure that the hands are clean, and there must be no chance to pollute the green body, dust and oil stains will cause the glaze to hang unstable and cause glaze shrinkage.

After ensuring these points, it is necessary to distinguish the characteristics of various glazes.

The first of these is the so-called glaze!

Glaze is the earliest way to apply glaze powder.

In the earliest period, the glaze was made into powder, wrapped in a gauze net pocket, and when the freshly pulled blank was still wet, it was directly patted and sprinkled, and there were also directly powdered.

Or after the body has dried, apply another layer of mud and then glaze it in the same way as above.

Glaze originated very early and is no longer used in this way.

The second type is glaze, which belongs to the process that existed in the primitive celadon period.

Pouring glaze is divided into positive pouring method, reverse pouring method, the operation needs to constantly stir the glaze, in ancient times the green body is raw blank, not after plain firing, it is inconvenient to move, so the craftsmen place the green body on the wooden board in the oil drum, the positive pouring method as the name suggests is to pour from the top to the bottom, and the reverse pouring method is to turn the green body upside down and pour it from the bottom to the top.

These two methods of pouring glaze have different effects of firing.

The third type is the glaze brushing, which is the evolution of the original pottery brushing process.

The finished surface of the original pottery is relatively rough, for the sake of beauty, at first a layer of fine mud will be brushed on its surface, and later the appearance of glaze, instead of fine mud, so there is a glaze brush process.

This fourth type is dipping glaze, which appeared in the late Western Han Dynasty and was still widely used at the end of the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

The application time of dipping glaze is very long, and in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, it is developed to make glaze at the bottom of the vessel and widely spread.

At present, the mainstream view is that the glaze dipping process is one of the characteristics to distinguish whether a piece of porcelain is a Ming dynasty artifact.

According to historical data, a piece of porcelain using the glaze blowing process could not have been from the Ming Dynasty, because there were no glaze blowing tools and processes at that time.

This fifth type is the glaze, which is common in the Song Dynasty, and the common glazing method of northern porcelain in the Song Dynasty is the glaze, and it has continued to this day, and there is still a glaze in this way.

This sixth type is blowing glaze, which appeared in the Kangxi period.

Compared with other glazing processes, glaze blowing is the latest to appear.

Blowing glaze was originally applied to a relatively small and thin body, if a thin tire vessel is glazed by dipping the glaze, then it is easy to be crushed, and the appearance of glaze blowing solves this problem. And correspondingly, it is also used in relatively large inconvenient to move utensils, put the green body on the runner, only need to rotate the green body, while blowing the glaze.

The biggest disadvantage of blowing glaze is that it is time-consuming! The operation is generally about 30 centimeters away from the green body, because the green body absorbs water very quickly, it needs to be operated uninterruptedly, and several layers need to be applied until the surface of the green body uniformly appears wet, indicating that the thickness of the glaze is up to standard.

These are the common glazing methods in ancient times, after modern improvements, the glazing process used in modern firing blue and white porcelain has changed greatly.

As far as Xiao Zhang knows, it is divided into many different modern glazing methods.

Of course, the modern glazing method is also somewhat similar to the glazing method of many craftsmen in ancient times.

But more of a modernization improvement!

Xiao Zhang pondered for a while, in addition to the relatively simple glazing of his three pieces of blue and white porcelain, the other two Ruyi jars and large bowls were affected by the shape of the vessel and belonged to the existence of more difficult glazing.

Because this large piece of blue and white porcelain is not the same as a small piece of blue and white porcelain.

As I said earlier, this large piece needs to be glazed, glazed internally, and so on.

Not so with the small ones.

Although Xiao Zhang fires large pieces of blue and white porcelain today, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be a time to fire small pieces of blue and white porcelain in the future.

And this small piece of blue and white porcelain outside the use of glaze dipping method, that is, with three or four fingers to grasp the bottom of the vessel, straight into the glaze to the edge of the foot, a moment to mention all the glaze products, often glaze not to the end, shin or foot lower part of the irregular leakage, often left to a finger to grasp the traces of the blank.

If there is no pattern in the small piece of blue and white porcelain, the glaze inside and outside is still separated.

Here the glaze is applied before drawing on the blue and white pattern.

The blank will be painted only after the inner glaze is swayed.

And Xiao Zhang's big bowl and Ruyi jar are both large pieces of blue and white porcelain.

I chose the way to glaze with a pen in the later stage.

This modern blue and white porcelain glazing method is also classified into many categories, and it is more comprehensive.

Xiao Zhang has a deep study of modern glazing methods.

It's a little different from ancient times.

And these three pieces of blue and white porcelain just allow Xiao Zhang to show his glazing skills to the fullest.

After all, the technical glaze given by this system is always the most high-key!