The blue-and-white is one of the four famous traditional porcelains is jingdezhen . It appeared as early as the Tang and Song dynasties ,but they did not flourish until the Yuan period . Its appearance has an epoch-making significance in the history of porcelain in our country . It is appearance of the blue-and-white that makes Jingdezhen the capital of porcelain of the world in a true sense ,which has influenced and promoted the development of the porcelain industry in the world . The blue-and-white porcelain is one of the ceramic products with the most symbolic significance of our ethnic cultures . It has been produced for hundreds of year .
The blue-and-white pigment-the blue-and-white colors-is metal-oxide color with cobalt oxide as its main developing agent .The blue-and-white pigments used for hand painting are divided into two categories: drawing line (xianliao) and splashing (fenshui) . The pigment for drawing lines is wet and can be used directly .
The treatment of the fenshui pigment is more complicated .Before mixing the pigment with water , steep the pigment first . The steeping method is as follows : put the ground wet pigment into a large bowl , about one third , stir it with a spoon . Then pour some boiling water into the bowl while mixing it with the spoon ceaselessly until there are foams on the surface. Wait till it settles and scoop up the supernatant water . Finally we can mix the watered pigment of different shades in different bowls .Pay more attention to the amount when dividing the watered pigment and then add an appropriate amount of tea water into the bowls . It is also necessary to stir while adding the tea in order to avoid “raw water” . The so-called “raw water” is a usual phenomenon in the fenshui , i . e. the pigment and water cannot be blended fully .The separation of the pigment and water will influence both the development of the blue-and-white and the expressiveness in decoration . The tea cannot be too strong , or the colloidal substance in the tea will agglomerate the pigment in the bowl and influence the quality of fenshui .
The traditional hand-painting in of the blue-and-white have two stages: drawing lines and painting (locally called fenshui). Potters must be quite familiar with the properties of the pigment when he starts to draw lines . In fact, it usually takes time and efforts to have a full knowledge of its properties . Some of the potters have spent their whole life on their research of these properties , but they may not have a full comprehension of them . In the traditional Chinese painting , the ink has five shades . In a same sense , the blue-and-white not only has the same shades , but also has various expressiveness based on different skills . In the decorations , the basic procedures are almost the same though different methods exist in them .
In the blue-and-white , fenshui (also called hunshui) is a special skill in decoration by using the special jitou brush (meaning chicken head brush ). The water pigment for fenshui is filled different bowls for holding the watered fenshui pigment is called “water bowl” by the local potters . Fenshui is the treatment of colors in the blue-and-white and different colors different hues and lightness . The watered pigment of the blue-and-white is usually divided into five shades : the gluey (tounong) the thick (ernong) , the heavy (nongshui) ,the thin (danshui) and the light shade (yingdan) .In the operating process , such factors as the dryness of biscuit , the speed of wielding a brush and the drying time of the watered pigment have an intimate relationship with the shades of the water pigment . Generally speaking , the wet biscuit , fast wielding and short drying time will result in the light shade and , vice versa , the slow wielding , dry biscuit and long drying time will lead to the darker shade . In application of the fenshui techniques , it is very important to keep the harmony of the hands in the whole course of wielding a brush . First , dip the fenshui brush into the bowl and lift it up when the brush is soaked . When beginning to paint , try to direct the tip of the brush right at the top of the vortex surface of an arch biscuit as the brush is soaked with the watered pigment . wield the brush to paint quickly . Do not be so close to the biscuit and keep an interval with the biscuit . The main purpose is to prevent the tip of the brush from scrubbing the biscuit and mixing some particles of clay into the watered pigment , which is to influence the color generation of the pigment (color generation refers to the shade after firing ) . As soon as painting the required parts , it is necessary to absorb the moisture in time in order to avoid too much moisture on the surface . The water-absorbing method is as follows: tilt the biscuit and put the tip of the brush upwards and the watered pigment will seep back into the brush . Before the operating process , the normal way is to put the biscuit between two legs with a piece of thick felt or cotton fabric in between as A mat . As having a good control of the brush by one hand , one should hold the biscuit by moving the legs up and down in order to have a free brushing of the watered pigment .
The traditional painting tool is the writing-brush in China and it is a must to paint the blue-and-white . Due to the different materials and processes , the tools for decoration are more complicated and various than the common painting brushes . In addition to the main tools , there are also many auxiliary ones . A full set of tools and an delicate application have formed one the specific features of the blue-and-white decoration .
