Category: Jingdezhen

It can be surprising to wake up to the tune of “When the Saints go Marching In” in a small town in China.  Bands such as this one play to the accompaniment of firecrackers during travelling wakes for the dead.

Traditional wood-fired roof tiles being made by compressing slabs around a conical mold.  After joins are compressed and the rough edges sliced off, the cylinder is removed and stacked with others to dry.  The fired roof tiles below display the variegated colors typical of wood firing.

The Tian Bao dragon kiln in the countryside outside Jingdezhen.  During firing, wood is inserted into the side stoke ports.  The stoneware clay used at Tian Bao comes directly from the surrounding fields.

The remains of revolutionary ceramics in an abandoned factory in Jingdezhen.  The hand once belonged to Mao Zedong, while the Chinese character “忠” means loyalty.

Examples of some of the low-temperature on-glaze enamels available in Jingdezhen.  To generalize, each of the main types of on-glaze—gucai (or wucai, famille verte), fencai (famille rose), and xincai (“new” or “Western” colors)—are representative of different historical periods in Chinese ceramics (respectively: late Ming/transitional, Qing, and Republican).  And although each of these types might traditionally only […]

Another example of Jingdezhen ingenuity.  A motorized bicycle made by a local craftsman.  Two separate chains attached to the rear wheel allow for pedaling or motoring.

Repairing the rim of a large porcelain pot.  The damaged area is first wetted, and then successive layers of porcelain slip are brushed on.  The hair-blower dries the slip in order to prevent cracking. Below this you can see the line from where the thrown upper and bottom halves of this pot have been joined.

Craftspeople in Jingdezhen often work from photographs and illustrations.  Here it appears as if a nice large vase was spotted in a Jingdezhen shop and is now being copied in another studio.  Throughout history, Chinese ceramics has been based on an interplay of imitation and innovation.  In modern Jingdezhen imitations are the norm, unfortunately the […]

A “double happiness” paper cutting taped onto a door in the old city center of Jingdezhen.  In these old houses many examples of folk craft, from handmade stools and baskets to adornments such as this one, can still be found.

A pile of porcelain hands in an abandoned workshop in the Sculpture Factory.  Most of these hands were for likenesses of Mao Zedong and other revolutionary-themed sculptures.

A pile of discarded porcelain seconds outside a workshop in Jingdezhen.  The sign on the door advertises straw packaging for ceramics shipping.

A typical scene in the Jingdezhen Sculpture Factory.  Porcelain figures of this scale and complexity are especially difficult to produce.  In the foreground is a wheeled cart used to transport sculptures between workshops during production. After the subject is modeled in clay, the model is broken apart into pieces from which plaster molds are made […]

A typical ceramics workshop overlooking graves in the mountains surrounding Jingdezhen.  Although some techniques have changed (these jars have all been slip-casted rather than thrown on a wheel), these craftspeople are carrying on a Jingdezhen tradition hundreds of years old.

Porcelain jars in a typical Jingdezhen workshop.  The juxtaposition of centuries old porcelain-making techniques with modern China often has interesting results.

Discarded porcelain glove molds produced in Jingdezhen.  Although there is a large population of craftspeople skilled in traditional Chinese porcelain techniques, Jingdezhen has difficulty competing economically with other ceramics centers in China (such as Chaozhou) that have more successfully modernized and automated ceramics production.

One of the old ceramics factories in Jingdezhen.  Once the government started privatization, most of the large state-sponsored factories could no longer survive.  Some factories were completely abandoned while others were parceled out to private craftspeople who started their own smaller workshops.