New Porcelain Pot (The Lady and the Dragon)

This one just came out of the kiln last week. Porcelain, Cone 10, Reduction. I am getting some unfortunate iron speckling. Do any of you know if this is common in antique porcelain pots?


Top View



The Lady



The Dragon



Dragon Body



Foot



Mountain Temple

Beautiful pot. I love the expression you have got on the face of the lady.
Well done...
Barrie

The way porcelain is made in asia and the way it is made in the west is very different. The best way to avoid iron spotting is to buy a fine grolleg porcelain such as helios from highwater. Even lower quality porcelaineous clays shouldn't have iron spotting. I would guess that this porcelain contains bentonite as a plasticizer. Most companies use macaloid, which contains no iron, as a plasticizer.

Thanks for the response, Preston. I appreciate it. I am using Mather porcelain currently, but am wondering now too if maybe it isn't the clay- perhaps I am somehow cross-contaminating it with trace amounts of regular stoneware via sponges, water bowls, etc.. Do you have any experience with Mather, or have you heard anything about it's quality?

I have not used any of the columbus clays, but no mainstream porcelain should produce iron spotting. You might have cross contamination. My wife uses only grolleg porcelain. She has a dedicated pug mill, wheel, and tools. She even goes as far as throwing away any clay that touches the floor.

Also, in asia porcelain is made into a very thin slip. It is screened and poured across multiple magnets to remove as much iron as possible, so even very old porcelain is very white.

crazybonsaiguy wrote:This one just came out of the kiln last week. Porcelain, Cone 10, Reduction. I am getting some unfortunate iron speckling. Do any of you know if this is common in antique porcelain pots?

Crazybonsaiguy,

I just love your pot just the way it is!!!!!! Iron spots and all. In fact, I did some checking and found a number of examples of Chinese blue and white porcelain made in the mid 17th to early 18th century that have them. In early antique chinese blue and white it's a fairly common feature. Check out the links below for some examples.

Click on the image and it will enlarge and you'll see pleanty of iron checking
http://www.chinese-porcelain-art.com/acatalog/XXJ317.jpg

Randy

Beautiful!

Regards

Andy

Thanks for the kind words and helpful information everyone. It is great to be in contact with other people that feel as strongly about bonsai and bonsai pots!

Sorry for the speckling, but still nice work-

I am very tempted to work with porcelain, but I know that if I do I will have to be very careful to avoid contamination. Your cobalt wash brushwork technique is very well done.

I would love to see some of your paintings. Where can I find some?

Thanks for sharing!
Rob

Beautiful work! Have you isolated the spots to the body or could it be the glaze?
Wood
I see the glaze line now. sorry

Great job! One day I want to try this too.
Looking forward to another pot!