Colored Glaze: The Chinese Crystal
Explore colored glaze, the Chinese crystal, together with the collection of Boshan Colored Glaze Museum!
Legend has it that there was no living in the world when Pangu (盘古), creator of the universe in Chinese mythology, separated the Sky from the Earth. Nüwa (女娲), a goddess in Chinese mythology, set about making man with clay, by shaping little figures after her image with her hands. Subsequently, the Water God, Gong Gong (共工), and the Fire God, Zhu Rong (祝融), fought a fierce battle, which made the world come to an end and brought disaster to the humanity. In order to save the common people, Nüwa collected colored stone from the Fen River (汾河), melted them to patch up the holes in the Sky. At the time of Nüwa mending the Sky, colorful stones in her hands fell in the world, and turned into crystal clear coloured glaze.
There is also another legend. In ancient times, when Lu Shen from Boshan sought longevity by alchemy, he found many bright and colorful crystals in the slag. He then offered them to the emperor, letting him to put the crystals inside the palace in order to live forever and eliminate the calamity and evil. All the civilian and military officers at court regarded these crystals as treasure, handing the story down from generation to generation. The production of colored glaze began since then.
Due to technical and raw material constraints, only Beijing and Boshan have colored glaze workshops.
Colored Glaze Table FrameBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
Boshan is famous for colored glaze.
The importance of colored glaze to Boshan, is just as that of ceramics to China.
Miscellaneous Notes of Yan Shan (1664) by Sun TingquanBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
Boshan colored glaze is a valuable remain of art in China. With its various kinds and exquisite craftsmanship, Boshan colored glaze has led the main development direction of colored glaze in China for hundreds of years.
Coal YardBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
Boshan colored glaze products are made from Maya stone, purple stone, Lingzi stone, nitre, coal and other raw materials that are abundant in Boshan .
Chicken Liver StoneBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
The precious color materials such as chicken fat yellow, chicken liver stone, bright red and foreign green are used in production.
Colored Glaze PaperweightBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
Traditional Chinese style patterns and the painting skills of Chinese painting are adopted to express the original Chinese culture.
Chicken Liver Stone Overlay Inside Painted Bottle with Landscape and Human Figures (1950s)Boshan Colored Glaze Museum
Inside painted snuff bottles, where the whole universe can be painted on the inside face of a small glass.
"Spring of Peace" Inside Painted Bottle (1950s) by Xue JingwanBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
It also gives birth to "Lu School Inner Painting".
"I Love Beijing Tian'anmen" Inside Painted Bottle (1950s) by Sun JijieBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
There are four masters of inner painting in Shandong Province: Li Kechang, Wen Xiangjun, Zhang Guangqing and Sun Jijie.
Peace All Year Round by 孙凤军 and Sun FengjunBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
The lamp blown works are so lifelike as to be indistinguishable from the original ones.
The work "Peace All Year Round" is made with the traditional Boshan colored glaze lamp craft, using the thermoplasticity and hot-melting features of colored glaze to blow it into sphere or ellipsoid according to the shape of. In order to make it more vivid, each grape and the "white frost" on its outer layer are one-step formed, and then each one of them is thermally joined together to form a complete bunch of grapes. With glazed leaves, branches and vines, the grapes are well-spaced with changing shapes and intensiry, achieving a realistic effect.
Green Set Material Overlay Colored Glaze Vase (1950s)Boshan Colored Glaze Museum
Colored glaze engraving is the perfect integration of traditional implication and modern style.
The vase was made by adopting the technique of set material carving, that is, to overlie a layer or several layers of pigments whose colors are different from the base on the surface of the colored glaze product. Patterns such as flowers and birds are drawn and carved according to needs.
Colored Glaze Vase (1950s)Boshan Colored Glaze Museum
The pattern on it was carved bit by bit just like jade carving. The craft is cumbersome and the style is elegant.
Colored Glaze Bottle (1990s)Boshan Colored Glaze Museum
Thermoforming works have a variety of shapes and colors.
Chicken Fat Yellow Snuff Pot Sculptured with Beijing Opera (1950s)Boshan Colored Glaze Museum
The precious color materials represented by chicken fat yellow are special tributes for the royal family of Qing Dynasty.
Chicken Fat Yellow Bottle with Squirrel, Grape and Radish Motifs (1950s)Boshan Colored Glaze Museum
Chicken fat yellow, also known as "royal yellow" in China, is lustrous and crystal clear, warm and dignified, just like being soaked by butter.
Chicken Fat Yellow Bowl Engraved with Lotus and FrogBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
As the ingredients used to make it are expensive, so far only a few people have mastered the formula. During the firing process, the duration and degree of heating must be precisely controlled to fix the color instantly. This is the reason why today it is still impossible to produce chicken fat yellow in large quantities.
Furnace God TempleBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
After hundreds of years of development and accumulation, history has left for Boshan the earliest and only Furnace God Temple in the country, the earliest existing ancient colored glaze kiln site, the first colored glaze museum, the first flat glass factory and the first monograph about colored glaze in China.
Colored Glaze RuyiBoshan Colored Glaze Museum
Boshan colored glaze inherits the essence of Chinese traditional plastic arts. Its soft curve, gorgeous color and various appearances give colored glaze works a never-ending artistic life.
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