I finished a batch of mugs recently. All of them are wheel-thrown and hand-painted with various “characters” using the traditional Chinese qinghua (blue flower) paint. This raccoon one is my favorite of the bunch.

Qinghua painting has been really fun to do… I find myself enjoying it much more than I expected to. To me, the contrast of the cobalt against porcelain or even bare stoneware clay (as shown above) is beautiful. My only frustration with the paint is that it smudges quite easily during any part of the process (even after bisque firing), so the pieces have to be handled very delicately. In any case, if done correctly, the outcome can be quite lovely.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll be aware that I have been playing around with these “Qinghua character” designs ever since I took a qinghua workshop during my trip to Jingdezhen. The decorating and glazing process for this series of mugs is still a bit complicated and involves much waiting (I have lamented a bit on this topic), so I’m working on trying to streamline it in order to minimize further frustration for myself.

In the meantime, I’m gonna enjoy having this cutie on my desk : )

CATEGORY: Insider
POSTED by blue bean	July 5, 2012