My system is not decent

In short, the characteristic of the blue and white underglaze red production process is that it must meet the requirements of the two different color materials firing processes of "blue and white" and "underglaze red" at the same time.

Among them, the color rendering technology of underglaze red is very difficult and difficult to grasp. Therefore, it is not easy to make products with perfect color of the two underglaze colors.

It is precisely because of its complex firing process and high difficulty that the number of productions in most periods is not large, and there are very few works that have survived to this day.

Less means higher prices.

On December 2017, 12, at the auction of a small auction house far away in Belgium, a remnant blue and white artifact from the Yuan Dynasty (which had never been seen before) appeared. Jar with peony pattern cover".

Although this piece was "beheaded", uncovered, and fragmented, it still fetched 23.5 euros, equivalent to RMB 180 million!

This is one of the few residual, incomplete, and spliced ​​porcelains that can still be sold at high prices.

Such porcelain is difficult to fire, but this is exactly what Chen Wenzhe needs.

Only when others can't and can't do it can he show his ability. This can be regarded as mastering the core technology, right?

Like a leg bottle, just like a thigh, almost straight up and down, the embryo is very easy to make.

It is rarely the deployment of color materials, as well as painting and firing.

For Yongzheng blue-and-white material, Chen Wenzhe used the ready-made Qianlong blue-and-white material to make Yongzheng blue-and-white material with a little adjustment, and copper oxide is not difficult to come by. He had already prepared for this.

However, there is still a problem here.

He has never seen real blue-and-white underglaze red porcelain, and he doesn't know how the underglaze red is prepared. How much copper is the best element to contain? Is it necessary to get some iron oxide?

The hair color characteristics of underglaze red in all ages are relatively obvious, so relying on this characteristic of underglaze red hair color is very helpful for the dating and identification of the correlator of underglaze red.

For example, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the underglaze red color was gorgeous, and the red color blocks were not small.

It is estimated that not only copper oxide is used as the glaze, but also mineral pigments such as iron oxide red and selenium red are used as the glaze.

In this way, using the technology of the Qing Dynasty is actually not the best choice.

Underglaze red was in its heyday in the Ming Dynasty.

In Hongwu's time, the color of red underglaze hair was similar to black, so it was also called underglaze black.

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, there were many underglaze red porcelains, and their shapes and patterns were left over from the Yuan Dynasty. The color was light red and light gray, and there were few pure ones.

But in the Xuande Dynasty, the underglaze red was fired very successfully, forming a bright ruby ​​red.

Coincidentally, Chen Wenzhe had just obtained a large pot made by the Xuande Emperor, and he knew something about ruby ​​red, so this time he chose Xuande ruby ​​red to make a red dragon.

These are actually caused by the use of different color materials. It is not difficult for Chen Wenzhe to combine various characteristics to complete the deployment of underglaze red.

Anyway, this time he is not making a high imitation, he is creating, so naturally he does what is good.

After the embryos are ready and the color materials are adjusted, the painting and glazing begin.

When painting, Chen Wenzhe drew two dragons in a regular manner.

Originally, he thought that the two dragons would be entangled together, which would be the most beautiful, and what he made was a pair of dragons playing with beads.

But after thinking about it carefully, it is too troublesome to control the temperature when firing in this way.

There is no way, he can only have one on each side, and finally the two dragons are combined at the head and tail of the dragon, and they go up and down.

The tail of the blue dragon chasing the red dragon is on the top, and the tail of the red dragon chasing the blue dragon is on the bottom. In this way, the two dragons are roughly distributed on both sides of the porcelain.

In this way, it is easier to control the temperature when firing one side at a time.

Instead, the proper prevention of copper oxide volatilization has become the focus.

Copper oxide evaporates at temperatures above 800 degrees Celsius, but the temperature at which cobalt blue is formed is as high as 1200 degrees Celsius;

This is not the end, the red glaze is between 250 degrees and 280 degrees, and the hair color is the best.

Therefore, it is a bit of a fluke to maintain the color of blue and white and underglaze red at the same time.

Therefore, the firing of underglaze red must be very strict from the preparation of pigments to the production process from the beginning to the end.

If there is a slight deviation, the whole kiln may be scrapped.

According to some historical records, one out of ten underglaze reds can be said to be lucky!

This is the truest portrayal of the difficulty of firing underglaze red, and what Chen Wenzhe is most afraid of is firing the kiln. He has enough inheritance experience in this regard.

A bottle with elephant legs was finished, and Chen Wenzhe felt pretty good looking at the finished product.

A red dragon is stepping on red clouds, chasing a blue orb.

A blue dragon, surrounded by blue clouds, chases a red orb.

The whole piece of porcelain has distinct red and blue colors, without any staggering, which is the easiest way to control the temperature.

Of course, doing so is always a bit meaningless.

Therefore, Chen Wenzhe made another bottle with blue dragon, red cloud, and red dragon and blue cloud with elephant legs.

In this way, the red and blue colors are mixed together.

This firing out, the possibility of success is relatively low.

However, the test items are naturally from simple to difficult.

As long as he succeeds once, Chen Wenzhe is sure to succeed many times.

If the technology is mature, he even wants to get a plum bottle with peony pattern, red peony, blue leaves, bright red and blue, it should be more beautiful.

It's a pity that he has never encountered blue and white underglaze red, and he doesn't know the specific pigment formula. If it is too rough, it will [-]% fail to fire.

Once you have the finished product, you have to go into the kiln and try it out.

Anyway, if you want to fire a kiln, you can't just open a kiln.

One sheep is freed, and ten sheep are also freed. Naturally, he wants to burn as many works as possible.

Twelve flower god cups and purple sand pots were put into two larger electric kilns separately.

Elephant leg bottles can only be fired in a small gas kiln, and only with this kind of kiln mouth can Chen Wenzhe accurately control the temperature.

Staying at home for two days, through constant adjustment of the temperature, after one and a half days, Chen Wenzhe's firing is coming to an end.

The next step is to open the kiln, which is like a scratch-off game. If you win or not, just open the kiln and you will know.

The other kilns were only opened to cool down, but there were only six blue and white glazed red kilns, which filled him with anticipation.

Now that the firing was complete, he didn't want to wait any longer, and went straight out of the kiln.

Carefully bringing out large elephant-leg bottles, he could tell at a glance that one of them had been fired successfully.

The red and blue elephant leg bottle, as long as the temperature is controlled, it is still easy to fire successfully.

However, although the elephant leg vase in the second kiln mouth was also separated from red and blue and was a pair with the first one, it was still burnt out.

This blue blue and white hair color is quite rich and gorgeous, but the red dragon is a mess.

There is something wrong with the red glaze formula of this piece, so the red dragon that was fired turned green in some places, and it was dark and speckled, mixed with a red dragon, which was very ugly.