[Clayart] Wild porcelain and firing porcelain

[Antoinette Badenhorst via Clayart]

Some of you may recall that I requested info about firing porcelain in a
wood firing kiln some time back. I did not get any responses, so I ended up
with firsthand learning while traveling through, first South Africa and
later in Europe the first 4 months of 2025.

While I was working with Colbec porcelain to teach a 2 week workshop at La
Meridiana, there was a guy and his crue working with the same porcelain in
the wood fire. My groups' work was fired in gas kilns. I could make some
interesting observations, however because I was occupied with my own
students, that was a limited learning curve.

In Slovenia I worked with a small group of potters and we developed
porcelains from processed as well as wild ingredients. Most of the
porcelain clay recipes that I developed for the group were unscientific. In
some instances I had only a sample of how the material reacted in the fire
at ^6 to go by. So I was guessing my way all the way through a ^12 wood
firing kiln. The outcome is not what we would normally associate porcelain
with, which is understandable, since there were unprocessed and also
coarse materials used. I think some of the porcelain would even withstand
higher temperatures than what we fired it to, but I did not do any
vitrification tests on the samples that I brought back home. I also worked
with a few commercial porcelains. All the recipes as well as
commercial porcelains turned out well, except for one porcelain (
supposedly ^10 ++) from Spain, which was so thixotropic that I could barely
move into shape and it completely vanished in the fire. I think it was
loaded with sodium (and whatever else)

I would like to do a similar porcelain making/testing/firing workshop here
in the USA, so I will (DV) at some time see if I can get materials from the
places Bill Scran and others provided here in the Southwest and see what I
can do with it. Hopefully there will be more time to observe and document.

A last comment: I created a porcelain with the Meissen (Meißen) kaolin,
which I am sure is not even close to the original Meissen from the 17th
century which was used by John Bötger and which opened porcelain to the
Western World, but it was still exciting and at the same time very
disappointing!
Just chit chatting....maybe someone has some interesting story to add.

Best wishes,

Antoinette Badenhorst

*PorcelainByAntoinette <https://www.porcelainbyantoinette.com/#/>*

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[Ric Swenson via Clayart]

According to records, A crew of potters in Gao Ling area of Jingdezhen in 1004 AD found a huge deposit of white firing clay of high temperature capabilities. Gao Ling translated to Kaolin in the West. It was combined with local feldspar and processed for wheel work and hand building. To keep from iron contamination, it was washed several times, and settled. Glazes were developed for firing to cone 13 in wood kilns. Jingdezhen had a lot of pine trees suitable for high firing. Cobalt was imported from Siam for glazes and the results were Blue and White wares which were sent by camels and ships to Europe in the 16th and 17th Century and became very popular.

One can still visit Gao Ling and see the last mines there. It was a mountain of primary clay little travelled and contaminated by iron and other minerals.

Hope this is helpful.

Ric

________________________________
From: Clayart <clayart...@lists.clayartforum.com> on behalf of Antoinette Badenhorst via Clayart <cla...@lists.clayartforum.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 00:04
To: clayart <cla...@lists.clayartforum.com>
Cc: Antoinette Badenhorst <porcelainb...@gmail.com>
Subject: [Clayart] Wild porcelain and firing porcelain

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[Antoinette Badenhorst via Clayart]

Thanks Ric. Yes, the early history of porcelain stays fascinating. If I
recall correctly it was not so much the material, but the high firing
processes that was kept a secret for so long. I think there may still be
secrets.
It is also amazing how they purify porcelain.
I was asked for advice from a South African friend some weeks ago about a
porcelain body called Jade. The company claims that the clay is from
Jingdezhen and it even refers to a 1700 history. As far as I know porcelain
clay or components thereof is not for the export market.

Best wishes,

Antoinette Badenhorst

*PorcelainByAntoinette <https://www.porcelainbyantoinette.com/#/>*

*TeachinArt* <https://www.teachinart.com/antoinette-badenhorst.html>

*International Academy of Ceramics*
<https://www.aic-iac.org/en/member/antoinette-badenhorst/>

*Mississippi Arts Commission
<https://arts.ms.gov/artist/antoinette-badenhorst/>*

*MSClayworks <https://www.msclayworks.com/#/>*

URL: <https://lists.clayartforum.com/pipermail/clayart/attachments/20251029/49bb48de/attachment.htm>

[Terry Lazaroff via Clayart]

A good read are the letters of Francois Xavier d’Entrecolles. He administered to the workers in Jingdezhen in the 1600s. He documented the porcelain in two letters back to France.

Terry
Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 29, 2025, at 4:26 PM, Antoinette Badenhorst via Clayart <cla...@lists.clayartforum.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks Ric. Yes, the early history of porcelain stays fascinating. If I