The craftsmen in Jingdezhen often say an old saying: A square is worth ten yuan. Meaning: a square piece of porcelain can be worth ten round pieces of porcelain. It can be seen that finding a circle is easier, but finding a square is difficult.
Some people say: Since “one side is worth ten yuan”, shouldn’t square porcelains be more valuable than round ones? But from the auction market in recent years, Yuan Qinghua Xiao Heyue chased Han Xinmei vase and Yuan blue and white Guiguzi. Xiashan Tutan, Mingchenghua Doucai Chicken Crock Cup, etc., these hundreds of millions of dollars worth of porcelain, are all round rather than square.
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In fact, judging the value of a piece of porcelain requires a comprehensive range of factors, such as its historical age, cultural value, craftsmanship difficulty, quantity, etc., and “one party is worth ten yuan.” This statement is based solely on the difficulty of craftsmanship.
Round porcelain, such as our common porcelain bowls, porcelain cups, porcelain plates, porcelain jars… can be achieved by drawing the blanks by a pottery cart. Skilled craftsmen can draw many pieces a day, and then after the blanks are dry, they can be repaired by sharp blanks. The blank, glazed and colored, can be burned in the kiln, and the whole process is relatively straightforward and simple. But square porcelain is different, because no one can pull a square blank from a pottery cart yet.
So, how do you make square porcelain? It can only be made piece by piece, and then put them together. For example, to make a square porcelain plate, you need to first roll the clay into a plate shape. After the clay plate is dry to a certain extent, cut it according to the required number and size. Then apply the mud on the bottom plate to splice piece by piece. When splicing, it is necessary to maintain a tight pressure and control the strength to prevent deformation of the utensils. After the splicing is completed, let it dry until it is finished. Use a blade to smooth the sides of the square plate, and the green body is finished.
The slightly dry mud board can be used as a relatively straight part of the splicing utensils, and the wet and soft mud board can be twisted, rolled and other methods to make other shapes.
It takes so many steps to form alone, plus the glazing and painting in the later stage. The overall cumbersomeness of these necessary steps can be imagined. Especially in the final firing, there may be deformations caused by various reasons, so the stacking up makes it more difficult.
That’s why the craftsmen in Jingdezhen have the saying that “one side is worth ten yuan”, which is like the inner expression of the craftsmen, with a feeling of helplessness that “the square device has abused me thousands of times, and I treat the square device as my first love”, maybe There are also regrets for the square utensils that have been tossed and turned but still not fired, and the treasures of the square utensils that have been reborn from the fire.
