The Jun Porcelain always looks brilliant and dazzling regardless whether it’s in kiln produced colors or moon-white azure. To an average Jun porcelain fan, more often than not, he or she gets to know it through the kiln produced magic colors of the Jun Porcelain, which is the most fundamental feature setting it apart from other ceramics.
The Jun Porcelain is famous for its kiln induced unpredictable brilliant colors, hence the name the “art of kiln magic”. It often shows such color mixtures as red and purple, violet with blue, whitish blue, bluish white, reddish blue and etc. It’s a mutual penetration of a variety of colors, rendering various brilliant color patterns made only by Heaven.
As we all know, the Jun Porcelain kiln magic utilizes the copper element as the colorant, which produces the magic kiln color effects under deoxidizing ambience. However, its history bears various points of views.
The legend has the following sad yet poignant story concerning the kiln color magic.
Long time ago, the Jun Porcelains were imperial palace supplies. Its manufacturing wasn’t easy at that time. The reward on the other hand was very little. Plus the government officials often pressed and tortured the kiln workers, who had no choice but to abandon their inherited kilns and flee their homes with sons and daughters. The Jun porcelain production plummeted to a point of near extinction. In order to keep the traditional Jun porcelain craftsmanship from being completely lost, there was such a veteran kiln worker who stayed put, continuing his work at the kiln, willing to take the humiliation and shame. Then, suddenly, the Emperor ordered an imperial bed to be made totally of Jun Porcelain, within a certain time frame not to be exceeded, otherwise with the ramification of being capitally punished.
As the saying goes, no existing Jun porcelain is longer than a foot. Now how could anyone in the world make a royal bed in Jun Porcelain so big, which would have been much longer than a foot? Trial after trial, as the time limit drew nearer, the veteran worker knew that if he didn’t succeed in making the imperial bed in Jun Porcelain, he had to die. However, he was not ready to give up and flee as he was just about to make some breakthroughs in the craftsmanship. He decided to continue his kiln work. Until the troops were sent in by the Emperor, he was still concentrating on attending to the kiln: adding coals and poking the fire and painstakingly pondering how to improve the process. Upon hearing the hustling and bustling of the soldiers, he knew he was not going to make it and jumped right in the kiln fire.
After the Imperial Guards retreated, people, though deeply saddened, opened the door to the kiln and were surprised to see the royal bed had already been successfully made, with shining, novel, brilliant enamel colors: crystal clear, shiny as a mirror, and sleek as a jade. Such wonderful colors have never been seen before. From then on, the kiln magic of changing colors often occurred during the Jun porcelain firing. People said it was that veteran worker who secretly blessed the process that produced such peerless treasure. The kiln workers named the phenomenon as “the kiln magic”. To commemorate the veteran kiln worker, people venerated him as the God of Kilns. Later on, whenever the Jun porcelain was about to be done, people would burn incenses and set off fireworks to commemorate him.
———Quote from China Jun Porcelain Internet
In modern day Jun porcelain manufacturing process, people go through the same ritual to pray to the God of Kilns to produce fine Jun porcelain pieces. Therefore the kiln magic Jun porcelain fine pieces don’t occur often, and more often than not, they are achieved unintentionally. This makes the Jun porcelain enamel colors so unique, like the red clouds in the sky when the sunset approaches, like the smoke arising from the purple green backdrop, forming a surreal, supreme picturesque scene that is unprecedented and not reproducible. It is precisely because of this that the Jun porcelain is so unique and precious.
Puzhen Jun Porcelain brand has been inheriting the traditional Chinese craftsmanship, reviving the grandeur and magnificence of the ancient Chinese Jun porcelain. On top of the azure and moon-white enamel color series, new series of kiln magic colors will be released. Stay tuned!
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