Stoneware
Stoneware |
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Stoneware is extremely strong and will not absorb water. It
is fired at higher temperatures than earthenware so that the body vitrifies
(ingredients melt and fuse together). It will not allow light to pass through
it. Because stoneware is nonporous, it does not require a glaze; when a
glaze is used, it serves a purely decorative function.
Dark coloured stoneware is made from buff, brown and red clays
without and added ingredients.
Light coloured stoneware was made from the 18th century from
the following ingredients : 25% ball clay, 25% china
clay, 35% flint, 15% china
stone. Firing: 1200 C- 1300 C. There is usually only one firing, but if a glost
firing is required it will be at about 1050 C.
Stoneware was made by the Chinese in
antiquity and became known in northern Europe after the Renaissance (14th
century to 17th century).
Perhaps the majority of current glazed stonewares are salt glazed. They were
originally made in the Rhineland from the 15th century and in England from the
17th. In 18th-century England, salt-glazed stoneware was superseded by
lead-glazed earthenware, or creamware, by porcelain, and by Wedgwood's unglazed
stonewares--the black basalt and white jaspers.
questions / comments? email Steve Birks steveb@netcentral.co.uk