Ceramic / Bone China Painting

 

Ceramic Painting

 

The Medium:

Bone China Plaques – Why so unique!
True Bone China/Porcelain plaques have never been produced in great numbers over the centuries. Research shows that these plaques are rare and are highly sought after.
The main reason for this rarity is due to the high loss rate of up to 80% when firing occurs. The rectangular clay plaques first biscuit firing shows little damage. The risk can occur in the consequent biscuit, glost and numerous decorating firings. The firing changes the molecular structure of the clay and stresses occur in the plaque. This then can cause cracking, warping and general weaknesses in the structure.
It takes a great level of knowledge and skill to produce high quality bone china and porcelain paintings using the traditional decorating techniques. Nicola has had the privilege of learning these skills from a true master ceramic painter.

 The Finished Piece:

Nicola’s ceramic paintings can have up to fifteen firings in order to build up and lock in the glaze colours. There is a risk of loss/damage on each of these firing which make this work incredibly uncertain but amazingly fulfilling when you see the finished piece. The deep rich colours are unified and become one with the ceramic body, leaving a long lasting luxurious glossy  finish.
“You could put a piece in the ground for hundreds of years and it will look just the same when someone digs it up,” Nicola says.

 A Dying Art:

Nicola is believed to be one of the only modern day ceramic artist using the true traditional china painting techniques that have been passed down to her from her father Rick Lewis. Rick was the apprentice of the master ceramic painter Harry Davis at Royal Worcester (1965-69), then created his own ceramic Company Hereford Fine China.

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Women's China Painting in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Women's China Painting in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

 

What started out as a simple ebay purchase of a bowl that held my fascination, soon turned into not only a collecting obsession, but an education in the subect of women and the arts. So what is it, what is the history behind it, and how does it relate to my own family history?

How Does It Fit In With My Family History?

The family history connection is more of a dotted line. I remember seeing similar pieces in my great-grandmother's china cabinet growing up. Unfortunately, most if not all were lost in the fire at her home in 1979. So when I saw this piece staring back at me from the porcelain lost and found on Ebay, ready to be adopted (for a price, of course), it brought back many memories. Years later, when I was cleaning out my mother's house in New York, I found other similar pieces that had been collected by my great aunt Ethel McCrickert Hannan.

What Is It?

Simply put, this is a hand-painted Limoges china bowl from the studio of Julius H. Brauer in Chicago dated ca. 1910. It was the first piece of hand-painted china that I had purchased and it started me on a journey of collecting similar pieces to the point of obsession. I am partial to the poppy pattern since the color scheme in the main rooms of my home is paprika and pale lemon. I am also a big fan of the Arts & Crafts movement of the early 20th century and this piece is obviously from that era.

How Was It Made?

Beginning in the 1870s, "blank" china pieces were imported from all over Europe, mostly the hard porcelain unique to the Limoges region of France. Art studios had been set up which employed china painting artists to decorate these items later purchased for the home. These bowls, vases, and other items were meticulously decorated by hand - there was no involvement of transfers or mass production. Some pieces were signed and some were left unsigned.

While the Limoges manufacturers had their own in-house studios, most notably Havilland, many blanks were shipped to the United States to be decorated in studios across the Atlantic. It has been said that over 18,000 barrels of Limoge pieces were exported to these shores during the mid to late 19th century alone!

Most of the decorating studios in the United States were located in Chicago - in fact by 1912 there were 49 decorating studios which employed artists working with these blank china pieces. By 1916, the number had jumped to 102. Some of the more famous studios were Pickard, Julius H. Brauer, Whites Art Company, Pitkin & Brooks, and Stouffer.

Who Were These Artists?

Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, not many of these studios would employ female artists. Yet some of the most collectible pieces have been executed by women. How did this come to be?

China painting became a very popular pastime beginning in the 1870s and lasting up until World War I when the importation of Limoges blanks was very limited. Just like knitting parties today, women very rarely painted china alone. Groups would gather weekly to work on similar pieces and show off their handiwork. China painting became so popular that even Caroline Scott Harrison, wife of President Benjamin Harrison held such gatherings at the White House.

Blanks could be purchased at fine department stores and studios by these women who probably had enrolled in a local china painting club or society. It was there that they would take painting lessons and progress to completing entire sets of china service.

Did Your Ancestors Paint China?

Unfortunately women artists who painted china and executed some fascinating pieces were considered "amateur" as compared to the "professional" artists of the various studios. Yet the majority of pieces that still exist were more likely painted by an ancestor rather than purchased at a studio. I have several pieces that are signed by women, some including dates, that attest to this particular art movement.

So, right about now, how many of you are getting up to go look at your china cabinets for any hand-painted pieces that could be a connection between you and that female ancestor artist?

 

 

 

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Bone China v Porcelain

In A Nutshell

Bone china, fine china, porcelain: They can look very similar, but there’s a definite difference in what they’re made from. Bone china is, as its name suggests, made from bone—cow bone in particular, although in rare cases you could be eating off of a plate made from a dead person. The same manufacturing processes are used in making fine china, but without the bone content. Porcelain is also created in much the same way, but it’s fired at a higher temperature and the end result is much harder.

The Whole Bushel

Bone china is, as its name suggests, made from cow bone. The bone is finely ground into bone ash, and it is then mixed with feldspar, ball clay, quartz, and kaolin (a type of clay). The quality of the finished product is based on how much bone is in the mixture; a high-quality bone china should contain at least 30 percent bone and can go as high as 40–45 percent.
Porcelain has been around since around A.D. 620; more modern methods and mixtures started to be used around A.D. 1279. Originating in China, the earliest porcelains used kaolin (a type of clay) and pegmatite (a type of granite). Early European versions used clay and ground glass. In 1707, German manufacturers started using feldspar instead of glass in a process that continues today. In today’s porcelain, silica is also added to the raw ingredients. The raw materials are finely ground, cleaned, formed in a mold, and then fired.

The firing process is what creates either porcelain or fine china. If the temperature is high—around 1,455° Celsius (2,650° F)—the finished product is much more durable and is known as porcelain. If it’s fired at a lower temperature—around 1,200° (2,200° F)—it’s known as fine china. Fine china is much softer than porcelain, making it much more suitable for applications such as plates and cups. Porcelain is strong enough and durable enough that it’s suitable for a wide range of industrial applications such as electrical insulators.

Bone china undergoes two firing processes. The first causes the product to shrink, and about 20% of the pieces that are made will crack and break at this stage. The second firing happens after the piece is glazed, and melts the glaze into the piece. Those that don’t crack or break during this stage are then decorated with their final patterns. Many pieces are hand painted or sprayed, though in some cases decals can also be applied.

At a glance, it’s easy to tell the difference between bone china and fine china if you know what you’re looking for. The addition of bone ash gives bone china a warm color, while fine china will be a brighter white. If you hold the china up to the light, you’ll see that bone china has a translucent quality compared to fine china. Porcelain is a much more durable material, and is much harder than either type of china.

But then there’s the creepier side of china. American artist Charles Krafft has found that it doesn’t have to be cow bone that’s used for the bone component in bone china. The current mixture used for British bone china was created by a man named Josiah Spode (Spode is still a major manufacturer of bone china in the UK), and Krafft decided to simply swap out the cow bone ash in Spode’s recipe for human bone ash, retrieved from a crematorium and finely milled. Calling his new product “SPONE,” you can still commission him to create a special memento made of your loved ones.






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Fear! A Dying Art

Ceramic painters fear traditional skills could die out

Peter and Marie Graves started their own company in 2006 after being made redundant from Moorcroft Enamels

In a small pottery studio in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, the steady hand of Peter Graves, 64, adds the finishing details to a delicately-painted picture of a ship inside an enamel box.

Across the desk, his wife Marie, 54, colours the wings of a bird she is painting onto a vase.

The couple have been freehand painters since 1974 but are worried that the skill is a dying art.

"We're all dropping off the perches," Mr Graves warns.

He adds: "It's shrunk to about 25 people in the UK doing completely freehand painting, because everything else is done with the aid of a transfer.

"There used to be an army of us in factories across the city and now we've been reduced to almost living museum pieces."

The couple, who paint porcelain, bone china and enamel boxes, fear their trade will not survive beyond the next 20 years because the skills are not being passed down to future generations.

They have welcomed plans for a ceramic academy in Stoke-on-Trent "in principle" but urged one of the big pottery firms in the area to help to teach traditional pottery skills.

The British Ceramic Confederation (BCC) and North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce want to create a national ceramic skills academy in the city where the industry once thrived.

A £1.5m bid to the government's Growth and Innovation Fund has been submitted and a decision is expected in December.
'Surviving, not starving'
Mr Graves said: "It depends on what skills they're talking about.

"The new modern style of skills that are needed in the industry are very different to our Victorian style, and I don't know if there is room in the industry for that now.

"We would love to be able to take someone on ourselves and train them but we have to earn a living and if people don't pay us to train someone up we can't do it.

"It's something a bigger company like Wedgwood should do because they have the finances to do it."

The couple set up their own studio in the Roslyn Works in Longton six years ago after being made redundant from Moorcroft Enamels.

They said painted enamel boxes can sell for about £700, with vases fetching around £500.

Prices can be higher for pieces painted to order.

Mr Graves said the demand is still strong, especially for bespoke items. His wife is currently painting a set of six copper goblets with animal designs for a customer who is paying £3000 for each piece.

He said: "I think there's an upsurge lately with people buying one-off pieces and the firms that we buy vases from to decorate are very busy.

"I don't see what's happening in the larger factories but the small places are definitely busy and the industry is growing in those smaller studios and pottery makers."

Mr Graves said the couple were able to make a living from their trade but did not make a huge profit.


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