Selected raw Tianqing mud for handmade production. Author: Xu Jiajia. Capacity: about 120cc. In the eighth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, the “Yixing County Annals” recorded: “The soil has a green and yellow color, which is used for kneading clay. Tianqing mud is precious in various types of mud, and it is specially used for making tea pots. Yellow mud is used for making pots and jars.” The essence of Tianqing mud can be inferred from this.
Tianqing Mud Mineral Material
The Tianqing mud recorded in ancient books is mainly produced in the Lishu area of the Huanglongshan mining area. Originally, there was a purple sand mining outlet here, but later the underground water vein was excavated and submerged, forming a large water pool, which is now also known as the Dashuitan mining area.
Dashuitan is located on the Yangshan side of Huanglong Mountain, with the earliest mining and the richest mineral deposits.
Tianqing mud is produced under the blue gray purple mud. The appearance and texture of the ore are uniform and delicate, presenting a dense block of purple brown slightly translucent red, which is fragile and slightly hard. The content of white mica fragments is very small, and the surface is shell like with white wax like texture (which will form white dots after firing). The cross-section is purple black slightly translucent red.
Previously, due to the similarity between the color of this raw ore and the sky blue dye, it was commonly referred to as “sky blue mud”, rather than being named after the color of the fired material.
Tianqing mud kiln firing
Tianqing mud is relatively fine and has good plasticity. It has a certain degree of sediment during molding and production, and the firing temperature range is wide.
Generally fired at around 1160-1210 ℃. After burning, it turns into a deep pig liver color, with a fine pear skin like surface. The fetal material is fine, dense, and firm, with a delicate and rich color effect.
