4² Cups : : 6 x 6 cm
4² Southern Ice Porcelain
4² is an installation of 16 cups made of Southern Ice porcelain. The cups are slip cast with walls between 1-2mm thick to bring out the translucency of this fine porcelain. 4² was selected for exhibition in the Rotary Arts Spectacular in 2014.
4² = 42
The 16 cups are 6 centimetres wide. Installing the cups with a 6cm gap between each one results in a grid measuring 42 x 42 centimetres.
Southern Ice Porcelain
For more images and further information on the nature, origins and qualities of porcelain, including Southern Ice porcelain, see the Southern Ice porcelain page.
4² Cups : : 6 x 6 cm
Qingbai and Celadon Glazes
To achieve the delicate blue of the qingbai glaze the cups were fired to 1280°C in a reducing atmosphere in a gas kiln. An authentic qingbai (blue-white) and the related celadon (green-blue) glazes are achieved with the use of a very small amount of a single colourant - red iron oxide. The iron is reduced in the atmosphere in a gas kiln and, in the absence of titanium in the glaze ingredients and under the right firing conditions, produces this translucent ice blue glaze.
