PAUL OTTAWAY BONE CHINA

Home of the world’s finest quality thrown bone china

PAUL OTTAWAY BONE CHINA

EMAIL     paulottaway@bigpond.com

 

 

120 Grantville-Glen Alvie Road

Grantville Vic 3984 Australia

 

                                                             

 

www.paulottawaybonechina.com

 

General Information

          Bone china is nearly always hard biscuited to its maturing temperature after which an earthenware glaze is fired on at a lower temperature to complete the process. Unlike porcelain with its wide firing range (well over 100 degrees Centigrade) bone china’s range is very short having to be controlled within a 20 degree Centigrade range. If this optimum temperature is exceeded the pot becomes so pyroplastic that it distorts and collapses like molten glass often splitting and blistering at the same time. If it is underfired its greatest degree of translucency will not be achieved.

PAUL OTTAWAY BONE CHINA    The paste is brought into condition by spiral kneading for a few minutes then balled up into similar weights before being thrown on bats on a kick wheel with a heavy flywheel sat at side-saddle on the right and kicked directly with the right foot. Pots are thrown to their finished shape and wall thickness. A potters rib is used on the outside of the pot during the last stages of throwing to clean away the excess paste at the base and to finish the shaping. A turned foot is usually avoided as the pot slumps onto it. In fact the pots are caught as they’re melting and have to be shaped to take the resulting distortion into consideration or avoid it. Pots are fired individually to 1305 degrees Centigrade in the center of the kiln and watched like a hawk to judge the maturing temperature then glost fired to 1101 degrees Centigrade to complete the beautiful new Vestal.

 

BONE CHINA VESTAL Mosquito and Grass motifs in cobalt blue inlay

FIRING BONE CHINA