Chinese black ceramic

Mirror-like blackness

Besides “Bean art“, another unique craft at the fair was black ceramics.

The Chinese black ceramic (中国黑陶) dates back to about 5000 B.C. and the Chinese invented this art form 3000 years before china.

Here’s a really quick look at why this handmade blackness is like no other:

• A very important material is the mud, which can only be found at the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China.
• The gloss black surface is neither glazed nor painted but obtained through a special burning technique which carbonizes the mud mold while burning in the kiln. Afterwhich the handmade mud mold must be left to dry for 2 days before a craftsman uses selected sea shells to press onto the mold inch by inch for 4 times in order to achieve a smooth and shiny appearance.
• Under different lightings and from different angles, the metallic luster will reflect light to show off hues of purple, grey or blue. It produces a pleasant sound with a light knock on the ceramic.
• It contains activated charcoal which is known to absorb odor and purify the air from toxins such as formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia, chlorine, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.

There’s another thing, it’s not easy to mirror this form of black so the inferior pieces in the market today are blacken using…(make a guess?)…paint!