Porcelain is a type of ceramic known for its strength, whiteness, and translucency. It is made by firing a refined clay, usually kaolin, at high temperatures (typically above 1,200°C or 2,200°F). This process vitrifies the material, making it dense, durable, and non-porous. Porcelain has been used for centuries in fine tableware, decorative objects, and even electrical insulators due to its resilience and aesthetic appeal.
The word ceramic is a broad term that includes all materials made by firing clay at high temperatures. This category encompasses porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, and other variations, each differing in composition, firing temperature, and properties. While porcelain is a high-quality and refined form of ceramic, not all ceramics are porcelain. Other types, like stoneware, are more durable but less translucent, while earthenware is more porous and fired at lower temperatures. Understanding this distinction helps clarify that porcelain is just one of many types of ceramics, but all porcelain is ceramic.
Porcelain slowly evolved in China and finally came into ‘production’ about 2000 years ago.
Its manufacturing process is more demanding than that for stoneware and it has usually been regarded as the most prestigious type of pottery for its delicacy, strength, and the purest of white colour. Technically, it is an elastic paste - a mixture of kaolin clay mineral and silica glass sand.
The strength and translucency of porcelain arises from vitrification during the firing in the kiln - a type of ceramic oven - up to 1400 °C. After the high temperature firing porcelain becomes completely vitrified, hard, impermeable, white or artificially coloured, translucent (except when of considerable thickness), and resonant.
One of the most ancient types of porcelain is bone china. Bone china is a type of porcelain that is composed of bone ash, kaolin, and feldspar. Bone china is the strongest of the porcelains due to the calcification derived from cattle bones. Its high mechanical and physical strength and chip resistance allows it to be produced very thin. The 21st century brought up some cultural and ethical issues such as the notion of ‘Islamic bone china’ which is made using only bone ash from halal animals. Due to the use of up to 50% animal bones in the bone china mixture, the production is practically animal based which can be problematic for vegans and vegetarians.
The majority of the pieces you see on this website is made from flax porcelain. It is a very strong, versatile, translucent and flexible porcelain. Its reinforcing properties are provided by the high content of paper flax fiber that allows the mixture to be stretched without tearing. Flax fibers are all vegetable and organic and will burn out when fired that’s why the final object will come out noticeably lighter. The flax paste feels cool, wet yet clean to the touch. When you pinch it between thumb and forefingers, you feel it gets thinner and thinner until it becomes a second skin with the fingerprints emerged.
