Celestial Celadons

Celadon Tests in chronological order of Chinese Dynasty

Tile 1 - Northern Song (AD 960-1127)

Tiles 2-4 - Southern Song (AD 1127-1279)

Tiles 5-6 - Yuan (AD 1271-1368)

Tiles 7-8 - Ming (AD 1368-1644)

I’ve come to fall in love with Celadon glazes back in 2021 due to its Jade-like characteristics, much as the Celadon pottery manufacturers in China over the last several millennia have before me.

The beauty is that no two are exactly alike, and while sometimes temperamental to fire, the payoff overrides the trouble completely. The most prized are the blue ones, though they range from sky-blue, to teal, to sage-green, to Jade, all the way to amber or honey.

I began doing reconstructions of historical Chinese glazes, some based on recipes from 1000 years ago thanks to the knowledge from ceramic greats including but not limited to Nigel Wood and his book “Chinese Glazes”, Robert Tichane’s “Celadon Blues”, John Britt’s “The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes”, and Derek Au’s own research in his fantastic glaze database, Glazy.org.