How are the different colours of Celadon achieved?

Chinese celadons come in a wide spectrum of colours. The colour of traditional celadons is primarily the consequence of materials containing naturally existing iron being burned in a reduction environment, with the hue being influenced by the balance of various oxides in the glaze as well as the underlying clay body. Small concentrations of titania, manganese, copper, and even cobalt can have a big impact on the hue. Because the materials employed at certain kiln locations naturally had particular mixtures of oxides, ancient kilns like Yue, Hutian, Longquan, and Yaozhou became identified with certain hues and attributes of celadon.

Image and information referenced from: www.DerekAu.net

Celadon glazes appear to have evolved in Jingdezhen from relatively simple geographically specific material-based recipes (e.g. 10 parts Yaoli glaze stone, 1 part Leping glaze ash) to extremely refined and intentional recipes with similar base glazes that incorporate additional materials for their specific ability to modify color. This resulted in glazes named after specific colors and attributes, such as sky blue with a small.2% addition of cobalt, "bean" celadon pure green iron celadon, "shadow" lake-green, jade celadon, winter green, and bright duck-egg green, to mention a few.

Celadons in the Song dynasty, on the other hand, were largely made of local materials. You could make the notoriously pure blueish-green qingbai glazes if your local clay and glaze stone included just trace amounts of titania and low concentrations of iron (as in communities surrounding Jingdezhen). Your celadons would be more olive-green if you were in the Northern Yaozhou kilns, where materials naturally included more titania. (These claims are grossly oversimplified and generalized.) Woods also addresses the blueish-grey glazes of Yaozhou, as well as the likely influence of coal burning on the color of Yaozhou celadons, in Chinese Glazes, Chapter 6, The Stonewares of North China.)

The Four Elements Tea Cup - Jade Celadon

Experience the range that the different colours of celadon has to offer, with Jade Celadon's "The Four Elements Tea Cup" range, with each teacup retailing for $80 SGD.

This series of Jade Celadon teacups was inspired by the four natural elements (from left to right): Fire, Water, Air, Earth. Each cup is individual in its own way, as each requires a unique setting of heat and chemical levels in our UNESCO-certified kiln as well as varying properties of soil, to produce these eclectic differences in colour. These are the elements that create the unique colours of our Jade Celadon. For example, to achieve the rich red colour of the Fire Element cup, this requires a process of double oxidation; meanwhile, to create the cooling shade of sky-blue in celadon requires low levels of titanium.