The role of the needle

The role of the needle

It is said that during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a pot maker who was rushing to make a few tea pot blank. The time consumed him a lot of effort, and he was always dissatisfied with the light and light. That day, he sat by the mud bench and picked up a pot blank to be naked, his wife was brushing her hair beside him, and a comb in the hair was beside the table. He thought it was a bright needle and picked it up to use, because the comb was made of horns, and the long comb had been smooth and the soft and high elasticity made the pot body very smooth. From now on, the purple clay pot knows that all kinds of bright needles made of horn are the best thing.

Needle kung fu refers to the process of scraping and pressing the surface of the forming green with smooth instruments (mainly plastic plates and horn pieces). The effect of the needle not only affects the workmanship of the pot, but also has a significant impact on the firing effect of the pot and the foaming effect of the finished product. Whether from an artistic point of view or from a practical point of view, the role of the bright needle is obvious.

The needle effect is not only to flatten and scrape the surface of the sand pot, but also to make finer particles (commonly known as pulp) overflow on the surface. Because the finer particles are heated in a large area, contain less air and have better heat conduction performance, the eating temperature is good, so that the sintering degree of the sand pot with the clear needle process in place is high at the same kiln temperature. Sintering in place, not only the color of the sand pot is correct, but also the strength of the billet is high (not easy to break), the porosity is 3-5%, and the characteristics of purple sand can be fully displayed.

A really good purple clay pot, not in the full hand molding or mold (block) molding, but to see the shape, look, refinement and mud and shape match, these have nothing to do with the molding process, look and refinement is largely the effect of the needle.

The value of the molding process lies in the difficulty of production and whether to show the unique material properties of purple sand, which reflects the skill and accomplishment of the pot artist, and has no direct correlation with the actual performance of the work.

Then again, a really good pot, must be the pot in place, for many pot artists, the value of the pot is sometimes reflected in the amount of needle kung fu.

Another very important function of the needle is the combination of mud, molding and firing, resulting in the most special process performance of purple sand can make the surface of the pot body, although unlike the glaze applied on porcelain, it can be rich in luster. Although it has a certain porosity, it is characterized by no leakage.