Celadon Appreciation

[mbanu]

So how do you clean crazing celadon? Do you just treat it like you were using an unglazed pot?

Also, any tips on how to tell intentional crazing from crazing due to poor quality?

[TeaTotaling]

Please share your favorite celadon pieces!
I know a topic for Ru ware already exists, but I wanted to make a more general one.


I'll start with a Japanese seiji (青磁) guinomi by URAGUCHI Masayuki (浦口雅行) [b. 1964].
Mr. Uraguchi studied under MIURA Koheiji (三浦小平二) [1933-2006], Living National Treasure for celadon.

I love the deep, serene color. It has striking reddish crazing (kannyu, 貫入), but the color is not showing up well in these pics.
Also, those little specks are actually flat white; they're not sparkly. They make it look kind of like coral.

Lovely Celadon, very elegant! How do you keep this stain free, any tips? My porcelain and celadon stoneware have some stubborn stains that I can't seem to remove. It would be a joy to clean up my teaware, revealing it's natural beauty once again.

[pedant]

Lovely Celadon, very elegant! How do you keep this stain free, any tips? My porcelain and celadon stoneware have some stubborn stains that I can't seem to remove. It would be a joy to clean up my teaware, revealing it's natural beauty once again.

do you mean for stain in the crazing or just on the general surface?

i haven't used that cup enough to get stains.

but as for my main celadon cup which doesn't have crazing on the inside...

thoroughly rinsing with hot water immediately after each session seems to help slow or avoid staining.

maybe once or twice a year, i scrub with a paper towel and baking soda paste (mild abrasive). this seems to remove all but a hint of it.
using any kind of abrasive on a glazed surface brings risk of creating more micro scratches for stain to adhere to. but in my case, i have not noticed stain accumulating faster (or staying more persistently) since i've done this, and clearly the surface was already imperfect with nooks for stain to settle into. if the surface were perfect like glazed porcelain, it would have wiped off with hot water + dish towel + elbow grease, and i would not have needed baking soda paste.

if that doesn't work, and the stain really bothers you, i guess you could try bleaching it with percarbonate or even hypochlorite (household bleach). this doesn't actually remove tea stain, but it renders it less colorful.

[TeaTotaling]

Lovely Celadon, very elegant! How do you keep this stain free, any tips? My porcelain and celadon stoneware have some stubborn stains that I can't seem to remove. It would be a joy to clean up my teaware, revealing it's natural beauty once again.

do you mean for stain in the crazing or just on the general surface?

i haven't used that cup enough to get stains.

but as for my main celadon cup which doesn't have crazing on the inside...

thoroughly rinsing with hot water immediately after each session seems to help slow or avoid staining.

maybe once or twice a year, i scrub with a paper towel and baking soda paste (mild abrasive). this seems to remove all but a hint of it.
using any kind of abrasive on a glazed surface brings risk of creating more micro scratches for stain to adhere to. but in my case, i have not noticed stain accumulating faster (or staying more persistently) since i've done this, and clearly the surface was already imperfect with nooks for stain to settle into. if the surface were perfect like glazed porcelain, it would have wiped off with hot water + dish towel + elbow grease, and i would not have needed baking soda paste.

if that doesn't work, and the stain really bothers you, i guess you could try bleaching it with percarbonate or even hypochlorite (household bleach). this doesn't actually remove tea stain, but it renders it less colorful.

Very thorough, thank you for explaining! I was referring to staining. I suppose this is potentially unavoidable with frequently used cups. Now I know why your's looks immaculate...infrequent use. A little due diligence, as you recommend, seems to be the best preventative measure.

[Mark-S]

Nothing special if you live in the US or UK, but hard to get from Germany. Others might disagree, but I think they are from the late 70's to early 80's. Very beautiful in my opinion

[debunix]

Subtle design that works well with Celadon.

[Fuut]

Hi everyone, been a while.

Took me a good 15 minutes to find the picture because I knew I saved it somewhere. I gave these cups to my brother and made the photo just before handing them over. I'm slightly regretting gifting them though

[debunix]

I occasionally have moments of regret like that when I visit someone’s office to give them tea and remember why I liked and bought the cup that I gave to them and I’m filling with tea.

[LeoFox]

I took the opportunity to get this one

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2628

---

Original page for the item from mud and leaves:

https://mudandleaves.com/products/75ml- ... -heart-cup


My honest impression is that 230$ original price is way too high for something like this.

It is a very thick and heavy cup. When paired with this green tea that I've been drinking every day, it seems to reduce the higher aromatic notes quite dramatically- and to flatten the body a bit. The aftertaste seems to be preserved.

Additionally, the images from the mud and leaves page are very misleading. First, it is not the same item - this is clear from the difference in crackling - images from website show crackling that doesn't exist on this cup. This is fine for mass produced stuff but this cup is sold as a relatively unique limited edition etc, etc...

More importantly, the nice reddish color at the rim in the vendor picture is closer to a brownish pink - and the blue is much more pale in person.

That said, the glaze does appear to have a cloudy blue sky character and seems jade-like.

May need to take some time to find an appropriate pairing with tea.

[Ethan Kurland]

.... When paired with this green tea that I've been drinking every day, it seems to reduce the higher aromatic notes quite dramatically- and to flatten the body a bit. The aftertaste seems to be preserved.

Leo, Your comments about celadon effecting what you taste surprised me. You are much more likely to notice how different experiences come from different clay etc., than I am; yet, I must note I cannot remember celadon ever having a noticeable effect on what I taste. (That goes for whether I use celadon to prepare or just as my drinking cup.) Yet, though I like how my celadon looks & the feel of it in my hands, I don't use nearly as much as plain porcelain. I wonder if somehow I "sense" tea tastes flatter, but don't "know".
Interesting.
As to the original price of that celadon. I'd say some people are a bit cheeky.

[LeoFox]

.... When paired with this green tea that I've been drinking every day, it seems to reduce the higher aromatic notes quite dramatically- and to flatten the body a bit. The aftertaste seems to be preserved.

Leo, Your comments about celadon effecting what you taste surprised me. You are much more likely to notice how different experiences come from different clay etc., than I am; yet, I must note I cannot remember celadon ever having a noticeable effect on what I taste. (That goes for whether I use celadon to prepare or just as my drinking cup.) Yet, though I like how my celadon looks & the feel of it in my hands, I don't use nearly as much as plain porcelain. I wonder if somehow I "sense" tea tastes flatter, but don't "know".
Interesting.
As to the original price of that celadon. I'd say some people are a bit cheeky.

I agree that the appearance and feel of the glaze is appealing- especially how the color seems to change dramatically with the lighting, being particularly attractive in morning - a kind of pale cerulean to glaucous shade transitioning across the crackled surface.

Trying it now today side by side to thin porcelain with a korean balyhocha.

Again noticed the thinning out of aromas and body. But I discovered that this effect is much less if only a small amount of tea is in the cup- that is less than 30% full. When there is only a small amount of tea, the body actually feels thicker than the porcelain- and smoother. The aromatics are still diminished but not to the extent it would be if filled higher.

[blkgreymon]

Wakao Kei.JPG (203.53 KiB) Viewed 17902 times

Wakao Kei 2.JPG (214.68 KiB) Viewed 17902 times

Here is my chawan

[Baiyun]

I took the opportunity to get this one

(...)

My honest impression is that 230$ original price is way too high for something like this.

I jumped off buying that one due to shipping costs to my part of the world costing as much as the cup, and agree on the original price for this being a joke. At the price you got it, it makes much more sense.

Interesting observations on the effects, including the filling percentage thing.

I was hunting for celadon wares for a bit afterwards because I think good examples of it have a real hard to capture beauty, but for now I have settled on those cheap plain white thin porcelain cups. Maybe I see something one day.

[sheep.payday2]

I took the opportunity to get this one

(...)

My honest impression is that 230$ original price is way too high for something like this.

No comment on the actual cup because I never held one, but in Shan kilns' Tmall store, Shan series Fang Hua cups (芳华杯善款) are currently listed for CNY 1480, which is currently just over USD 200.

shanyaochang-fanghua.png (274.9 KiB) Viewed 17854 times

[LeoFox]

I took the opportunity to get this one

(...)

My honest impression is that 230$ original price is way too high for something like this.

No comment on the actual cup because I never held one, but in Shan kilns' Tmall store, Shan series Fang Hua cups (芳华杯善款) are currently listed for CNY 1480, which is currently just over USD 200.

Yes this is part of the reason I pulled the trigger- the tb prices seem to match. However, as others have mentioned, Tb pricing could just be a way of the producer to set a high price to allow resellers to price them much higher - when in fact the resellers purchase them at a much lower price directly.

In any case - it is a robust, hefty and pretty cup.