Page 291 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

sintering steatitic
A point in the firing process in which the particle Literally, that which contains talc (magnesium sili-
surfaces of a clay body begin to stick together; while cate), an easily worked mineral with no obvious crys-
not technially fused, they are held together by a sort tallinity. Steatite is a term for a type of rock made
of electrical tension. As heating progresses, the parti- primarily of talc.
cles melt and the body becomes increasingly dense;
this glassy phase is called vitrification.
stoneware
slip-trailing Natural clay to which other materials, such as
The decoration of a vessel or object through the feldspar, are added to create a denser, harder body;
application of thin trails or beads of slip (thin, liquid stoneware is usually fired between 1,200 and 1,300
clay) through a fine tube. degrees Celsius and is impermeable to water.
"soft paste" porcelain
Known in Chinese as huashi (slippery stone), this Taihu rock
ware is composed of a white-bodied clay (composed A type of ornamental garden rock that originated in
of feldspathic minerals and steatite) and a thin, Lake Tai, which borders Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces
uneven colorless glaze. This term is not to be con- in southern China; the rocks were formed into
fused with European "soft-paste" porcelain, which strange shapes by the action of the water in the lake,
has a high lime/low alumina content. and were dredged from the bottom for use in gardens.

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