Porcelain and faience are the most complex (in terms of manufacturability) varieties of ceramic products. For more than fifteen centuries, they have been used for the manufacture of dishes, souvenirs, home decoration, facade details.
What is faience? What types of porcelain exist? How developed is the porcelain and faience industry in modern Russia? You will find answers to all these questions in our article.
Faience - what is it? History of Faience
“Faience” is a word of Italian origin. It is directly related to the name of the city of Faenza, which has long been an important center for ceramic production in Europe. What is faience? This is a dense and finely porous ceramic product. As a rule, it has a white color and is covered with glaze (deaf or transparent).
Faience (as, in fact, porcelain) consists of four natural components. These are kaolin, quartz, feldspar and plastic clay. The material does not stand out with sufficient strength, so it is abundantly coated with glaze. Based on the composition, several types of faience are distinguished:
- alumina;
- lime;
- fireclay;
- feldspar (this variety is most common).
Thus, we found out what faience is. This product was first learned by the Egyptians and Chinese (around the 5th century). Later, already in the Middle Ages, faience was also produced in Korea, Japan and Iran. In Europe, the “recipe” for its manufacture came only in the 16th century.
To date, the best faience in the world is produced by countries such as Germany, France, Japan, Great Britain, China and Italy.
Porcelain and its varieties
The word "porcelain" comes from the Persian faghfur. This is a type of ceramic, which is durable, gas and water resistant. Porcelain is obtained by burning kaolin with the addition of feldspar, quartz and some other components. As a result of this process, the resulting material becomes snow-white, beautiful and sonorous.
It is generally believed that porcelain was "invented" by the Chinese in the VI century. And only after a thousand years, its manufacturing technology became available to Europeans. Much earlier, she came to Central Asia, largely thanks to the Great Silk Road. At the end of the XVII century, porcelain began to be produced in America, and at the beginning of the XVIII century - in Russia.
There are three varieties of porcelain, which differ significantly in quality and basic characteristics:
- solid (reference porcelain obtained by high-temperature firing, it is heavy and opaque);
- bone (this type of porcelain is obtained by adding burnt bone to the mixture, it is light, transparent and very durable);
- soft (a special type of porcelain, which is distinguished by increased porosity and a beautiful cream shade).
The process of making faience
Faience, like porcelain, is made in almost the same way. Technologically, this is a rather complicated process, which includes about 80 different operations. In general, five main stages of the production of porcelain and faience products can be distinguished:
- The preparatory stage (mixing with water kaolin and clay, crushing and grinding stone, preparing the plastic mass).
- The formation of the product.
- Drying is preliminary (in form) and final.
- Burning the product (double firing is most often used).
- Glazing and decoration of the product (painting can be sub- or overglaze).
How is porcelain different from faience?
In general, porcelain is not much different from faience. And it will be quite difficult for an inexperienced person to determine which ceramic product is in front of him. Here are some key points that will help distinguish porcelain from earthenware:
- as part of a faience product there is much more clay (approximately 85% of the total weight);
- when viewing the material into the light, porcelain will shine through, faience - no;
- porcelain always rings even with a slight tapping, while faience makes a dull and low sound;
- over time, the earthenware product is covered with a cobweb of small cracks, this is not typical for porcelain;
- earthenware product is usually much heavier than a similar product from porcelain;
- porcelain is always white, but earthenware can have a variety of shades.
Porcelain and faience industry in modern Russia
The porcelain and faience industry is a light industry sector and specializes in the production of fine ceramics - dishes, figurines, dinner sets, interior items and various souvenirs. In Russia, its history began in 1744, when the first manufactory was organized in St. Petersburg. In the XIX century, several dozen factories for the production of porcelain and faience existed on the territory of the empire. In the Soviet era, the number of such enterprises grew three times.
Today the porcelain and faience industry in Russia is going through hard times. Only 11 enterprises of this industry operate in the country. These are the plants:
- Kislovodsk "Porcelain-Phoenix".
- Andreapolsky Porcelain Factory.
- "Porcelain Sysert".
- Kuznetsovsky porcelain.
- Gzhel porcelain factory.
- PC "Dulevo porcelain".
- "Bashkir porcelain."
- "Porcelain Verbilok."
- Imperial Porcelain Factory.
- Rechitsa porcelain factory.
- PKF Kubanfarfor.
The leader of porcelain and faience production in Russia is the Imperial Porcelain Factory (IFZ) in St. Petersburg. Its products are successfully exported to a number of countries around the world. IFZ products are presented in the Hermitage, London and New York museums.