Thursday, May 9, 2013

Blue-and-White

The combination of white and blue hues has always been an obsession. And I'm not even mentioning Greece. Because Greece love affair deserves a separate chapter.

 



  

 
                                              Photo source: Martha Steward

Various names, influences, traditions are to discover in the reach history of blue-and-white-ware. The first Chinese blue and white were created in Henan province in early ninth century. The technique of cobalt blue decorations on white ware seems to have come from the Middle-East. Cobalt blue pigments were excavated from local mines in central Iran, and then were exported as a raw material to China.
From the 14th century Chinese blue and white ware became extremely popular in the Middle-East. Both Chinese and Islamic pottery coexisted and provided inspiration and influenced artistic creations mutually. Chinese blue-and-white ware were copied in Europe from the 16th century, with the faience blue-and-white technique called alla porcelana or Medici porcelain. Hand-painted and transfer-printed wares were made at Worcester and at other early English factories in a style known as Chinoiserie. Many other European factories followed this trend. In Delft, Netherlands blue and white ceramics taking their designs from Chinese export porcelains made for the Dutch market were made in large numbers throughout the 17th Century. Blue and white Delftware was itself extensively copied by factories in other European countries, including England, where it is known as English Delftware

The history of white and blue ultimately inspired me to create the Le Bleu Necklace

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