China: Delicately strong

Dainty and exquisite, bone china has graced the tables of royalty and heads of states the world over. Extremely fine, translucent, and highly priced, the decoration on bone china is always well pronounced, thanks to its whiteness. But what exactly is bone china?

China is a combination of clay, kaolin, feldspar and quartz, according to world's leading china company Noritake. At the top of the list of ceramic products, because of its delicate beauty and skill required to produce it, china is known for its strength and resistance to chipping, which results from a high firing temperature. While the difference between china and porcelain may be a little tricky, the Noritake website states that both terms mean the same product. 'China' comes from its country of origin, while 'porcelain' comes from the Latin word porcella, meaning seashell.

Bone china, according to the Oxford Dictionary is 'white porcelain containing bone ash'. Thinner than porcelain china, even the glaze is smoother. Noritake states that making bone china starts the same way as porcelain china, but it is made at a lower temperature. To achieve this top-notch clay, "animal bones are burnt at 1,300°C and then ground to powder, which is called bone ash," explains ceramic artist Leena Batra. It is the bone ash that gives the product its unique, milky white colour. Nortiake also says that bone ash gives translucency to the final product. The bone ash makes it stronger and softer.

Achieving this beautiful translucency is difficult, says Batra. "We do not use bone china in studio ceramics; it is an industrial product," she adds.

A little bit of history

According to Batra, "Around the 16th century, a large quantity of beautiful porcelain and bone china was exported from China. A high-grade white clay, also known as china clay or kaolin (Chinese for very white clay), it was, of course, terribly expensive". Once the secret for creating the beautiful material was cracked, England and other European countries started making bone china, with the materials that were available to them.
Trade, of course, brought the product to India. "Locals, however, did not realise that animal bones were used, and they bought bone china figures of gods and godesses for their homes," says Dr Anita Rane-Kothare, Head of Department, Ancient Indian Culture, St Xavier's College, Mumbai.

Mastering the material

"It's like learning a whole new kind of pottery skill," says Ange Peter, a ceramic artist from Auroville. "But it can be done with time and practice. Porcelain is partially translucent and absorbs light to a certain degree, so if it's too thin, one can see the shadow of one's fingers through the product. Good quality china is very bright, a quality that clay does not have," says Peter, who imports the material from China and uses it to make jewellery and sculptures. The white clay, which comes in bags "are round, which makes it hard to form. Normal clay particles are oblong like rice grains," she adds.

Charming and beautiful, it's no wonder that Wedgwood, a fine china and porcelain company claims that each of its fine bone china expressive plates require 36 hours of handcrafting by four craftsmen and takes over three days to create from scratch.