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How did iron in the slip create the green color of Yue celadon?
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Chinese pottery
Painted Pottery funerary urn, Neolithic Banshan phase, c. 3000 bce, from Yangshao, Henan province, China; in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Height 13.2 inches (33.5 cm).
To create the characteristic green color of Yue celadon, artisans apply a wash of slip—a liquefied clay containing a high proportion of iron—to the stoneware body before glazing.123
During the firing process, this iron interacts with the glaze to produce various shades of green. Specifically, the color is derived from ferrous iron, which yields a green hue when processed in the kiln. This technique is fundamental to the production of celadon, a term that encompasses glazes ranging from the olive tones typical of early Yue ware to the deep greens found in later varieties.1243