What is included in porcelain. Types and distinctive features of faience and porcelain

- siblings, but not twins. The older brother is strong and strong - the younger is thin and firm. Faience is abundant in body and rude in appearance - porcelain is delicate in appearance and famous for its refined beauty. One of the brothers is darkish by nature, but he loves to decorate with florid and bright colors. Another - shines with light and prefers pastel colors. At the same time, both do not shy away from gold - and glory!

Faience and porcelain - noble ceramics

The result of a long selection of materials, stretching over many centuries, was the identification of the optimal ingredients for the manufacture of high-quality ceramic products. Both earthenware and porcelain are made mostly from white clay, quartz sand, etc. Porcelain and faience products are most often covered with glassy glaze.

This is where the similarities end.

Differences between porcelain and faience

Visually distinguishing earthenware from porcelain is not always easy, but there is one immutable rule: good porcelain shines through, faience - even the most expensive - is not!

Unpainted areas of porcelain and earthenware differ not only in light transmission, but also in color. Porcelain is always whiter than faience! The difference is due to the recipe: the composition of earthenware contains more clay, which darkens during sintering. However, there are certain types of faience, the whiteness of which can compete with the whiteness of porcelain due to additives and.

Earthenware tableware is usually thicker than porcelain counterparts. Primarily because the strength of faience is lower than that of porcelain. The relative fragility of earthenware is explained by the lesser “baked” quality of its shard. Numerous pores that penetrate the earthenware thickness and make up up to 12% of the ceramic volume reduce the resistance of the object to mechanical stress.

The porosity facilitates wetting of the ceramic mass. To reliably isolate the earthenware from moisture, the glaze on the surface of the product is made with a layer thicker than that of porcelain. The thickened glaze smoothes out the relief - that's why the earthenware is simple in shape.

Faience and porcelain in human history

Faience is much older than porcelain. Porcelain itself can be considered as the most perfect type of faience: the initial components of these ceramic materials are the same, only the proportions differ.
The appearance of faience was the logical result of the improvement of primitive ceramics. Initially, clay products were burned in a fire or dried in the sun. Subsequently, glazes were invented that strengthened and adorned household products.

Ceramics made of light clay and covered with a layer of glaze became known as faience in honor of the city of Faenza (province of Emilia-Romagna, Italy). Faenza manufactories became famous in the Renaissance - however, materials similar to modern faience were produced for a long time and everywhere, starting from Ancient Egypt and Ancient China, and ending with the most remote regions of the spread of civilization.

The invention of porcelain, associated with the discovery and development of deposits, spurred the growth of the quality of faience. It is safe to say that modern earthenware was born in attempts to uncover the secret of porcelain recipes. Here is a causal paradox ...

Artistic differences between porcelain and faience

Philosophy teaches: form and content are interrelated. Even insignificant - from the point of view of the layman - variations in the recipe of noble ceramics radically change the design of products for similar purposes.

Are porcelain dishes richer than earthenware with relief details? This means that she does not need abundant coloring. But the smooth contours of massive faience are like a primed canvas for a painter! Painting on faience has long become a separate variety visual arts... True, the golden details of the artistic decor - strokes, ornamental stripes and solid edging - look equally advantageous on porcelain and faience.

Faience or porcelain: which is better at home?

A thin porcelain cup will decorate the tea table and help create a festive atmosphere. A thick-walled earthenware mug will keep the tea hot and give you the opportunity to feel the comfort of your home.

Porcelain is expensive and therefore suitable for the manufacture of designer jewelry and ceremonial sets. Faience is cheap to manufacture and therefore is used much more widely than porcelain.

At the same time, porcelain is not afraid of heating and sudden temperature changes. In earthenware, such tests can cause the glaze to crack, followed by moisture penetration into the shard. Strong coffee poured into a earthenware cup with microscopic cracks in the glaze will leave indelible marks ...

Faience is not porcelain

It is also useful to confidently distinguish between faience and porcelain because both varieties of noble ceramics are collectible items.

Physical properties:

• porcelain is whiter, faience is darker;
• porcelain is louder, faience is softer;
• porcelain is transparent, faience is opaque;
• porcelain is strong, faience is fragile.

Technological parameters:

• porcelain is dense, faience is porous;
• fused into a monolithic mass, sintered grains are observed in the structure of faience;
• porcelain is covered with thin glaze, the glaze of earthenware is thicker and not always uniform;
• porcelain for tableware has an unglazed rim at the bottom. Earthenware dishes are most often covered with solid glaze.

Artistic features:

• porcelain figurines are beautiful with elaborate details and amaze with the subtlety of plastic. Faience items are less intricate in form;
• the color range of earthenware products is rich in colors thanks to painting over glaze. Artistic porcelain is usually not so flamboyant;
• porcelain does not age. Over the years, faience products are covered with a net of small cracks (craquelure) - which does not in the least affect the value of antique faience.

Price qualities:

• serial production porcelain is more expensive than mass faience;
• porcelain antiques are not necessarily more expensive than rare faience.

Instead of a conclusion

It is impossible to draw a clear line between faience and porcelain. Materials science calls both types "ceramics", and the peculiarities of the production of some types of faience bring the material so close to porcelain that visual differences become difficult to determine.

Products made from these ceramic materials almost always surround a person. They often delight the eye with their sophistication and ease of use. However, many do not fully understand what their difference is with external similarity.

Ringing and transparent

This type of ceramic is obtained by high-temperature exposure to very fine grinding a mixture of white clay called kaolin, plastic clay, feldspar and quartz. If you lightly hit a porcelain cup with a wooden shelf, it will ring with a clear high sound of various tones. The wall of such a dish will show through.

It is known that porcelain has chinese origin... It was first received in the middle of the first millennium. The local porcelain masters kept his secrets strictly. For hundreds of years, Europeans fought over its solution, until at the beginning of the 17th century Meissen porcelain was experimentally obtained. For a long time neither in the East nor in Europe could determine chemical composition porcelain raw materials and technological subtleties of its manufacture.

Later, porcelain began to be divided into hard and soft... The first is a homogeneous white mass, which is fired at 1350-1450 ° C... This procedure is carried out first at a low firing temperature limit. Then the glaze is applied to the product, after which firing is carried out at the upper temperature limit. Such porcelain contains more kaolin and less feldspar. It has no pores, it is distinguished by its high strength, heat resistance and its whiteness. It belongs to dense ceramics and is used mainly in the manufacture of dishes.

Usually it is glazed, but there is a porcelain called biscuit, which is not subjected to this operation. A special type of hard porcelain is porcelain invented in England, called bone... It received this name because up to half of its composition is calcium phosphate contained in the bones of cows. It is a very fragile material of exceptional whiteness and translucency, from which mainly art products are made. Apart from glassware and decorative purposes, hard porcelain is used for the production of electrical insulators and laboratory glassware.

There is also soft or semi-porcelain that is fired at a temperature lower than the lower firing threshold for hard porcelain. Outwardly, it is similar to hard porcelain, but it is sensitive to temperature changes and mechanical stress. It is usually used to create highly artistic sculptures. This kind of porcelain is also Chinese, which contains less kaolin. Typically, porcelain is covered with glaze, which can be poured onto a painted surface, or paints are applied to it, which are then baked into the glaze.

Porous and opaque

Faience, close to porcelain, is used for the production of inexpensive dishes, sanitary ware, facing tiles, details for decorating architectural objects, etc. For the manufacture of products from it, the same components are used as for porcelain, but in a different ratio. Of these, approximately 85% is clay. Its firing temperature from 1050 to 1280° C... Inside, it is finely porous and dense, usually white. The porosity can reach contributes to its water absorption, which can reach 12%. Therefore, faience is covered with a transparent or non-transparent glaze. He also came from the East.

Products brought from Iran, painted on cream glaze with colored enamels, were extremely popular. Beginning in the 16th century, earthenware began to be produced in France, then spread to England, Germany and Russia. Faience was used for artistic purposes. It was painted with enamels, decorated with reliefs and covered with colored glazes.<. src="https://vchemraznica.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/taar268.jpg" alt="Faience plates" width="472" height="490" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9880" srcset="https://vchemraznica.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/taar268-289x300.jpg 289w, https://vchemraznica.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/taar268.jpg 472w" sizes="(max-width: 472px) 100vw, 472px">

In the territory Russian Empire earthenware began to be produced in the 19th century. Several earthenware factories were launched. AT modern Russia up to a dozen of such enterprises operate. The largest producers of porcelain and earthenware in the world are located in the UK, Germany, France and Japan. The principle of earthenware production has remained the same, taking into account the changes caused by technical progress. Faience products are most often prepared by pouring a semi-liquid mass of raw materials into disassembled forms.

Custom and artistic products are hand-molded. Dried in special chambers, they are cleaned and straightened. After that, they are placed in a closed refractory molds and fired. Firing takes place in two stages. It is first done to form a shard. Then a layer of glaze is applied to the product, which melts during firing. After cooling, a glassy surface sintered with a shard is obtained. Faience, which is intended for plumbing and electrical needs, is fired once.

What is the difference

1. Porcelain differs from earthenware primarily in its composition, which provides glassy. It has less plastic clay, more quartz and feldspar. 85% of the composition of faience is clay.
2. Porcelain has a significantly higher firing temperature.
3. Porcelain is resistant to liquids. Unglazed earthenware can absorb water.
4. The mechanical strength of porcelain is significantly higher than that of faience.
5. Porcelain shines through in the light, light does not pass through faience.
6. When tapping on the porcelain, a clean ringing sound... In faience, it is deaf.
7. Porcelain has retained its qualities for centuries. Cracks form on the surface of the faience over time.
8. If you take two porcelain and earthenware products of the same shape and wall thickness, then porcelain will be lighter.
9. Unglazed parts of porcelain are white, while earthenware can be beige.
10. Porcelain items are usually white and can be painted. The same items of other colors are most likely earthenware.

20.08.2018

We decided to find out what the secret is. We have collected for you all the most interesting about porcelain: when it appeared, what it is made of, what technologies are there.

In the Vazaro catalog there are manyporcelain dishes: sets and individual items, cups and dishes for serving. Porcelain long story, and even today, when there are thousands of other materials around, it does not give up its position.

What is porcelain and how is it different from ceramics?

Porcelain is a type of ceramic that does not allow gas and water to pass through, but shines through if the walls are thin enough. It is made from a mixture of clay, kaolin, schwarz and feldspar. The mixture is white and very pliable.

Finished products are fired at temperatures from 1000 degrees - the exact figure depends on the type of porcelain. Then they are covered with glassy enamel glaze and fired again. If you hit a porcelain cup with a wooden stick, you get a characteristic high-pitched sound, almost like crystal.

Another type of ceramics that is close to porcelain in composition is faience. To distinguish them, look at the bottom: if there is no glaze on it, this is porcelain.

When and where did porcelain appear?

The first porcelain items were made by the Chinese, in 620. For over 1000 years, the manufacturing method was kept secret, until in 1708 the German inventors Chirnhaus and Bettger obtained the first formula for European porcelain.

In the same year, the first porcelain factory was opened in Dresden. True, at first they made biscuit china - that is, without glaze. In 1710, the first samples of porcelain were presented to the king, and German porcelain began to conquer the world.

Full description the technology of Chinese porcelain appeared in 1735, in a letter from the Frenchman François Xavier d'Antrecol. A little later in France, in Limoges, factories were opened that supplied the best porcelain to the court of the French king. This is how the history of the famous Limoges porcelain began.

In England in the 18th century, the technology of bone china was discovered - with the addition of ash from the bones of cows. This porcelain was named Bone China, and now it is even produced in China.

The technique of making porcelain was brought to Russia in the late 40s of the 18th century. The first manufactory was the Imperial Porcelain Factory, which was later renamed to Leningrad.

What is porcelain?

According to the manufacturing technique, porcelain can be soft and hard.

Hard porcelain consists of 47-66% of kaolin and 25% of feldspar and quartz. It is fired at temperatures ranging from 1400 to 1460 ° C. As a result, it contains less liquid phase, and it deforms less during firing.

The most durable type of hard porcelain is bone china. Up to 50% bone meal is added to its composition, so it has thinner and translucent walls, although it is more difficult to break it than usual.

In the composition of soft porcelain, kaolin is no more than 25-40%, quartz 45%, and feldspar - 30%. It is fired at a temperature of 1300-1350 ° C. Soft porcelain is not as strong as hard porcelain, but it is more plastic, therefore it is more often used for decorative objects: vases, figurines, caskets.

The porcelain that was made in Ancient China was just soft, while the European porcelain was hard.

Porcelain is painted in two ways too.

Underglaze painting is when paints are first applied and then covered with transparent glaze. This way, they last longer and withstand repeated washing.

For overglaze painting, paints are applied to the glaze. So they turn out brighter, but wash off faster. This method is suitable for decorative items.

In mass production, the pattern is applied with a decal. First, it is printed with ceramic paints on gummed paper coated with varnish, and then glued onto dishes and fired. In this case, the film burns out, and the pattern is fused into the surface. Premium porcelain is produced in limited series and hand-painted.

If porcelain is painted with gold, silver or platinum, you need to wash it especially carefully: by hand, warm water, without powders and hard sponges.

Why are porcelain dishes so valued?

Like all ceramics, porcelain tolerates high temperatures well and retains heat. In a cup with thin walls, tea or coffee cools down, but not completely - just until the temperature is needed. In this case, you can pour hot soup into a porcelain tureen, and its handles will not heat up.

Porcelain lasts a long time, no matter how fragile it seems. Over the years, it does not darken, does not absorb moisture and dirt. Modern porcelain is so durable that it can even be washed in the dishwasher.

Porcelain dishes do not spoil the taste of the contents, do not absorb odors and do not oxidize. You can store food in it for a long time - for example, butter or sugar - and they will not lose their taste.

Snow-white glossy porcelain looks solid, suitable for everyday and festive serving. On white background any painting fits perfectly: bright or pastel, paints or gilding.

The term "porcelain" refers to a wide range of ceramic products that are manufactured by high temperatures... Their distinctive features are smooth surface and low porosity. These properties of porcelain are still widely demanded. It is difficult to find any branch of industry or national economy, wherever it is used.

The most common ornamental porcelain is also chemical cookware, dental crowns and electrical insulators. Usually white or off-white, this wonderful material comes to "baking" as an unpresentable piece of ceramics, which will acquire the look we are accustomed to only after roasting in high-temperature ovens.

Advantages of Chinese Sets

In this article, we will discuss the properties and types of porcelain. You will understand why this material was so popular all over the world that huge expeditions were equipped to buy it. For a beautiful set, which today can be bought in any store, then they could kill.

Oddly enough, but the products of Chinese masters with the current ceramics are only relatives, but not direct ones. To be convinced of this, it is enough to recall the main properties of porcelain that came out of the workshops of the Celestial Empire. The materials are very similar to each other: both modern and ancient porcelain can be glazed or "natural". But plain ceramics are much softer. And you won't be able to make a high-quality service from it.

Why is this happening?

Such properties of porcelain as strength and heat resistance are the result of high temperatures at which the production of true Chinese ceramics is carried out. It is produced at a temperature of 2,650 degrees Fahrenheit (1,454 degrees Celsius). Compare this to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,204 degrees Celsius) for plain china. Since the second material is of inferior quality, it is not used in chemical industry and other high-tech branches of science. In addition, it is Chinese porcelain highest quality transparent to the light. Coarse ceramics cannot give such an effect.

Spy passions

"Hard paste", or true porcelain, first appeared in China during the time (618-907). But really high-quality products, in their properties in no way inferior to modern ones, became known to the world only during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Early Chinese porcelain consisted of kaolin (china clay) and pegmatite, a rough type of granite.

It was unknown to European potters until the beginning of the importation of Chinese equipment during the Middle Ages. The Europeans tried to duplicate the properties of porcelain, but did not succeed in this matter. Since they were unable to analyze its chemical composition, the products they produced resembled graceful, fragile and at the same time durable dishes only outwardly. It turned out so-so. In order to get the secret of the production of true porcelain, real spy wars unfolded, but the Chinese kept their secret more than life.

Why was this material so popular? The reason is excellent physical properties porcelain. It is stronger than ordinary ceramics, has a high thermal conductivity, which makes it possible to brew excellent tea in teapots. In addition, due to the glaze, porcelain has an extremely low soiling, staining only under the influence of synthetic pigments. Cups from ancient Chinese services retain their whiteness after many centuries.

Erzatsi

After mixing glass with tin oxide to obtain an opaque material, European artisans tried to combine clay and these alternatives became known as "soft paste", or artificial porcelain. But two unpleasant circumstances upset me: all these materials turned out to be too soft, it was impossible to make really thin, elegant products out of them, and the production costs were too high. In a word, the properties of ersatz-type porcelain were very far from perfect.

There is information that our masters also mastered the art of making true porcelain, but all the secrets of Russian ceramics were lost during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, when entire cities were burned out along with all their inhabitants. The British were also able to achieve a definite breakthrough. They created a "bone" kind of material.

But what are the basic properties of which ensured its incredible popularity in old Europe?

History of creation

In 1707, two Germans named Ehrenfried Walter von Chimhaus and Johann Friedrich Bottger discovered a more "sane" production method, which uses clay and finely ground feldspar. In the 17th century, English artisans learned from experiments that an almost identical Chinese porcelain can be obtained by adding finely ground burnt bones to this mixture.

And later it turned out that the English version allows the production of transparent ceramics at much lower temperatures, which significantly reduced the cost of production. In addition, porcelain from Foggy Albion fought much worse, was much stronger. So it is not surprising that the British soon filled up half of the Old World and almost the entire New World with their services.

What are the properties of bone china? Firstly, products made from it are distinguished by high strength with low weight and thinness. Secondly, this type of ceramics cannot be used in the chemical industry, since the substances that make up it react with acids and alkalis.

Raw materials

As we have already said, the main components of this material are extremely simple: clay, feldspar, minerals with calcium content. Still various companies compete with each other, as it was quickly established that the properties of porcelain and earthenware can be radically changed by adding new elements to its composition. Of course, if the experience is successful.

Although the composition of the clay varies depending on where it is mined, it still turns into glass (thereby achieving the smoothness of the final product) only at extremely high temperatures. But this is true only for those cases when the clays are not mixed with materials whose vitrification threshold is lower. Unlike glass, clay, however, is thermally stable, that is, it retains its shape even when heated strongly.

So this material is truly unique because it combines the low porosity of glass with the stability and relative strength of simple ceramics. At all times, kaolin and hydroaluminosilicate have been used as the main type of raw material. (containing aluminum silicate) and flint, a type of hard quartz, are extremely important components of any type of porcelain. They melt when heated, binding the material together.

Quartz - the "heart" of porcelain

This is the key to strength. The properties of porcelain (and its use) are largely due to this very characteristic: it beats poorly (when compared with glass), and the small distances between the particles ensure the impermeability of the material to air, water, and other compounds.

Quartz is an "alloy" of oxygen and silicon, two of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust. It has three functional forms: directly quartz (crystals), opal (amorphous variety) and sand (mixed, dirty fraction). In general, quartz has been used in handicraft production for a long time. Porcelain may also contain alumina and steatite, more commonly known as soapstone.

Manufacturing process

After the raw materials are selected and weighed, they go to production. First, it is cleaned and ground to very fine fractions. After that, all the components are mixed in the required proportion, depending on both the production conditions and the characteristics of the final products. As soon as the latter are formed, they can be sent to the oven immediately, or they can be pre-cleaned and further glazed.

Of course, ground glass first acts in its role. And only after that, future vases, cups, toilets and dental crowns are sent to the mouth of the oven. Now let's consider each stage separately. After all, the properties of porcelain and its use depend on their success!

Crushing of raw materials

Perhaps this is one of the most important operations, since the quality of the final product depends on the thoroughness of its implementation. The crushing is done by huge mechanical drum crushers. In the second pass, the particle size is brought to 0.25 cm. To turn the feedstock into fine dust, special ball crushers are used. These are huge steel cylinders filled with metal balls. When the whole structure rotates, the particles of the raw material turn into a homogeneous mass of extremely fine grinding.

Cleaning and mixing

The mixture is passed through fine filters, and then fed to a special "conveyor", which is made up of inclined steel sheets. They vibrate, as a result of which the raw material is not only automatically mixed, but also sorted, since the largest particles are pushed upward. If wet material is required, water is automatically sprayed into the line.

Filters with powerful magnets are sometimes used, as the latter remove the smallest iron impurities. The last one if it falls into finished products, will give him an unwanted red tint. After that, the finished products are sent to the furnace, where they are fired at the temperatures already specified by us.

What production conditions can affect product properties?

It should be noted that during the final firing, many processes take place, on which the properties directly depend.First, all carbon organic impurities are burned, excess water evaporates, various gaseous fractions come out of the thickness of the future product. If the temperature is not brought to 1100 degrees Celsius, the silicon and other components of the glaze will not be able to melt, which means they will not form a smooth and chemically neutral layer on the surface of the ceramic.

In addition, these connections are necessary to reduce the distance between the particles of materials, for a more reliable connection to each other. After the desired density is reached, the product is cooled, as a result of which the glaze "shrinks", becomes smooth and especially durable.

Outcome

So why did we describe all this? The thing is that the properties of this material are closely dependent on the characteristics and conditions of its manufacture. For example, the strength depends on the percentage of feldspar in the mass, and the number of pores in porcelain is the less, the more feldspar. As quartz and the residue obtained from the decomposition of clay matter dissolve in the glass, the skeleton of the porcelain material becomes weaker and deformations increase. Depending on the fineness of quartz grinding, composition of the mass, temperature and duration of firing, the vitreous phase contains from 15 to 40% of all quartz introduced into the mass. The more it is, the thinner and "airier" the porcelain.

Properties as dielectrics are characterized mainly by the resistance to the passage of electric current in the material and on the surface of the insulator. Distinguish between specific volumetric and specific surface resistance of porcelain.

In addition, the chemical properties of porcelain are of great practical importance. More precisely, their absence. Glazed ceramics with the addition of a large number feldspar and quartz is chemically neutral. Do you think why the mortars of pharmacists and chemists are made of this material? It is much stronger than glass, but does not react.

Current state of affairs

Today ceramics (and porcelain in particular) is experiencing a rebirth. It turned out that these materials can be used in production different types microelectronics. There is no need to explain the importance of this for modern civilization. Scientists have also found that when certain additives are added, the strength of porcelain increases exponentially. Currently, even promising research is being conducted in the field of creating new types of armor based on it. So not toilets alone!

Finally all greater importance this material is acquired in medicine. Various dentures and magnificent dental crowns - the demand for them is increasing every year. So it will remain relevant for a very long time.

Dishes are made from a wide variety of materials - glass, ceramics, wood, earthenware, porcelain and even plastic. The most popular are the products for the production of which porcelain, faience and ceramics were used. Many people are interested in the question of how to distinguish these materials from each other, but this is not difficult to do.

China

Faience and porcelain - material differences:

1. Porcelain is a ceramic that is impervious to air and water, but at the same time has a small thickness. What is ceramics? The answer is simple - this is a material that is produced by sintering clay with some mineral additives. As for the porcelain itself, its main components are considered to be kaolin (clay), feldspar, etc. A porcelain object has a perfect white color. It is impossible to see pores on the surface of the porcelain, since there are none. This provides the strength of porcelain, making it an ideal raw material for cookware.
2. Faience is a material that resembles porcelain in its properties, however faience product, unlike porcelain, will have small pores. What is the difference between porcelain and faience? The latter absorbs a certain amount of moisture (about 12%), while this property is uncharacteristic for porcelain. Faience is 85% clay, which explains the material's ability to absorb water. It is for this reason that all earthenware products are glazed.

Porcelain and faience: types

Before you figure out how to distinguish porcelain from earthenware, you should learn about the types of these materials. There are such types of porcelain:

1. Hard: obtained by double annealing under the influence of a temperature of 1350 to 1450 degrees, which makes it possible to obtain an ultra-strong material for making dishes. Conditionally hard porcelain is divided into the following types: household, electrical, chemical and artistic. As for the groups of hard porcelain, they conditionally distinguish European (clay predominates in its composition) and Eastern (it is fired at a more gentle temperature regime, and the porcelain itself contains less kaolin).
2. Soft: This kind of porcelain is obtained by firing at temperatures up to 1350 degrees. Its color and characteristics resemble hard porcelain in many ways, but soft material is more susceptible to changes in temperature. All soft porcelain is divided into European, French and English.

As for faience, it happens:

• alumina;
• fireclay;
• lime;
• feldspar.

It is no secret that porcelain is more expensive than earthenware, which is what unscrupulous sellers of products made from these materials use. In order not to fall for the tricks of deceivers, you should find out how these types of raw materials for tableware production can differ.

Faience swan

Differences

Porcelain or faience - how to distinguish them:

1. You should take the product (it can be a mug, plate, statuette, etc.) and pay attention to its rim. If the edge not covered with glaze has white color, then it is highly likely that the product in question is made of porcelain.
2. The test item should then be viewed in the light. If it shines through, then this indicates that porcelain was used for its manufacture. As for earthenware, it does not have such a characteristic. If a bulky product is being checked, then you should pay attention to its bottom. The absence of glaze on it will indicate that the product is made of porcelain.
3. Take the product and lightly hit it with a metal object. Porcelain will make a clear and sonorous sound. With regard to earthenware, the sound coming out when hitting it will be muffled.
4. Over time, faience can lose its attractiveness - cracks form on products made of such material. This phenomenon is not typical for porcelain.
5. You can estimate the weight of the product. If it is small, but rather heavy, then this will indicate that the product is made of faience.
6. Products made from real porcelain are not covered with paint, as it distorts the natural white color of the material. Almost all earthenware crockery is colorful and variegated.

Dishes and decor items made of porcelain, in contrast to earthenware, have a high cost. In order not to be mistaken when buying porcelain products, preference should be given to products offered under well-known brands.