Technique

Underglaze painting

نقاشی زیرلعابی

Pigment is painted onto the biscuit body and sealed under a transparent glaze in a second firing.

Process, step by step

  1. Biscuit-fire the formed body.
  2. Paint the design in metal-oxide pigments.
  3. Dip or pour the transparent glaze.
  4. Glost-fire to maturity.

Variations

Haft-rang overglaze work fires a broader palette at lower temperature; cuerda seca separates colours with a greasy resist line.

Conservation

Crazed glazes admit salts; wash only under specialist advice.

Used in these crafts

Haft-rang tilework

Square polychrome tiles painted with several overglaze colours and fired together, allowing large architectural schemes to be produced faster than cut tile mosaic.

Lalejin pottery

A regional pottery tradition centred on the town of Lalejin near Hamadan, producing thrown and press-moulded glazed and unglazed earthenware, from utilitarian storage vessels to decorative tableware, in a large number of household workshops.