Chinese craft research archive
Read the object. Follow the making.
Materials, techniques, places and objects—connected as evidence, not flattened into a decorative stereotype.
Browse the archive01 — The craft atlas
The craft atlas
Four starting lineages, each connected to the material, technique, place and object that make it legible.
- 01
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, China
Jingdezhen porcelain
Jingdezhen porcelain is high-fired ceramic made in the Jingdezhen production system of Jiangxi, using porcelain stone and kaolin-rich body recipes with techniques such as cobalt underglaze painting.
- 02
Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Suzhou silk
Suzhou silk refers to filament-silk weaving and embroidery associated with the Suzhou region of Jiangsu, including pictorial Su embroidery made through controlled thread direction, density and colour.
- 03
Workshops in Fujian, Jiangsu, and Beijing
Lacquerware
Chinese lacquerware is made by preparing a wood, textile-and-ash or other core, applying and curing successive lacquer layers, and polishing or decorating the resulting surface.
- 04
Beijing and associated enamel workshops, China
Cloisonné
Chinese cloisonné (jingtailan) is metalwork in which wires form cells on a metal body, the cells are filled with vitreous enamel, and the surface is repeatedly fired, ground and polished.
02 — Structure
Four crafts, four ways in
Every claim should be traceable across what it is made from, how it is made, where the work happens and which object was examined.
Objects
Study records that show which views, measurements and provenance an object needs before a claim can be made.
02Techniques
Making sequences explained as observable processes, from preparation and forming to firing and finishing.
03Materials
Material records that distinguish physical composition from trade names, colour labels and style claims.
04Places
Production places understood through resources, workshops, labour, institutions and circulation—not labels alone.
03 — Method
We separate what an institution documents, what a maker tells us, and what Orienda has observed directly.About