Shanghai Museum II (中国历代绘画馆、中国历代书法馆、中国古代陶瓷馆、中国古代青铜馆、中国古代雕塑馆)

A pair of birds. They face each other like this everyday. Even if they are love birds, aren't they bored?

What does this look like to you? Inspiration for the Singapore crest...

I bet you thought they placed the cups upside down, but NO!

These are Qing water jarlets (what the pig... I have no idea what are jarlets, so small like cups!) On it are inscriptions of imperial poems.

I like the name of this. It's called 日日有喜! I wish everyone happiness everyday! ^^

Qing vase with a hundred deers. This case inspired all those 'Can you see XXX [number] of donkeys/faces/ants in the picture' games.

Heh, reminds me of Singapore HDB flats! ^^

And if you are curious, here's the process of making all these porcelain (explanations courtesy of the museum).

'Pulling clay to form an object: To put the kneaded clay on the center of the potter's wheel, then to pull the clay to form an object while the wheel is moving.'

'Trimming: To put the dry object upside down on the wooden stake in the center of the wheel, then to trim the surface of the body with a knife.'

'Impressing: To put the hald-dry object on the clay model, then to revolve the object slowly and pat it at the same time. This is a special process for round objects'

'Glazing: To coat the object with glaze. Round objects are usually glazed in two ways; the inside and the bottom are glazed with the shaking method; the outside is glazed with the dipping method.'

'Painting (underglaze blue): To paint various designs on the surface of the finished objects with blue pigment by brush. Usually, the inside wall is painted and glazed before the outside wall is painted.'

The objects will then be sent to the kilns!

This is the 馒头 kiln, simply because it looks like a bun.

This is the 蛋形 kiln. It is shaped like half an egg lying horizontally.

And this is the 龙 kiln. It is supposed to be shaped like a dragon, but it looks like an earthworm to me. Fantastic imagination, the Chinese, fantastic.

The above processes are just a small part. What happens before?