One should never remove the patina, since this greatly reduces the value of a pot.
Il ne faut pas chercher à enlever la patine d'un pot, cela en réduirait énormément la valeur.


POT CARE
There are two reasons to care for a pot from the beginning. The first and foremost reason is that a well mainained pot will always look nice. The second reason, which is linked to the first one, is that an excellent patina develops best on a well maintained pot. The surface of a high fired, frost proof pot is similar to a glass surface. No matter what you apply to it, be it vaseline or machine oil, it only covers the surface and can be washed away with detergents. Vaseline is a good example: If you want to apply it to your pots (glazed or unglazed), feel free to do so, it can't do any harm. But it will only grease the pots, it won't develop any patina. The best source for patina is sebaceous matter - your hands' natural oils and the acids in them. You can also use a very light, volatile lubricating oil like baby oil or ballistic oil (the oil should evaporate within a few days). Proper pot maintenance is an essential ingredient of doing bonsai - it only takes a few seconds per pot. Once a week, you can wipe it very sparingly with a one of the mentioned lubricants. By touching the pot and stroking it every so often, the hands' natural oils along with everything else that a pot is exposed to - fertilizer, rain, small particles of dust - will produce the desired patina in the course of a few decades. Pots maintained like this also won't develop limescale. Both trees and pots obtain their full charisma and dignity with age.
Patina only sticks to the surface, greasy, glossy or matt, in dark to black colors.


Entretien du pot
Il y a deux raisons de bien s'occupper d'un pot depuis le debut. La première et principale raison est qu'un pot bien entretenu restera toujours beau. La deuxième raison, liée à la première, est que la patine se developpe mieux sur pot bien entretenu. La surface d'un pot cuit à haute température et depoli est identique à celle d'un pot avec glaçure. Peu importe ce que vous mettez dessus, huile moteur ou vaseline, elle ne restera pas longtemps dessus, n'impregenra pas le pot. la vaseline est un bon exemple, vous pouvez l'appliquer sans crainte, ça ne fera pas de mal. Cependatn celà ne donnera pas de patine supplementaire au pot. Le mailleur moyen de donner de la patine est de polir le pot avec les mains, qui sont naturelement acides. Vous pouvez egalement utiliser une huile pour luster les armes. Bien maintenir un pot est un element essentiel du bonsai, et ça ne prend que quelques secondes par pot. Une fois par semaine, vous pouvez utiliser un lubrifiant cité plus haut, en l'appliquant de façon parsimonieuse. En le frottant avec les mains (qui apportent acidité et graisse), celà va apporter de la patine, en l'espace de quelques années ou décennies, tout comme les conditions atmosphériques et la culture : eau de pluie ou d'arrosage, poussière, engrais. Les pots ainsi entretenus ne subiront pas le depot de calcaire. Les pots et bonsai obtiennent leur plein caractère et noblesse avec le temps. La patine ne tient qu'à la surface matte, avec des couleurs sombres ou noire. 



The Pot
When a pot is taken from the kiln, it is "brand new" and still has the taste of fire. Then there are pots that are thousands of years old - somewhere in between there's the wide array of pots that we are using. Already after one year of use, the patina starts to build up on a pot, no matter how cheap or expensive it was. It is barely visible, but the fundaments have been created. The thousand year old patina has started like this! There are countless examples for sumptious old pots with a natural patina that originally came from mass production.

Le Pot.
Quand un pot sort du four, il est tout neuf et garde encore le gout du feu. Certains pots prennent ensuite de l'age parfois des centaines d'années, mais la patine apparait dès la première année, quelque soit le prix d'achat du pot. Ce n'est pas très visible, mais ça commence par là, tout comme un pot centenaire a commencé sa patine dès les premières années depuis sa creation. Il existe de nombreux exemple de pots issu de la production en serie, et qui sont devenus magnifiques et patinés.

Patina is a covering of sebum, fertilizer and fine particles of dust.

Thanks Peter it's a real pleasure to read you (and almost a fantasm to see all your nice pot for real :-)

Regards

Fabrice
http://bonsaiguadeloupe.blogspot.com/

Hi Peter, what about the "Ballistol oil" for taking care of our pots?

Nul se sait la quantité d'Amour que contiennent mes Aspirations vers le Beau

Chinese art is among the most outstanding art traditions in the world. It has been collected and reproduced for centuries in the western countries. People have been interested in Chinese art for a very long time, but few have tried to unterstand the true contents of it. Chinese works of art have been appreciated and collected, but the intentions of the Chinese artists are very difficult to translate into our language.

L'Art traditionnel chinois est l'un des plus remarquable au monde. On en a fait la collection et reproduit pour des siecles dans les pays occidentaux. L'interet pour l'Art chinois existe depuis très longtemps, mais il y a peu de personnes qui ont essayé d'en comprendre le sens. Les oeuvres d'art chinoises sont appréciées et collectionnées, mais les sensibilités de artistes chinois sont très difficiles à comprendre pour nous autres occidentaux.



It is a kind of symbolic language that has developed specially in China. To understand it you would have to learn all about Chinese life. For centuries very hard conditions have determined the every day life of people from a day labourer or farmer to a senior official. Art thus became a way to express the great importance of harmony and peace during those hard times.

Une langage symbolique s'est particulièrement developpé en Chine, et pour en comprendre le sens il serait necessaire de connaitre toute la vie chinoise. Depuis des siecles ce sont les conditions de vie diffciles qui ont façonné le quotidien des fermiers, cultivateurs ou fonctionnaires. L'art chinois a donc été le moyen d'exprimer l'importance de l'harmonie et de la paix en ces temps difficiles.

BAMBOO RUSTLE

A rustle hurries across the bamboo grove and cuts straight through the sky. Look now, wasn't that a dragon?
The dragon is on top of the chinese world of symbols. It pervades cosmic and mystic imaginations and stands for “Yang“, the male virility. Using its magic, he can make himself as small as a silkworm or so big that he fills up all the space between sky and earth. He can make himself visible to somebody if he wants to, and invisible to somebody else.
When he rises from the water to the sky, the rain covers his body. In the sky he plays with a pearl which is also called the thunderpearl (one of many interpretations of the pearl), which produces the beneficial rain. Often two playing dragons are shown who snatch the pearl from each other or pass it to each other.
Of course the dragon also plays an important role in the decoration of chinese bonsai pots. The pot on this picture is a beautiful example of artistic imagination and has a vibrancy that makes it amost alive.
This cascade pot is not very old yet, about 50 – 60 years. Height 45 x 18 x 18 cm (17 1/2 x 7 x 7 in). The bronze-like black engobe glaze makes the pot look older so that you could imagine it having its place in the gateway of an old enchanted palace.

Bonjour á tous

China is one of the first countries that had ceramic objects in use. The invention of ceramics was one of the most important achievements of the neolithic age. In the Immortal Cave (Shenxian Dong) in the JIANGSU province, ceramics were found that were dated as early as 10 000 B.C. China was also called the home of porcelain. From here it started its triumphal course around the world. So there are 10 000 years of pottery experience between a Neolithic pot and the one I'd like to show you here - an incredible amount of time.




This small octagonal pot is 11 cm x 11 cm (4 1/4 in) wide and 6 cm (2 1/2 in) high. It was fired to ca. 1300°C, then painted and after that fired for a second time at ca. 800-900°C. An interesting detail on this pot which is about 20-30 years old is the feet - there the kiln operator had attached small lumps of clay before the first firing to prevent the pot from sticking to the kiln's interior. This is a method that is hardly ever used today.




The painting is testimony of the high technical and artistic abilities of the Chinese potteries. The figures in a garden setting create a sensuous dance of colours which was designed to brighten up the daily life with its beauty. The persons depicted are high officials or scholars, shown drinking tea, playing dice, in philosophical reflections or carrying a lotus flower. Not only the four persons are symbolic, but also the number FOUR itself. The emperor's residence had FOUR gates for all FOUR directions, surrounded by FOUR races of barbarians, between the FOUR seas. FOUR is a YIN number, and one could write a book about this alone.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy the FOUR seasons of bonsai!

Peter Krebs

Note: Mr Hoe Chuah from Huston, Texas, provided us with more information about the first scene. The cup on the low bench that the person is leaning on is actually not a tea cup; the scene shows a famous Tang poet, Li Bo, who is well know for his love of drinking, and similar scenes had been reproduced again and again in paintings and potteries.

Photographs: Bernd Braun
Pot from the collection of Paul Lesniewicz
Translation: Stefan Ulrich

Amitiés
Peter
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THE WORLD OF THE POT: http://www.peter-krebs.de/