Cloisonne Factory

Cloisonne vase before paint

After we finished our climb back down the Great Wall, we headed to a Cloisonne Factory for lunch and another 'mandatory' tour. It was fascinating! We learned the process of creating cloisonne. They start with brass objects (vases, dishes, ornaments) and painstakingly build these very ornate brass designs onto them. Then, they fill in the grooves with ceramic & paints and fire them in the kiln for ages until they're really hard. Once the colors are set, they polish down the outer edges until they're smooth and it reveals this colorful pattern or image.

This picture is a cloisonne vase that's had the outer brass detail added to it but doesn't yet have color on it.