Ott tree, Porcelain

Ott: Another Paradigmatic Ceramic

Glazed ceramic pieces are not recyclable for re-production and they mostly end up in a landfill.

In this process, various ground pollution is caused by chemical and toxic particles resulting from some glazings. Technically, the clay itself is reusable as chamotte, a powder of baked clay. Glassy ingredients of glazing complicate ceramic recycling. Because when they are baked as one, they fuse together. Then the earth is no longer ''pure'.

He thought if he can get 'pure' earth again from recycling systems such as those of glass and plastic, the earth might be reused through re-production. So, he searched for alternative glazings and found “ott”, known as Korean traditional lacquering material. It’s a natural resin from the ott tree and is widely used as glazing for wood wares in the past.

To glaze ott on the ceramic surface, it doesn’t need to be baked, but sets. It evaporates when it is heated with the high temperature in kilns. It means that we can get 'clean' earth again and reutilise it.

This project aims to actualise ceramic recycling for its re-production by introducing the potentials of alternative glazing, ott, by applying it to domestic ceramic objects to experiment with its practicalities and aesthetics.

Making process

We have broken ott pieces of material

1. Grind down the ott broken pieces. (into very fine smaller than 0.02mm)
2. Mixing the ground porcelain powder with new clay. (can be mixed up to 30% - 70% but based on shapes and uses)
3. Cast new shapes with the new porcelain clay mixed with the powder.
4. Firing just 1 time for high bisque (in this process the resin material, ott, evaporates when it's exposed to a high temperature of around 900 degrees. so we only see and have pure clay shape)
5. Applyott again as alternative glazing.

Repetition of these steps

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