Method

Young-Jae Lee uses porcelain and stoneware for her ceramics. In part, she mixes the masses in order to achieve an optimal rotability and density. Porcelain makes a white (or almost white) biscuit, stoneware has a beige and rather earthy hue.

The vessels are thrown, according to eastern practice, counterclockwise on the electric wheel by Young-Jae Lee. The trimming then is accomplished clockwise, in the western manner; the leather-hard (moist, but not soft) clay being removed shaving-wise by means of a metal trim tool.

In the unfired, still leather-hard state, the cylinder vases are painted with engobes (viscous clay slurry). These engobes have to suit the degree of shrinkage of the clay mass, so that the painting does not splinter off after drying or fire. After the first firing at about 950 ° C, which is necessary to harden up the biscuit, the vessels are being glazed. The glaze is poured over the larger vessels, smaller bowls are usually immersed in the glaze. Paintings with cobalt, iron or copper oxides are applied with a brush before glazing. The glazes are feldspar glazes, in some of them ash is mixed in. For coloring agents Young-Jae Lee confines herself to iron oxide.

Depending on the kiln atmosphere, the glazes unfold their color: iron oxide, for example, imparts a coloring between yellow and brown in oxidizing (oxygen-rich) atmosphere, green in reducing (oxygen-deficient) atmosphere, while copper turns from green to red. The glost firing is carried out in the gas kiln at about  1300 ° C.

A richer tint and coloration effects, which are often not to be controlled, arise in the wood kiln. Here, the furnace is continuously fired up to 1300 °C over nine to ten hours. For this procedure about 1.5 solic cubic meters of wood are needed.