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What is Italian Majolica Pottery? | Our answer for you

What is Italian Majolica Pottery? | Our answer for you

Published by Mod ceramics, Maioliche Originali Deruta, DerutaItaly on Mar 28th 2021

With this article I will try to briefly summarize what is the technique of making Majolica.

To realize an artifact in Majolica it is necessary to have previously created a support in cookie or terracotta. (it starts from the clay, a "raw" and malleable earth, it is modeled to your liking, it is left to dry and is cooked in a special oven at a temperature of about 1000 degrees).

Once the piece has come out of the kiln after the first firing it will have to wait for it to return to room temperature and we will be ready to proceed to the next phase. A special ceramic glaze must be applied to the terracotta object with a porous surface. (make sure that the object does not have dust or other stains on the surface) The application techniques may vary from immersion to spraying. Also the glazes to be used can be of various types, this depends on the final result one wants to achieve with his or her ceramic piece. 

Once we have covered the entire surface of the object with the chosen glaze we must wait for it to dry and then fire the object a second time in the kiln. (This time the firing temperature can vary from 900° to 980°) When the object comes out of this second firing, we will have our majolica object.

In the case of our Deruta ceramics, before the second firing, the object glazed in white and left to dry, is painted by our master painters. These objects will still be part of the category of majolica and will be called "Painted Majolica Objects".

We can summarize by saying that Majolica is a terracotta object that has been mainly enameled and fired in a kiln at a temperature of 900° to 980°.