I sure adore my Indonesian Heritage Society explorers group, we go to the most wonderful places. This past week, the ladies chose Indo Porcelain in Tangerang, only 40km from South Jakarta. (Of course you have to allow at least an hour to get there, and even longer to get home!)
It was an especially interesting one for me, as I studied ceramics in university and had my own pottery business for several years with a friend in British Columbia. Ours was not quite the same scale as this one, but the basic processes are identical - it's a craft that has stayed essentially the same for thousands of years. You still start with raw clay, mold it into a shape, fire it once to the biscuit stage to get the moisture out and harden it, then fire it again at an even higher temperature to glaze a shiny coating onto it. Automation can't reduce the number of steps it takes to do all this, it can only make some of the processes faster and more consistent and efficient.
Here are some of the stages, Indo Porcelain style:
It was an especially interesting one for me, as I studied ceramics in university and had my own pottery business for several years with a friend in British Columbia. Ours was not quite the same scale as this one, but the basic processes are identical - it's a craft that has stayed essentially the same for thousands of years. You still start with raw clay, mold it into a shape, fire it once to the biscuit stage to get the moisture out and harden it, then fire it again at an even higher temperature to glaze a shiny coating onto it. Automation can't reduce the number of steps it takes to do all this, it can only make some of the processes faster and more consistent and efficient.
Here are some of the stages, Indo Porcelain style:
 Clay fresh from the mixer/extruder |  fancy clay-cutting machine |
The clay discs go to this guy, who uses the plaster molds in this machine to make the bowl shapes:
The raw pieces dry for a bit, then go here to get their edges cleaned up, either by machine, person, or combination:
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The dried, cleaned pieces get loaded onto kiln shelves for biscuit firing. The shelves are on giant platforms that roll on a track straight into the kiln.
 dried and ready |  out of the kiln |
The fired pieces get dipped in a pink solution that helps show any flaws, for quality control.
 quality control |  oopsie pile |
Then the pieces are ready for glazing, either in big tanks for the clear glaze....
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...or by hand.
 dunking in the blue glaze |  cleaning glaze off the bottom so they don't stick to the shelves in the kiln |
Glazed and ready to fire. Notice how the glazed pieces don't touch each other.
Emerging from the giant kiln. This must be a similar batch to the above photo, with white plates on stands and blue bowls filling up the spaces. The porcelain would be fired to about 1,400 °C (2,552 °F).
If the dishes are to have a surface decoration, it's applied after the glaze firing using decals. (Indo Porcelain does not do any hand-painting).
 decals are like temporary tattoos - you wet them to apply to the plates |  don't know if I'm breaking confidentiality here... |
Finished pieces are stacked and ready for crating, for sale in Indonesia and internationally.
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We wrapped up our day with some plate painting of our own - fired plates will come back to us next week.
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For even more ceramics fun, check out the development lab, where they design new shapes and make new molds.
For more info on Indo Porcelain, see their website.
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