Blue & White Porcelain with Yunting Li
Updated: Sep 20
Blue-and-white porcelain has a long history in ceramics, using cobalt decoration against a light clay body to create surfaces ranging from precise patterns to expressive brushwork.
Ceramic artist Yunting Li brought this tradition to Throw Clay LA through a hands-on exploration of cobalt painting on porcelain. Her approach combines traditional techniques with contemporary forms, using brush control, composition and layering to create decoration that responds to the shape of the piece.
The techniques offer more than a way to decorate porcelain. They demonstrate how surface design, material, form and firing work together to create a finished ceramic piece.
Working with Cobalt on Porcelain
During the workshop, Yunting introduced participants to the materials and techniques used in blue-and-white porcelain decoration, including:
Preparing porcelain surfaces for decoration
Types of cobalt and how they behave during firing
Brush selection and stroke technique
Composition, layering and line variation
Designing motifs that work with thrown or handbuilt forms
Firing considerations for blue-and-white results
After Yunting's demonstration, participants applied the techniques to their own bisque-fired porcelain pieces.
Yunting Li demonstrates cobalt painting techniques during the blue-and-white porcelain workshop. Participants planned their designs before applying cobalt decoration to porcelain.
Blue & White Porcelain as Surface Design
Although blue-and-white porcelain has a distinctive visual tradition, many of the decisions involved are fundamental to ceramic surface design. Brush pressure, line variation, composition and placement all affect how decoration interacts with the form beneath it.
Yunting encouraged participants to consider the ceramic piece and its decoration together: how a painted line follows a curve, where a motif begins and ends, how areas of blue balance against open space, and how layers of cobalt create variation in tone.
These same considerations can inform other approaches to surface design, including underglaze painting, slip decoration, carving and resist techniques.
Why Study Blue & White Porcelain
Blue-and-white porcelain creates a striking relationship between cobalt decoration and the light surface of the clay. Because the palette is limited, line, brush pressure, composition and placement become especially important.
Yunting's Waves Pattern Flower Bowl Yunting's Fishpot Yunting's Bird Vase
Cobalt can produce a range of blue tones depending on how it is applied and fired. Working with it encourages careful observation of both the painted surface and the ceramic form beneath it.
For potters interested in surface design, blue-and-white porcelain offers a focused way to explore how color, mark-making and form work together.
About the Artist
Yunting Li is a Chinese ceramic artist and Advanced Glaze Designer at Laguna Clay and Glaze Company based in Los Angeles. Her work blends traditional Eastern forms with modern interpretation, honoring traditional blue-and-white techniques while presenting them through a contemporary lens. She teaches workshops across California and exhibits widely in both group and solo shows.
Blue & White Porcelain at Throw Clay LA
Yunting’s workshop gave participants an opportunity to explore blue-and-white porcelain through demonstration and hands-on practice, from planning a design to applying cobalt with a brush.
Workshops like this allow experienced potters to explore techniques beyond our regular six-week courses and learn directly from visiting ceramic artists.
About Throw Clay LA
Whether you’re curious to try pottery for the first time or ready to develop your skills, Throw Clay LA offers one-time pottery experiences, six-week Build Skills courses, and six-week Refine & Explore courses in wheel throwing and handbuilding at our studio in Downtown Los Angeles.
We also offer pottery workshops and private pottery events for groups, while studio memberships provide experienced potters with dedicated space and time to pursue their own work, along with access to studio equipment, glazes, firing services and free weekly Member Clinics.
