Wucai

Parts of the design, and some outlines of the rest, are painted in underglaze blue, and the piece is then glazed and fired.

The rest of the design is then added in the overglaze enamels of different colours and the piece fired again at a lower temperature of about 850°C to 900°C.

The usual distinction made with doucai, which also combines underglaze blue with overglaze enamels in other colours, is that in wucai only parts of the design include blue, and these cover wider areas, and are often rather freely painted.

[2] In doucai the whole design is outlined in the blue, even if parts are overlaid by the enamels and invisible in the finished product.

[4] The next development, Famille verte (康熙五彩, Kangxi wucai, also 素三彩, Susancai), adopted in the Kangxi period (1662–1722), uses green and iron red with other overglaze colours developed from wucai, normally without any use of underglaze blue.