明代以前的铜器都是青铜，容易生锈，而宣德炉因为材料的珍贵与难得，还要加上一层颜色，将其保护起来，这与给上好的家具上漆是同一道理。宣德炉 的颜色有多少种?有学者将其总结为30多种：枣红色、海棠红、茄皮紫、鳝鱼黄、棠梨色、蟹壳青等等。
Before the Ming Dynasty, bronze wares were easy to rust, and Xuande stove had to be protected by adding a layer of color because of its precious and rare materials, which was the same as painting good furniture. How many kinds of colors are there in Xuande oven? Some scholars summarized it as more than 30 kinds: jujube red, crab red, eggplant purple, eel yellow, Tangli color, crab shell green and so on.
道法自然，古人将取诸自然界的颜色施加在冰冷的铜器 上，让铜器第一次泛发出本身色彩以外的光泽。陈巧生从他开始做炉子的时候就开始研究颜色，他用天然的矿物、植物颜料按照一定的配比同中草药调和在一起，反 复试验，目前他已经恢复了绝大部分有记载的宣德炉颜色，并且还开发出以往所没有的色泽。
Taoism follows nature, and the ancients applied the colors of nature to the cold bronze wares so that for the first time the bronze wares glowed beyond their own colors. Chen Qiaosheng began to study color when he began to make ovens. He mixed natural minerals and plant pigments with Chinese herbal medicine according to certain proportions and tried repeatedly. At present, he has restored most of the recorded color of Xuande ovens, and has developed colors that had never been seen before.