An appreciation of pottery
It absolutely boggles my mind that ceramic arts have been under development for literally thousands of years. From the Mesopotamians to the Japanese and others the world over — developing beautiful and practical pieces. Vessels to hold water, oil, jewelry, wine, concepts. How long it took cultures to develop certain techniques or methods — like the caption on the museum card that says
“Oh, the technique on this piece was developed over 800 years by such and such civilization”.
What?? The pace of technology was certainly slower in ancient times!
How the firing method — with or without oxygen affects the glazes and what colours and effects come out. How you can layer different textures within the clay itself by varying the water content — leather hard clay that can be carved into, slip clay can be squeezed on with a bottle or brushed on with a wide brush— or by layering glazes. How even despite all the potter’s best intentions and plans, there is a significant amount left to chance. A pot can fly off the wheel and be ruined if pushed too far. Pieces can crack during the drying phase. They can completely shatter during bisque firing. Glazes can stick to kiln floors, and break when trying to take pieces out. Or the color turns out nothing like what you expected — like the green speckles in the bottom of a bowl that look more like mold than their original intent. Or your fingerprints in the glaze again. Oops.
A piece of clay before being fired can be re-made again and again, just by adding enough water & re-working it. A fired pot can last for literally thousands of years.
I’m not such a fan of finishing pieces with acrylic paint, or the places that offer painting of pre-bisqued pieces. It’s finicky and never comes out as polished as how I envision it. Or maybe I just don’t have the right paintbrushes. But, they’re a fun activity to do with a friend for an afternoon, and just pick up later after it’s been fired, especially when you don’t have the time/money/patience for the multi-week process of sculpting/throwing, drying, firing, glazing, firing again. I received a craft kit for Christmas that has a high quality air dry clay, sculpting tools and paints, with the intent of making pottery more accessible without having to leave the house. So far I’ve made a collection of cat and star shaped ornaments, because why not? We need beautiful, joyous and sometimes silly things in our lives, especially these days.
I also think pottery & ceramics — and by extension all beautiful things — need to be used and enjoyed. A mug held in the hand is better than a mug unused on a shelf. But that said, shape, weight and feel are crucial for practical objects. The angle of the cup determines how you drink out of it. The thickness of the lip completely changes the feel of the mug against your own lips. The handle or lack thereof. In a wheel thrown class I took at local art center, I explored these ideas. I threw about 10 mugs that semester, all of them different. Most of them I gave away to be (hopefully!) used by others, but I kept one for myself — a leaf green one with a bell-like shape. The color and shape is great, but next time I would make the swirl on the bottom of the handle instead of the top. It’s a bit bottom heavy too.
I suspect the mug I gave my mom is used to store dishwasher tablets.
