Book: Ceramics - Art or Science? Author: Dr. Stan Jones

7. Pottery Technology 1

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7.3 Forming the Vessel “body”

Pottery vessels can be formed in a variety of ways. They can be shaped by hand, by expanding (or pinching out) a lump of clay, or they may be built up by adding coils or rings of clay to a base, and smoothing them together. This latter method appears to be the most popular in early times.

Chinese Warring States vessel showing finger marks - courtesy Glade Antiques, b) Egyptian coiled base sherd Dynasty 19 UC32984 - copyright of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL

a) Chinese Warring States vessel showing finger marks
- courtesy Glade Antiques, b) Egyptian coiled base
sherd Dynasty 19 UC32984 - copyright of the
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL

Another method is known as “paddle and anvil”, which involves beating the outer surface of a vessel with a flat tool while supporting the inside with a hand or a smooth shaped “anvil” of stone or wood. This method can be used to enlarge and thin out a pot made by pinching out, coiling or any other technique. Sheets of clay can be rolled out and cut into slabs and joined together for boxes and oval dishes. Moulding is an ancient technique and is thought to have been used in Samarra around 6 to 5,000 BC, possibly starting with moulds made out of woven baskets. The clay would be pressed into these, leaving the basket to burn off in firing, producing a characteristic basket weave pattern on the pot’s exterior. Sometimes a round stone would be used to form the shape of a bowl, but later, ceramic moulds were used. The demand for pots grew, so the potters looked for increased output, and moulds were one way of achieving this by improving productivity and consistency, but at the cost of the potter’s handcrafting and the uniqueness of hand made pots. Also, moulded pots appear to have been better than coiling at resisting thermal shock, so was the preferred method for cooking pots.

To give an idea of timescales, in Egypt pinching and hollowing was carried out well before 5,000 BC, with both paddle and anvil and coiling commonly used around 4,000 BC. By 3,000 BC they were shaping vessels on a core, maybe initially a suitably shaped large stone, and around 2,500 BC conical fired clay moulds were used to make characteristic Egyptian bread moulds. By 1,500 BC they were using negative moulds to make figures. The early Greeks used multiple moulds to make more complex figures, joining the pieces together prior to firing.

Features such as feet, spouts and handles may be added to a basic vessel. These accessories can be made by hand shaping or by moulding. They are then attached to the vessel by “luting” (using slip, a mixture of fine clay and water with the consistency of cream, as “glue”).

a) Casting handles for cups b) Adding Handles - courtesy Worcester Porcelain Museum

a) Casting handles for cups b) Adding Handles
- courtesy Worcester Porcelain Museum

To strengthen the joint, especially for handles, the vessel wall might be worked into the clay of the attachment. Alternatively, a clay dowel might be formed on the inner face of the feature to be attached and pushed through the vessel wall. Sometimes handles were pierced to aid drying. To support the wet clay of very large vessels, string was used around the maximum diameter. It was not tied but the ends pressed into the clay. The string was removed when dry but left telltale marks in the final vessel

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