in pencil. Next it is outlined with firm, sure strokes, using a pointed
steel tool, and taking great care not to cut under the edge of the
outline, but bevel it, as in other processes. Go over the whole outline
of the design again with a boxwood point, making the lines deeper. Then
start close to the edge of the outline with the steel tool, which has a
flat point, and scrape away from it, cutting as deep as the outline,
close to the design, and sloping gradually up to nothing at about half
an inch from it. Certain parts of the design may be emphasised by
cutting the outline somewhat deeper at those points. Be sure to cut
away enough clay about the design to leave it in decided relief, for
the glaze softens the edges, and makes them too indefinite if they are
not firm and clear in the beginning.
[Illustration: FIG. 22]
Pierced decorations are particularly good on pottery. Such simple
designs as those in Figs. 22, 23, and 24 will be found the most
satisfactory.
[Illustration: FIG. 23]
In planning a pierced decoration for the top of a piece, take care
not to start it too close to the rim; three-quarters of an inch or
more should be left between the edge and the decoration, otherwise the
piercing will weaken the piece.
Outline the design first in pencil, then with firm, clear strokes
follow the line with the pointed steel tool. The line is traced a
second time still more deeply. All the clay within the outlines is cut
out as far as the incision has been made, and then the sharp point of
the tool is run through the wall close to the line. While the clay is
being cut away with the right hand, the left supports the inner wall of
the piece.
[Illustration: FIG. 24]
When the whole design has been pierced, moisten the finger with water
and soften the edges of the decoration, that the glaze may flow freely
over it. Decorations in high relief are made as follows: Small lumps
of clay, as nearly as possible the consistency of the piece of pottery,
are applied to the portions which are to be decorated, and which have
previously been criss-crossed with a steel tool, and wet with slip.
The design is then moulded with the hands and wooden modelling tools,
working the edges close on to the surface of the piece.
The Glaze and How to Apply It
CHAPTER V
THE GLAZE AND HOW TO APPLY IT
Clay that is simply baked, without a glazed coating, will not hold
water perfectly.
One can imagine what a blow it must have been to the early potter when
he found that this was the case. Some say that he used wax at first to
close the pores of his pottery, and later—perhaps by the overheating of
a kiln—glazed pottery was discovered. Pottery that is soft will develop
a semi-glazed surface when overfired, and it is probable that some such
accident suggested the use of the glaze.
The first glaze was doubtless a pure silicate of soda. Oxide of lead
added to this made it more fusible, but it was not as hard or durable.
What is known as biscuit is baked clay porous and without gloss—for
example, a flower-pot.
Glossy pottery has a very thin layer of glaze upon it. The Samian ware
of the Greeks furnishes examples of this finish. Glazed pottery is
covered with a perceptible coating of glass.
Enamelled ware, or pottery with a mat-glaze, has a glazed coating made
opaque with oxide of tin. This finish is used on some of the most
beautiful art pottery. Glazes may be coloured with certain metallic
oxides without losing their transparency.
One is often confused by hearing the terms enamel and glaze carelessly
used. Enamel should be used to describe a vitreous coating that is
opaque, and glaze a glossy, transparent surface—both may be coloured.
The term mat-glaze is an exception to this rule. This means an opaque
glaze with a glossy finish.
The materials of which glazes are composed are about the same as those
that enter into the composition of clays with a few additions. There
is in glazes, as in clays, the play of soft and hard materials, or the
flux and frit. Flint, aluminum, or china clay forms the frit or hard,
refractory portion; potash, soda, lead or borax the melting part or
flux. The addition of clays gives durability.
In preparing the flux, it is melted like glass and then crushed to
powder. The frit must first be melted, then dropped from the crucible
into water before it can be powdered.
The making of glazes is not often done by amateurs, and unless one is
planning to start pottery-making as a business, and requires large
quantities of glazes, it is best to buy them from a reliable dealer.
They come in the form of powder—soft glaze, hard glaze, and stannifère,
which is a hard glaze with some oxide of tin added, to make it opaque.
The soft glazes are used on ware which fires at a low heat, and is
therefore not durable. A large proportion of hard glaze must be added
to make the preparation applicable to a pottery which is fired at an
intense heat, while if one wishes a mat-glaze the stannifère is also
used.
The colouring materials may be bought of the same dealer. They are
as follows: Antimony for yellow, cobalt for blue, copper for green,
chrome for green, manganese for brown, and iron for brown. Red oxide
of iron colours a purplish red, and carbonate of copper makes a gray
green that is very beautiful. A ground glass or stone slab, on which
to mix the glaze, and a palette knife, will be required; also a
small quantity of gum-arabic and of gum tragacanth, a small teacup,
and a measuring-glass. These, with two or three soft paint-brushes
of various sizes—one that is an inch wide, one smaller, and another
larger—will be enough of an outfit to start with.
The gum-arabic should be dissolved in water to the consistency of
honey. It is used in the first coat of glaze to bind the glaze and
prevent it from rubbing off. Quite a little of it may be prepared at a
time and kept in a covered glass jar until needed. The gum tragacanth
is bought in small quantities—five cents’ worth at a time. Cover this
amount with one pint of water and let it stand over night. In the
morning, strain it through a fine sieve and put it away in a glass jar
till it is needed.
If possible, very large pieces of pottery should be fired before they
are glazed—in the biscuit, as it is called. Small and medium-sized
pieces may be glazed on the green clay—the term by which unbaked clay
is known among potters. The piece should have dried thoroughly for
several days, until it is light gray in colour, and what is known as
bone dry. It is decorated, if decoration is required, and then glazed.
All vessels that are used to hold or measure glaze should first be
dipped in water to prevent waste from the glaze clinging to them. The
hands should be washed thoroughly after working with glazes, as some
of the materials used are poisonous.
For the inside of most pieces a transparent glaze is used, whether the
outer glaze is to be transparent or opaque.
All of the odds and ends of transparent glaze, no matter what the
colour, that are left after each glazing, are poured into a large
bowl or other vessel which is kept for the purpose. The mixture of
all colours in this combination of glazes makes a neutral tint which
harmonizes most agreeably with the outer glaze, whatever its colour.
It is applied as follows:
_To Glaze the Inside of a Piece of Pottery_
Take a small cupful of transparent glaze, and, holding the piece of
pottery over the large vessel containing the liquid, pour the cupful of
glaze into it, rolling it around the inside of the piece quickly but
carefully, so as to have it cover the entire inner surface. Then turn
the piece deftly and suddenly bottom up, so as to empty it into the
large vessel without letting any of it drip over onto the outside of
the piece. Should this happen, by accident, rub it quickly off with the
fingers.
_The Outside Glaze and How to Apply It_
The most satisfactory finish for the outside of fine pottery is a mat
or opaque glaze in any soft dull shade of green, brown, blue, yellow,
or the red obtainable with red oxide of iron. For an art pottery,
composed of fire-and blue-clay, which requires a strong heat, the
following glaze is applicable:
_Gray-Green Mat-Glaze_
=Mix=
1 tablespoonful of soft glaze,
½ tablespoonful of stannifère, and
½ tablespoonful of China clay,
together on a stone or glass slab with a palette knife, adding ¼
teaspoonful of gum-arabic and enough water to make the consistency a
little thicker than thick cream. About ¼ teaspoonful of carbonate of
copper added to this mixture (and ground thoroughly into it with the
palette knife) will make a light gray-green. For deeper shades increase
the quantity slightly. The tint appears much lighter than it will when
fired; indeed, in the colouring of glazes, as in painting on china, the
worker needs a great deal of faith, for until the magic of the kiln
brings out the colours one would never guess what they were to be.
In applying the glaze, place your piece bottom up on a table, or other
flat surface. Dip a soft, flat paint-brush into the bowl of glaze,
and beginning with the bottom, paint it on in short strokes in every
direction—what an artist would call cross-hatching—and overlapping
slightly like the shingles on a house. The bottom receives but one coat
of glaze, as it is liable to stick in firing and be uneven if it has
more than one. Next start at the sides, near the bottom (as the piece
stands upside down), and paint down for an inch or two all around. The
piece is then set right side up, providing, of course, that the bottom
is dry, which it will be undoubtedly, and the rest of it is glazed.
From time to time stir up the glaze from the bottom, that it may be
thoroughly mixed.
The edge especially should be carefully covered, and the outer glaze
may even be brought over inside the piece a little. Before applying the
second and third coats (for the piece receives three) two teaspoonfuls
of gum tragacanth, well mixed according to directions, are added to the
glaze. In putting on the second coat, the piece is again placed upside
down on the table, and beginning where the sides join the bottom, the
glaze is applied as before. The sides and top edge only are glazed this
time. The third coat, which is put on when the second is dry, is begun
at the top edge, covering it well, and is ended gradually and unevenly
half way down the sides.
_Pale-green Mat-Glaze_
To make a lighter shade of green, with just a hint of yellow to soften
it, add to half the quantity of the glaze first mixed as much again of
the uncoloured glaze and a slight sprinkling of yellow.
It will be seen from these directions how much the colouring of glazes
is like the blending of pigments for a picture. It is a delightful
field for experiment, and the element of chance is supplied by the
kiln, which often does unexpected and interesting things to one’s
colours and glazes—leaving here, a touch of brown about the rim to
relieve an expanse of green; there, a metallic tinge almost like
lustre; and again the biscuit peeps through the glaze, giving a warmer
tone to the edge of a decoration.
In mixing the glaze for a piece that has been fired in the biscuit,
make it a little thicker than that for use on the green clay—about the
consistency of whipped cream. It is applied somewhat differently, too.
A potter would tell you to "rag it on"—that is, put it on with firm,
short strokes, using the ends of the hairs of the brush instead of the
flat part. Let each coat dry well before the next is applied. Three or
four coats will be necessary, except for the bottom, which receives
but one. After the first coat, gum tragacanth is added, as in glazing
on green clay. The fourth coat need not entirely cover the piece, but
the top should be carefully glazed. If for any reason the pottery has
to be re-fired, it should be reglazed, but two coats only will be
necessary, and the glaze need not be quite so heavy as that used on the
biscuit. Do not be discouraged if your pieces need a second or even
a third firing, for often the most beautiful results are obtained by
re-firing. Quality—that combination of richness, and depth of colour
and texture—rarely comes with the first firing.
Pottery for Beauty and Use
CHAPTER VI
POTTERY FOR BEAUTY AND USE
When one thinks of the limitless possibilities of pottery in household
decoration—the great dishes for flowers and fruit, the lamp-bowls,
candlesticks, and tiles—one may make, one can hardly wait to begin. Now
is the chance to work out a long-treasured idea for a match-bowl, or a
plant-jar to hang against the wall or window frame. Now one can show
the superiority of one’s conceptions over the stupid things in shops!
Let us hasten to get out the clay and begin.
_Dark-Green Fruit-Bowl_
=Materials required=:
About 4½ pounds of clay,
A plaster mould for a bowl, 10 or 11 inches in diameter at the top,
The oval tools of sheet steel,
The wooden modelling tools,
The pointed steel tool,
A flint bag,
A rolling-pin,
A bowl of slip,
A small sponge.
Take a good lump of clay, about four and a half pounds, well worked and
free from air-bubbles. Beat out a piece with the flat of the hand on a
table until it is about three-quarters of an inch thick and more than
large enough to cover the bottom of the plaster mould you have chosen.
It should be of even thickness, and may be rolled with a rolling-pin to
make it smooth. Be sure that the plaster mould is clean and free from
scraps of clay. Then dust it with powdered flint tied up in a cotton
cloth. Now fit the flat piece of clay carefully into the bottom of
the bowl mould, pressing it firmly, but lightly, against it. Cut the
edge evenly around. Next a long rope of clay is rolled as described in
Chapter II. It should be an inch in diameter, and long enough to go
around the bowl just above the bottom. Pat it flat and even, and cut
one end into a long point. After cross-cutting the edge of the bottom
piece (to insure its holding firmly to the coil above), brush it with
slip and lay the coil along, pressing it firmly on to the edge of the
bottom piece. Work the edges of this piece and the coil together with
firm, short strokes of the flat part of the thumb or forefinger nail.
Where the coil joins the other end it is cut into a long, flat point
that will fit exactly the point at the beginning, completing the row.
[Illustration: WHERE USE AND BEAUTY ARE COMBINED]
For the next coil no cross-cutting with the tool is necessary, but
otherwise the process is the same in joining this and subsequent coils.
Care should be taken to press the clay firmly against the walls of the
mould, as well as upon the coil below. When the inside of the mould is
covered, if a deeper bowl is desired, add one or two more coils above
the edge, taking care to have them slope in such a way as to continue
the lines of the bowl. It is then set away to harden. The next day the
clay will have dried and shrunk sufficiently to come easily away from
the plaster. The bowl is then placed bottom up on a table or flat slab,
and the hollows left between the coils on the outside are wet with
slip and filled in evenly, with clay of the consistency of that in the
piece. This will take time and care. The bowl is then allowed to dry
for an hour or two. Next it is carefully scraped and made even; first
with the oval steel tool with a saw edge, held at right angles with the
bowl and curved to fit the form: this is to get the large bumps off. It
is then carefully evened off with the smooth-edged oval tool bent to
fit the curves of the bowl. The inside is made smooth and even in the
same way, brushing any deep hollows with slip and filling them in with
clay. This process should be carefully and conscientiously done, so
that the walls of the bowl, as one feels them between finger and thumb,
are even and free from lumps. They should not be more than a quarter of
an inch thick.
A damp sponge is then passed over the bowl, and the fingers and thumb
smooth and polish it outside and in. The edge is trimmed as evenly as
possible by eye with a steel tool and then bevelled as follows:
[Illustration: FIG. 25]
On a large slab of ground glass pour a little water, which should be
spread over the glass till it is thoroughly wet. Now, holding the
bowl bottom up, firmly with both hands, press its edge quickly and
with a circular motion flat on the glass. It must be done so rapidly
and deftly that it will not stick, but makes the edge even and true.
Slip it off at the side of the slab instead of lifting it up from the
centre. The bottom is finished as described in Chapter II. If this
is done in the morning, the bowl will be ready for the decoration in
the afternoon. This is a band of orange leaves (see Fig. 25), deeply
incised near the top of the bowl on the inside (see Chapter IV.). More
character will be given to the design if the line is broad and deep,
particularly at the points of the leaves, which are thus emphasised.
This piece being so large, should, if possible, be fired in the biscuit
and then finished, inside and out, with a dark-green mat-glaze (see
Chapter V.), and fired again.
_Candlestick, Thumb Design_
=Materials required=:
About 1¼ pounds of clay,
The boxwood modelling tools,
The pointed steel tool,
A plaster slab,
A small sponge.
This sturdy little candlestick shows that it is hand moulded by the
marks of the potter’s thumb on base, handle and candle cup. The square
base is moulded from a single large piece of clay. This is patted
flat and even with the thick part of the hand, and then cut square
and the sides turned up for about an inch, making the base about five
inches square and three-eighths of an inch thick. It is then placed
on a plaster slab, and the corners are pressed in with a firmly held
thumb. The sides of the square base are moulded into a gradual inward
curve, and the corners are slightly depressed (see plate). A cup
for the candle (see Fig. 26) is made by rolling a piece of clay into
cylindrical form, about an inch and three-quarters in diameter and two
inches and a quarter long. At the top of this roll, the finger makes a
hollow for the candle. It should be remembered that the clay shrinks
both in drying and firing, so this hole should be a trifle large and
deep for the candle. The sides of the cup, at about an inch from the
top, are squared and pressed in so that the four corners will stand out
like columns. The hollowed sides between the corners show the mark of
the thumb (see Fig. 26). The centre of the base is now wet with thick
slip and the candle cup pressed firmly on to it, while the edges are
moulded closely on to the base.
[Illustration: FIG. 26]
A piece of clay is then rolled and flattened into a handle an inch
in diameter and five inches long. This is put on at one corner of
the base, and is not attached at any other point. Before moulding it
on to the base, touch the corner lightly with thick slip, to insure
its holding. Where the handle joins the base it is made thick and
substantial by adding a little extra clay. The print of the thumb is
made where the handle joins the corner, another is pressed on the top,
and another still on the end of the handle (see plate and Fig. 27). To
support the handle until it dries, roll a ball of soft paper under it.
After the candlestick has stood for a few hours out-of-doors or indoors
overnight, it is carefully trimmed with one of the wooden tools or the
sharp-pointed metal one, taking care to leave sufficient thickness to
give it a sturdy, substantial character, yet not enough to make it
clumsy. It is then rubbed over with a damp sponge and polished with the
thumb and finger, which will smooth away any lumps and give the piece
a hand-moulded look. Should there be any very deep hollows to make it
uneven, they should be wet with slip very slightly and filled in with
clay as nearly the consistency of that in the candlestick as possible.
When it is bone dry, it will be ready for the glaze (see Chapter V.).
[Illustration: FIG. 27]
_Bowl for a Lamp_
=Materials required=:
About 3½ pounds of clay,
A plaster mould for a bowl,
The wooden modelling tools,
The oval sheet steel tools,
The pointed steel tool,
A rolling-pin,
A flint bag,
A small sponge.
Having chosen a good mould for your bowl, brush it inside with ground
flint tied in a cotton cloth, so that the clay will not stick to it.
Now beat out a piece of well-worked clay on a board, with the flat of
the hand, until it is perhaps two inches more in diameter than the
bottom of the mould, and half an inch thick. It should be rolled smooth
with the rolling-pin. Lay it in the mould, pressing it firmly against
the bottom and sides. It may not be out of place here to say that no
tool but a wooden one should be used in working in moulds, as metal
tools are liable to injure the plaster. The edge of the bottom piece
is next cut even with a wooden modelling tool, and a lump of clay is
formed into a rude cube shape between the hands and then rolled out on
a table or board with the flat of the hand till about three-quarters
of an inch in diameter. This roll of clay is flattened evenly for
its whole length. The top edge of the bottom piece is marked with
criss-cross lines and wet with slip. The roll of clay is then started
on edge, along the top of the bottom piece, pressed firmly down upon
it and against the sides of the mould. It is joined to the bottom with
firm, even strokes of the thumb or forefinger nail. When the circuit
has been made, the two ends, each cut in a long, flat point, so that
they will unite perfectly, are joined. Another roll is now made, the
upper edge of the previous coil is wet with slip, and the coil is
attached in the same way, being careful to start at a different place
from where the previous coil was joined. Thus the whole bowl is built
up. Where there are any decided hollows made by joining the coils,
they should be filled in with clay of the consistency of the piece,
and the bottom and sides smoothed with dampened finger or modelling
tool. If a moderately deep mould has been chosen, after the sides are
covered with layers of clay, four or more coils may be added above the
mould to make a deeper bowl, continuing the sides in a graceful line.
To do this, when the first coil above the mould has been attached,
the bowl is set away, out of doors for fifteen or twenty minutes if
it is in summer or indoors for a longer time if one is working in the
winter. Whenever two coils have been built up, the piece is set away
to harden. These coils, being free from the mould, can be joined on the
outside as well as within. They are brought gradually in (see plate)
until there is a space five and a half inches in diameter at the top.
If a central-draught lamp is to be used in this bowl, a pierced design
will be practical, as it does away with the necessity for a hole at
the bottom of the bowl. There is much to be done, however, before the
piece is ready for the design. When it has stood for four or five
hours or overnight, the bowl can be lifted from the mould, the cracks
on the outside where it was impossible to join the coils are wet with
slip and filled in with clay of the consistency of the bowl, using the
finger or a wooden tool. When the bowl is quite dry, it is smoothed
inside and out, first with the oval tool with saw teeth, and then with
the smooth-edged one, as described on page 19. The strokes with these
tools should be short and firm, in every direction. The piece is then
turned bottom up, a circle is drawn half an inch in from the edge of
the bottom, and the clay within it scraped out, so as to leave a flat
surface slightly lower than the outer rim. This is where the potter
cuts his mark—a simple, quickly made initial in lieu of a signature.
The top edge, after it has been cut as true as possible by eye, is made
absolutely even by the method described on page 70. The whole piece
is then rubbed with a damp sponge and smoothed and polished with the
fingers. It is now ready for the design (see Fig. 28).
[Illustration: FIG. 28]
The top edge of the bowl is marked off into fifths, and at
three-quarters of an inch from the top the design is drawn with pencil,
so that each time it is repeated the centre shall be directly below a
mark on the edge. It is first incised with a metal tool, in firm, sure
lines. Again the outline is traced, this time more deeply. Then the
clay within the lines is cut out as deep as it has been incised, and
finally the sharp edge of the tool cuts through the wall, close to the
line. The left hand should support the inner wall of the bowl during
this process. When the whole design has been made, dip the finger in
water and soften the edges of the cut portion. The bowl is now ready
for glazing. If possible, it will be better to fire such a large piece
as this in the biscuit before glazing. It will look well if glazed with
gray blue or dark green (see Chapter V.).
_Wall Jar for Plants or Flowers_
=Materials required=:
About 4½ pounds of well-mixed clay,
A plaster slab about 10 by 12 inches,
The oval tools of sheet steel,
The pointed steel tool,
A rolling-pin,
Ultramarine blue water-colour paint,
A medium-sized paint-brush with fine point,
A saucerful of ground, baked clay, mixed with water.
An Indian water-jar of basketry, smeared with pinon gum, pointed at
the bottom so that it could be set upright in the ground or hung by
leather thongs to a tree, suggested the form of this jar. One side is
made flat, so that it can hang against the wall of library or piazza
holding some long trailing plant that grows in water, ivy, or wandering
Jew, or wild flowers gathered on a walk through woods and lanes. What
more appropriate way to make it than the Indian process described
in Chapter II.? We shall need about four and a half pounds of clay,
well mixed. A large lump, almost two pounds, is flattened out on a
table, with the thick part of the hand and then made even with the
rolling-pin. The sheet of clay should be ten by twelve inches, and not
less than three-eighths of an inch thick. Upon it the jar form shown in
Fig. 29 is outlined with a pencil, making it as large as possible to
allow for shrinkage. It is then cut out with the pointed steel tool and
transferred very carefully to a large plaster slab, where it remains
while the walls are being built upon it. A coil of clay is rolled out,
as described in Chapter II., and beginning at the left side of the jar
shape, at the top, it is attached to the edge (which has previously
been criss-crossed with a steel tool and wet with slip), all the way
around to the opposite side of the top.
[Illustration: FIG. 29]
The jar is then put in the air until quite hard, when the next coil is
added in the same way. The third coil is brought in a little toward
the centre, and subsequent coils come in still more, so as to make the
form that of a jar cut exactly in half. After each coil is attached,
it should be left in the air to stiffen, or the clay beneath will not
support the coil in progress, so great is the strain in forming such a
shape. Each time a coil is added the wall below should be criss-crossed
with the steel tool (an extra precaution) and wet with slip. Care
should be taken not to make the walls too thick, and to join the coils
and finish the inside as it is made; for, when the jar is completed,
it is impossible to get the hand and tool in far enough to smooth and
finish it well.
When the jar is made, except for a diamond-shaped gap in the middle of
the front wall, the piece to fill it is cut and fitted in. It will lie
almost parallel with the back wall. Take care to make it full large for
the opening, and join it to the inner edges most carefully, for here,
if anywhere, is the jar liable to crack. The top is now made even by
eye, using the pointed steel tool.
[Illustration: FIG. 30]
[Illustration: POTTERY FOR BEAUTY AND USE
The pale-green rose-bowl with a moth design, at the left, has beside
it a low Dutch dish. On the right is a fruit-bowl with a deep-green
mat-glaze.]
[Illustration: HOW TO MAKE A PLASTER MOULD
At the left is a plaster mould, and beside it a rose-bowl which was
partially formed within it. See chapter VII.]
[Illustration: POTTERY FOR BEAUTY AND USE
The lamp-bowl on the left has a gray-blue mat-glaze. Next to it is a
candlestick, with the marks of the potter’s thumb on every part. The
wall-jar in the background is for plants that grow in water. On the
right is a flower candlestick in green and white.]
When the jar is somewhat dry, two handles (see plate) are formed of
rolls of clay (the consistency of that used in making the jar), five
and a half inches long by an inch wide and half an inch thick. These
are firmly attached to the back wall of the jar at the top (see plate),
according to the method described on pages 39 and 40. The decoration
(see Fig. 30) is drawn on the rounded front wall of the jar with
ultramarine water-colour, and then built up with powdered burnt clay
and water (see directions in Chapter IV.). If possible, this piece
should be first fired in the biscuit. A glaze of dark gray green (see
Chapter V.) will finish it most attractively.
_Dutch Dish for Candy_
=Materials required=:
About 1½ pounds of clay,
The wooden modelling tools,
The sharp-pointed steel tool,
A plaster tile,
A rolling-pin.
A quaint Dutch dish, brought from Holland years ago, was the model for
this sturdy little piece of pottery. It may be used for candy or to
hold a vase of flowers, or a potted plant, protecting a polished table.
A lump of clay is rolled on a table with the hands and a rolling-pin to
the thickness of half an inch. Upon this clay sheet a rectangle four
and a quarter by four and a half inches is drawn with a pencil and cut
out with the pointed steel tool. It is then transferred to a plaster
tile.
To the edge of this rectangle a coil of clay is attached according to
the directions in Chapter II., and flared slightly outward, taking care
not to make the corners sharp, but rounded and even. After the first
coil has stiffened, and the sides have been made somewhat uniform and
thin, it is cut even by eye, curving the edge up gradually toward the
middle of the sides and depressing it slightly at the corners.
A second coil is now added, but instead of attaching it to the top
of the first one, it is joined just below the top and inside the
first coil. When it has stiffened sufficiently in the air, the dish
is smoothed carefully inside and out with the hand and the wooden
modelling tools, making the walls even and thin and perfecting the
shape.
The effect of legs is given by cutting under the sides, beginning half
an inch above the bottom. If this is started three-quarters of an inch
from the corners, it will leave a sturdy, short leg an inch and a half
wide at each of the four corners of the dish.
A roll of clay about five and a half inches long, an inch wide, and
three-eighths of an inch thick is made into a handle (see plate), which
is attached at the middle of one of the sides of the dish. At the two
points where it is to be joined, the side of the dish is criss-crossed
with the steel tool and wet with slip.
The bottom is finished by drawing a square with a pencil, half an inch
in from the edge, and depressing it within the square, so as to leave a
flat, even surface. The potter’s mark is then made within this square.
A pale green mat-glaze (see Chapter V.) makes a charming finish for
this piece.
_Rose-Bowl with Moth Design_
=Materials required=:
About 5 pounds of clay,
A rolling-pin,
The oval sheet-steel tools,
The pointed-steel tool,
The steel tool with a flat end,
A plaster tile.
This rose-bowl, which is shown in the plate, was built up without a
pasteboard outline. If one’s eye is reasonably true this is not a
difficult matter, but otherwise the outline process (see Chapter II.)
may be followed.
A piece of clay is first patted flat with the hand, and then rolled
out with the rolling-pin, until it is six inches square and about
five-eighths of an inch thick. Upon this clay sheet a circle is marked,
five inches in diameter, cut out and placed on a plaster tile. The
edge is criss-crossed with a steel tool and wet with slip, and the
first coil is attached (see Chapter II.).
[Illustration: FIG. 31]
Two coils are built up, and then they are pressed outward to form the
beginning of the outline, shown in Fig 31. This outline was taken from
the lower sweep of the wings of a lunar moth, and the same moth forms
the relief design upon it (see Fig. 32).
[Illustration: FIG. 32]
The bowl is then put out-of-doors until the clay is sufficiently firm
to support two more coils. These are added; flaring them to follow the
outline, and then the bowl is put away to harden—in the air, if the
temperature is not too cold, otherwise indoors. It is built up exactly
as was the flower jar in Chapter II., except that there is no cardboard
outline to test it; the eye alone is the guide. Great care should be
taken not to add the coils until those below are quite stiff, for the
decided flare makes it difficult to keep the sides firm and true in
outline. The circumference of the bowl, at its widest part, should be
about thirty inches. When it is finished, the sides within and without
are smoothed, first with the saw-edged oval tool, then with the smooth
one. The edge is cut as true as possible by eye, and made perfectly
level by pressing it quickly and lightly on the ground-glass slab, wet
with clear water, as already described. A damp sponge is then passed
over the piece, inside and out, while the fingers rub and polish it dry.
The bottom is finished and the potter’s mark made as described in
Chapter II.
When the bowl is thoroughly dry—say the following day—it is ready for
the decoration.
Divide the circumference of the top of the bowl into fifths, with
pencil marks, lightly made. Then draw the design upon it, so that the
top of the upper wings shall be not less than an inch from the edge of
the bowl. Make the moths as nearly life size as the bowl will allow.
Three and a half inches across, from tip to tip of the upper wings,
with spaces an inch and a half between them, will look well, if the
bowl is large enough. Having drawn the design in pencil, outline it
firmly with the sharp steel tool, taking care to bevel the edge of the
design. Never cut under the edge, as the glaze will not flow well over
it. Go over the outline, making it firm and deep, with a wooden point.
Now, starting close to the edge of the moth, with the flat-pointed
steel tool scrape away from it, so as to cut as deep as the outline,
close to the design, and shave off to nothing at about half an inch
from it. This will give a low relief effect, which is very attractive.
The antennæ are incised (see Chapter IV.), and the markings of the moth
may be built up with ground, baked clay, so as to heighten the relief.
The bowl may be glazed a pale green with a slight yellow tinge (see
Chapter V.) to suggest the colour of the moth. It should, however, if
possible be fired first in the biscuit.
_Flower Candlestick_
=Materials required=:
About 1½ pounds of clay,
The wooden modelling tools,
A plaster tile.
A candlestick in flower form may be made in green and white, for a
bedroom in a country house.
Five leaves, much the shape of poppy leaves, radiate from the centre,
making a base from which the stem rises for three inches. A round,
slightly flattened calyx, topped by a five-petalled flower, forms the
cup for the candle. A sixth leaf, starting at the centre of the base,
curls over until its tip rests sideways against the stem, serving the
double purpose of a handle and a brace for the stem. The base should
be modelled first, from a single piece of clay, placed on a plaster
tile. Care should be taken to have it sufficiently thick—at least half
an inch in most places. Although the leaves should be indicated, do
not try to carry the leaf form way to the centre of the base. Let the
irregular outline of the whole base, with an occasional raised tip, or
edge of a leaf, suggest rather than imitate leaves. The leaf that forms
the handle will, of course, be more carefully modelled. Now mould the
stem, about an inch in diameter and three inches long, with the calyx
on the end, an inch and three-quarters in diameter, and an inch high.
After criss-crossing the middle of the base with the pointed-steel
tool, wet it with slip and set the stem on the base, working the
edges firmly on to it with the flat of the nail and wooden modelling
tools. The leaf for the handle is brought over against the stem with a
graceful turn, and there fastened with a touch of slip and some clay
added underneath. Be careful to have the whole candlestick substantial,
and not at all thin in construction, or it will suggest metal work
rather than pottery.
After the candlestick has stiffened for a few hours, a five-petalled
flower, three and three-quarter inches in diameter, is modelled and put
on top of the calyx, which has first been criss-crossed and wet with
slip. The cup for the candle is next hollowed out in the centre of the
flower and calyx, raising the edge of the flower centre slightly above
the surrounding petals. The candle cup should be a trifle larger than
it will need to be when finished, as it shrinks somewhat in drying and
firing, and the glaze, too, fills it up a little. Be sure, also, to
have it deep enough to hold the candle.
The base, stem, and handle are finished with a gray green mat-glaze
(see Chapter V.), while the petals are white—the uncoloured mat-glaze.
How to Make a Plaster Mould
CHAPTER VII
HOW TO MAKE A PLASTER MOULD
In building pieces of pottery whose walls have a decided flare, a
plaster mould will be found most useful. Its sides support the coils
of clay and enable the potter to form his piece much more rapidly and
surely than he could by eye, or even with the cardboard outline.
It should, however, be used with judgment, rather as an aid in
beginning a piece which is afterward finished by eye than as a mould
in which pieces are duplicated. Turning out many pieces exactly
alike savours of commercialism and does not develop the potter’s
individuality. Several bowl-shaped moulds, varied in form and flare, if
used as suggested, will be a great assistance to the potter. They are
made quite easily, as follows:
_A Bowl-shaped Mould of Plaster_
=Materials required=:
6 or 8 pounds of clay, well mixed,
A bowl, or mould in bowl shape,
A dishpan full of plaster of paris,
A dishpan of water,
A bag of ground flint,
A piece of oilcloth 8 inches wide by 1¼ yards long,
2 clothes pins,
A stout cord or rope,
A wooden wedge,
A few drops of olive oil,
The wooden modelling tools,
The rectangular tool of sheet steel,
A large hoe-shaped tool,
A large kitchen spoon.
Having chosen the bowl that you wish to copy, dust it with a cotton
cloth in which ground flint is tied, and roll out a piece of clay two
or more inches larger in diameter than the bottom of the bowl, and
about an inch thick. Press this carefully into the bottom, making
sure that it touches everywhere. Now roll out several other pieces of
the same thickness, large enough to reach from the upper edge of the
bottom piece to the rim of the bowl, and four or five inches wide. The
upper edge of the bottom piece having been cut even and wet with slip,
these pieces are pressed down firmly and joined to it with the nail
stroke before mentioned. Great care is also taken to press these pieces
against the sides of the bowl. When the bowl is lined in this way with
a coating of clay an inch or more in thickness at every point close
against its walls, the clay is smoothed evenly on top, on a line with
the rim of the bowl (using the rectangular tool of sheet steel) and set
outside to harden.
When somewhat firm, the bowl is filled in with clay until only a space
the size of a man’s hand is left in the middle. It is then set away,
this time over night, to harden.
[Illustration: FIG. 33]
The next day the clay will have dried and shrunk sufficiently to
enable the potter to slip it out of the mould. Any cracks or hollows
that may be found on the outside are wet with slip and filled in with
clay of the consistency of the piece. After the clay is quite dry,
the form of the mould should be made perfectly true by hand (using
the oval sheet-steel tools) or on the wheel. If the latter method is
chosen, place the clay mould bottom side up on the wheel, centre it
(according to the directions in Chapter III), and, taking a large
hoe-shaped tool, hold it firmly, bracing the hand still better with a
stick laid across from a plaster mould, or other convenient object,
on the table, to one’s lap. Having set the wheel in motion, hold the
dull point of the tool so that it just touches the wall of the mould,
near the wheel. Move the point up very slightly with each revolution
of the wheel—this will trim and perfect the sides. The bottom is made
even in the same way. Now wash the wheel outside of the mould carefully
and oil it with olive oil. Take a piece of heavy oilcloth, about eight
inches wide and long enough to reach around the wheel, overlapping
about a foot. Placing it with the right side in, draw it tightly and
fasten with clothes pins (see Fig. 33). Next tie a rope or stout cord
around the oilcloth, about on a level with the wheel, and, to make it
more secure, wedge it with a piece of wood. Roll strips of clay about
the diameter of a lead pencil, and stop the cracks where the oilcloth
overlaps, also between the oilcloth and the wheel, very carefully, so
as not to touch the clay mould. Be careful, from now on, not to move
the wheel until the mould is made. Now mix your plaster of paris, as
follows: Have an empty basin or dishpan, large enough to hold the
quantity necessary for the mould—you will learn to judge this pretty
well by eye. Put in as much water as you will need, and sift gradually
into it, by the handfuls, the dry plaster, pressing out all lumps; in
this way the water will reach every particle. When there is a small
island of plaster, about an inch above the surface of the water, there
will be enough. Let the plaster get thoroughly saturated by the water,
as it will in a few minutes; then mix with the hands or a large spoon
until it is the consistency of thick cream. Pour it gradually around
and over the clay mould, not all in one place, until it is about an
inch and a half or two inches above the bottom of it. Let it set for
an hour or more until it seems perfectly hard. The oilcloth is then
taken off, and with the dull point of the hoe-shaped tool the bottom is
trimmed true on the wheel, in the same way as the wheel-made pottery
is finished. The sides should also be smoothed and made even with the
straight-edged sheet-steel tool. It then looks like a great frosted
cake. When the plaster is hard and set, the mould is taken from the
wheel and reversed, so that the clay may be removed. To do this, dig
out the inside of the clay mould with a large sheet-steel tool, taking
care not to come near the plaster, which would be injured by the steel.
The shell of clay remaining can be easily lifted out with the fingers.
One who does not own a wheel can make a mould by setting the clay bowl,
bottom up, in the centre of a small shallow bread or dish pan, which
must then be well oiled on its inner surface. The plaster of paris is
mixed and poured around and over the clay mould, as already described.
[Illustration: FIG. 34]
If one uses a great deal of clay, plaster basins may be made for drying
out the superfluous water from the clay after it has been mixed. These
are moulded in the form shown in Fig. 34, the straight-sided circular
cavity in the centre being about three inches deep, and the whole slab
perhaps sixteen inches square. The basin part, like the bowl-shaped
mould just described, is first formed in solid clay, and the mould is
made in the same manner.
Plaster slabs, both round and square, to hold the pieces of pottery
while they are being made and dried, may also be moulded.
_Rose-Bowl Started in a Mould_
=Materials required=:
A bowl-shaped mould of plaster, 3½ inches in diameter at the bottom
and 9½ inches at the top,
About 3½ pounds of clay,
A bag of ground flint,
The wooden modelling tools,
The oval tools of sheet steel,
The sharp-pointed steel tool,
A bowl of slip,
A small sponge,
A rolling-pin.
A charming rose-bowl may be built up in the plaster mould described in
this chapter. About three and a half pounds of well-worked clay will be
needed, and the usual tools.
A small lump of clay is first patted out with the hands on a table or
board, then rolled smooth with a rolling-pin until it is three-eighths
of an inch thick and about six inches across. This is laid into the
bottom of the mould, which has previously been dusted with ground flint
tied in a cotton cloth. The clay is pressed lightly, but carefully,
against the bottom and sides, and then made even at its upper edge with
a wooden tool. Strokes of the wooden modelling tool, cutting this upper
edge criss-cross, and a touch of slip, prepare it for the first roll
of clay, which is made and attached as described in Chapter II. These
coils need not be as thick as those used in making the first pieces.
As the worker gains experience, he can make the walls of his pieces
much lighter than at first, and still keep them strong. Subsequent
coils are joined in the same way, taking care to press each against the
wall of the mould, as well as upon the coil beneath. When the sides of
the bowl are covered, a coil is attached above the edge of the mould.
This should be almost vertical, instead of flaring, and a second coil
(which is joined after the first has stiffened out-of-doors for twenty
minutes) is brought in slightly toward the centre. The bowl is then
left over night, when it will be quite dry and have shrunk sufficiently
to slip easily out of the mould. It is turned bottom up on a table, and
the cracks between the coils are wet with slip and carefully filled in
with clay of the consistency of the bowl. After it has been set away to
harden for a few hours, it is made smooth and even with the oval tools
of sheet steel as described in previous chapters. In trimming the walls
to an even thickness, they may be made comparatively thin—a little less
than a quarter of an inch. Next the bottom is finished and the potter’s
mark made. The edge, after it has been bevelled by eye, is perfected
on the ground-glass slab.
[Illustration: FIG. 35]
The piece is now ready for its decoration. This is the design shown
in Fig. 35. The circumference of the top of the bowl is divided into
fifths, and marks are made in pencil half an inch below the rim. Just
below each of these marks the design is drawn, placing it so that
if a line were drawn straight down from the pencil mark, one of the
oval figures would be on each side of it. The centre of the design is
pierced, as indicated in Fig. 35, by the method described in Chapter
IV., and a deep incised line surrounds it.
A pale green mat-glaze (see Chapter V.) completes the bowl.
The Making of a Tile
CHAPTER VIII
THE MAKING OF A TILE
The ancient Egyptians were probably the first tile-makers. Some of
their most remarkable pieces of enamel work are clay plaques or slabs,
made as early as 1300 B. C. Figures of men and animals were drawn upon
them, modelled in low relief, and coated with enamels, brilliant and
beautiful in colour.
In other tiles a kind of mosaic was made—a combination of fine clay and
enamels, which were mixed into soft pastes. The design was modelled and
fitted together in these coloured pastes, which, when they were fired,
the heat fixed and vitrified. Again these cunning craftsmen left in
the clay incisions forming a design. Into these settings, so to speak,
small pieces of glass or enamel were fitted, and when fused into place
by the heat of the kiln suggested jewels.
Now-a-days our artist potters are designing and modelling tile for wall
and floor decoration —whole mantels to match the colour scheme of a
library or my lady’s boudoir.
To the uninitiated, the making of a tile seems almost too simple to
learn—just a slab of clay, cut square and baked. Simple enough it is,
to be sure, yet it has difficulties enough to make it interesting.
[Illustration: FIG. 36]
Suppose we mould a tile and learn by experience just what the
difficulties are and how to surmount them.
[Illustration: FIG. 37]
The clay that is used in moulding tiles is the same as that of which
the other pieces of pottery are made—_i. e._, a mixture of fire and
ball or blue clay with the addition of a large amount of what is called
by potters, “grog.” This is fire clay which after baking becomes pale
yellow in colour and quite hard. It is pounded into pieces the size
of a small pea, and smaller, and mixed thoroughly through the clay, to
act as a tempering agent. Mould in as much of the “grog” as the clay
will hold. Too much will make it lose its plasticity and separate into
small lumps, but short of this the more “grog” the tile clay contains
the better, as, being baked and shrunken, it minimises the chances of
cracking by shrinkage.
In making a tile, the following materials will be required:
About 4½ pounds of tile clay,
A level board, about 15 by 20 inches,
A frame made by screwing a strip of wood, ⅞ of an inch thick by 2
inches wide and 21 inches long, on each of the long edges of a board,
14½ inches wide by 21 inches long,
3 pieces of white cheese-cloth, 15 by 21 inches,
A rolling-pin,
The rectangular sheet-steel tool,
A T square or a piece of sheet metal, 8 by 8 inches,
A strong, sharp knife,
A bowl of slip,
The boxwood modelling tools,
The pointed-steel tool,
The steel tool with flat point.
To begin with, a large piece of tile clay is worked until all the
air-holes are out of it, as already described.
[Illustration: FIG. 38]
A wooden board which is absolutely level, having previously been
covered with a piece of wet, white cheese-cloth, which is tacked
securely upon it, the clay is moulded into a square by hand and laid
upon the board. It is then pounded flat with the thick part of the hand
into an irregular square cake, and rolled with a rolling-pin, wet with
slip, until it is a little less than half an inch thick.
[Illustration: FIG. 39]
A wooden frame made of a board fourteen and a half inches wide
by twenty-one inches long, with a strip of wood the same length,
seven-eighths of an inch thick when planed, and two inches wide,
screwed on to each of the long edges, should have been provided
beforehand. A piece of wet cheese-cloth is spread upon this board, and
the clay square is carefully transferred to it, fitting it carefully
into the form by patting and pressing with the hand. It should then be
smoothed with the rectangular tool of sheet steel.
[Illustration: FIG. 40]
[Illustration: FIG. 41]
The tile must now be reinforced for the reason that the outer edge,
which dries and shrinks first, would naturally crack when the inside
finally dried and shrank, and so spoil the tile. When reinforced, the
edges, being double thickness, dry more slowly, making the whole tile
shrink evenly. Six pieces of clay are rolled into as many rope-like
strips. Five of these strips are patted flat with the hand until they
are about an inch and a half wide and not quite half an inch thick.
They are then laid along the outer edges of the tile, which have first
been lightly brushed with slip, and across the middle (see Fig. 36),
pressing them firmly onto the tile and joining the edges carefully.
The sixth strip is cut into two short pieces, which are laid in at the
centre, between the three strips crossing the tile (see Fig. 36), and
firmly attached by moulding them against the other strips and working
the edges on to the tile upon which a touch of slip has been brushed. A
damp piece of cheese-cloth is laid on the tile and it is again rolled
with the rolling-pin. Next it is made smooth with the sheet-steel tool,
and the four depressions are moulded evenly, as shown in Fig. 37. It is
then set away over night, to get in proper condition to cut and finish.
The following day put a board on the bottom of the tile and reverse the
frame so that the tile will slide off on to the board. Then with a T
square or a piece of sheet metal eight by eight inches (the size of the
tile) laid upon it, cut around the edges with a sharp, strong knife.
The tile is then set away to receive its decoration, which should be
made the day following.
Care should always be taken to lay the tile only upon an absolutely
level board or other flat surface in drying, as otherwise it will warp
and dry unevenly.
[Illustration: THE MAKING OF A TILE
The face of the tile. For detail of this design, see Fig. 38.
The back of a tile, showing the potter’s mark and the rough texture of
the tile clay.]
[Illustration: FIG. 42]
[Illustration: FIG. 43]
Having chosen a simple design—for example, the one shown in Fig.
38—draw it upon the tile in pencil. Next go over the lines with the
pointed tool of boxwood, and with a curved pointed wooden tool incise
the outline still deeper. Make a clean-cut, firm outline, broad and
deep, with a bevelled edge. This is, of course, supposing that the tile
has not become very dry, in which case the tool used should be the
pointed steel one, finishing with the wooden tool. The whole design
should be deeply incised with firm, sure strokes. The pieces of “grog”
which the tool will run against now and then will not injure the
outline if the hand is firm. Should one by mistake cut away more of the
design than was intended, it can easily be repaired with a touch of
slip and a small piece of clay, the consistency of the tile, worked in
with the pointed steel tool.
The portions of the design which are indicated by dots in Fig. 38 are
depressed with the flat-pointed steel tool, according to the method
for leaving the design in low relief, described in Chapter IV. Before
setting the tile away to dry for the last time, the potter incises his
mark on the back. A dull yellow mat-glaze or a gray green one (see
Chapter V.) will finish it attractively.
A tile such as this, eight inches square, is rather large for some
purposes; it is, however, most effective as a decoration, and may do
practical service in holding a flower-pot or vase of flowers—protecting
a table or wooden mantel from moisture.
Fireplace tiles are, of course, considerably smaller, and those for use
on a table are lighter as well. They are made by the same process, only
using a smaller frame and rolling the clay thinner.
Some designs for tiles are shown in Figs. 39, 40, 41, 42, and 43.
The Kiln
CHAPTER IX
THE KILN
Pottery, until it is fired, has little or no practical value. One who
owns a piece of Gay Head ware, made in Martha’s Vineyard, and called by
the name of the bluffs of whose clay it is made, will appreciate this.
Though charming in colour, a terra-cotta background with swirling lines
of pale yellow, black and white, it can only be put in one spot—on the
highest shelf, out of reach of children and others who like to “look
with their hands.” If it were baked, the colour which is its chief
charm would be lost, and it is therefore so fragile that a rude touch
will break or deface it. In the early days of pottery-making, when
utility was everything, pots for cooking and domestic purposes were
baked either before the fire, or covered with bark and other burning
fuel, which hardened the clay and made it strong enough for service. We
do not find traces of kilns, however, among the relics of those early
potters.
Probably the first people to use the kiln were the old Egyptians.
One which is represented in their mural paintings was a high, circular
chamber made of brick. The floor, near the bottom, was perforated, and
beneath it was the fuel, which was put in through an opening on the
side.
The kiln used by the early Greek potters had a place for fuel on one
side, and an upper chamber for the pieces of pottery, with a door
through which it could be put in and withdrawn. This differed from the
Egyptian kiln only in having a dome.
Many of the kilns of the present day are shaped almost exactly like
those used by the early Greeks. So important a part does the kiln play
in perfecting a piece of pottery—putting the final touch upon it: the
touch that shall make or mar—that the potter realises he must plan,
before anything else, either to own a good kiln or to know of one where
his pieces can be sent to be fired. Unless one wishes to make pottery
on a large scale, as a business, the expense and care of owning one’s
own kiln is unnecessary. There are makers of art pottery near the
principal cities who for a reasonable amount will fire one’s pieces
admirably, and with much less risk than an amateur could possibly do
them—that is, providing one uses the same kind of clay as is employed
by the owners of the kiln where one’s pottery is to be fired. If
not, this clay can usually be purchased at the pottery ready mixed
at slight expense. Even though one may not care to assume the cost
and responsibility of owning a kiln, it may be of interest to know
something of the construction of kilns and how they do their work.
THE OPEN-FIRE KILN
[Illustration: FIG. 44
A is the chamber for the pottery.
BB the fire boxes.
CC the firebacks.
DDDDD the passage and outlets through which the heat enters the kiln.]
The open-fire kiln is preferred by many potters. Such kilns have been
used for generations by potters in England; and for ware that needs
hard firing they have proved most reliable. Fig. 44 shows the interior
of one of these kilns, and Fig. 45 the ground plan. From these diagrams
one can get an idea of the principle on which such kilns are run. This
kiln is built mostly of fire-brick, and should be under cover for more
than one reason. First, there is no danger from frost if the kiln is
inclosed by a wooden building, and then it is more convenient for the
potter to do his work where he is not exposed to the weather.
[Illustration: FIG. 45
AAAA are the fire-boxes.
BBBBBBBBBBBB the passages for the hot air.
CCCCC the outlets for the hot air.]
The kiln is circular, built on a foundation of brick or stone, and
strengthened with bands of wrought iron. At all four sides of the
central chamber, where the pottery is placed, are fire-boxes where the
coal is fed on to a grate below the level of the floor of the chamber.
The hot air from the fire-boxes finds two outlets, one through a
direct escape, close to the box, the other through a passage and out
at the centre of the floor. Within the central chamber are piled the
saggers—great circular boxes or drums made of fire-clay—all of which,
if possible, contain pottery, but, whether full or empty, they must
fill up the chamber, as their clay holds and radiates heat which would
otherwise be lost. The office of the saggers is to protect the pieces
of pottery from direct contact with the flame, smoke, and ashes of the
fire.
The heat from the fire-boxes, if it rushed directly into the kiln,
would fire the pieces near the bottom of the chamber too hard, so slabs
of fire-brick, called firebacks, are arranged so as to send the heat up
(see Fig. 44). It then, passing up between the saggers (which, stacked
one above the other, form flues to improve the draught), passes off
at the top opening. This aperture, as will be seen in Fig. 44, has a
slab supported by bricks above it to control the draught. The heat
escapes through the cone, and thus through the chimney. The cone is
made of ordinary bricks, and its office is to help the draught. There
is another kind of kiln much like this model, except that it has a down
draught. The heated air, as it escapes, passes down through an opening
in the floor, along a horizontal passage, up and out. This keeps the
heat in the kiln for a longer time, but it also confines the gases,
which affect the colour of the ware so that it is not practicable for
art pottery.
Seen from the outside on a day when the kiln is being filled, its
aspect is quite different. Inside the great brick chamber, workmen are
stacking the saggers filled with pieces of pottery, some of which, not
yet packed, are standing on tables near at hand. They look wan and
pale, faint grayish-green, or leaden gray. Not until they have felt the
fierce heat of the kiln will they glow with living green or will the
beauty of their blues appear. Yellow that is almost orange seems to be
only a deep cream colour before it is fired. Then there are pieces of
green, or unbaked clay, to be fired in the biscuit—that is, without the
glaze. These are put in another part of the kiln.
Just a word about the saggers. These huge, rough boxes of burnt
fire-clay, whose office has already been spoken of, are sometimes
bottomless, simply rings. Should a sagger be too low to contain a piece
that is placed in it (as is often the case), one can build up the
clay-box to the required height with the bottomless saggers. Between
every two saggers rolls of clay are laid (coiled around the edge) to
hold them together. When the kiln is filled at last with its stacks of
saggers, the doorway is bricked up and the fire started. The open-fire
kiln requires the best part of three days to complete it. The first day
it is filled with pottery and the fire started. In firing a kiln, the
heat should be raised very slowly. All that night the fire is watched
and fed, as it must be kept at the requisite temperature, for if it
gets low, or, as the potters say, “slips,” the glaze is spoiled and the
pottery must all be reglazed and fired again. The weather affects the
kiln, the draught not being so good on a damp or rainy day as on a fair
one; and the coal also must be specially chosen for the kiln. It takes
several tons to fire one kiln, so that the success or failure of a
firing is no light matter. The second day much attention must be given
to keeping the fire up, and at about nightfall the guides are drawn as
follows:
At equal distances around the kiln are four peep-holes—small, round
apertures on a level with the eye, which are closed with a cylindrical
tube having a transparent asbestos end. In the glare of the kiln,
directly on a line with these peep-holes, one can see a row of clay
rings, which were daubed with glaze before the fire was started. Having
withdrawn the cylinder which closes the hole, the potter runs in a long
metal rod, with a hook on the end, catches a ring, and draws it out.
He can tell from the appearance of this ring, or guide, how the kiln
is firing and about when the pieces will be done. Usually they are
finished that night, but the kiln is not opened until it has cooled for
many hours.
THE MUFFLE KILN
The muffle kiln is shown in Fig. 46.
[Illustration: FIG. 46
A is the muffle-box or chamber for the pottery.
B B B B B B B are the arches supporting the box and other parts of the
kiln.
C C The doors where the fuel and pottery respectively are put in.
D D D The passages for the heated air.
E The ash-pan.]
This fires at a low degree of heat, compared with the open-fire kiln.
It is mostly used for under-glaze pottery and for glazing. In this
kiln the fire could not come in direct contact with the ware, so that
saggers are unnecessary; instead, there is a system of shelves upon
which the pottery is placed. The fuel, which may be wood, is fed
through a door on one side of the lower part of the kiln, with an
ash-box below. A brick arch supports the muffle-box or chamber where
the pottery is placed. On the opposite side from the furnace door is
the opening through which the pieces are put into the kiln. This is
carefully bricked up before the fire is started. The hot air passes
through a passage extending around all sides and above the box, and the
outlet is over the door where the pottery goes in. A slab extending
nearly across this outlet controls the draught.
Basket-Covered Pottery
CHAPTER X
BASKET-COVERED POTTERY
There has always been a close connection between pottery and basketry.
Those who study Indian handicrafts learn that pottery was evolved from
basketry in the long ago. Neltje Blanchan suggests that it may have
happened in some such way as this: “Perhaps a hunter returned home
hungry one day ... and his wife, anxious to hasten dinner for her
impatient lord, coated her cooking-basket with clay that she might
set it directly over the fire without danger of burning. Imagine the
woman’s surprise and joy to find, on removing it from the embers after
dinner, that she had a basket plus an earthenware pot!”
The two crafts have helped each other from that day to this. The Indian
woman suspends her earthen cooking-jar with coils of wild grapevine,
which ever and anon she smears with wet clay when the flames come too
near. Japanese craftsmen enmesh their pottery jars with wistaria stems
to protect them from breakage, or to suspend them against the wall,
where growing plants or trailing vines may fill them to overflowing.
Even the little ginger jar one buys for a few cents in Chinatown has
its case and handle of pliant cane.
Charming things may be made for the beautifying of one’s own or
another’s house if one knows something of the two crafts. A few of them
are described in the following pages:
_Indian Pottery Bowl Suspended with Raffia_
=Materials required=:
An Indian pottery bowl in white and Indian red, 6 inches in diameter
at the top,
A bunch of Indian red raffia,
A curtain ring,
A tapestry needle No. 18.
Any one who has made raffia hats with the knots that our mothers used
to call macramé in the early eighties, will see by a glance at the
plate how the network of raffia which incloses this bowl is fashioned.
The bowl is the first consideration. It may be bought at an Indian
store for about a dollar; or, if one prefers, one can mould one’s own
bowl of flower-pot clay. In that case, however, the white background
which is so effective in the Indian ware will be missed.
[Illustration: BASKET-COVERED POTTERY
The straight-sided hanging jar on the left was once the pillow of a
Chinese woman. Beside it is a green bowl of Spanish pottery, inclosed
and suspended with green rattan. The small jar below is a Flemish
piece, with a covering of pale-green rattan. Above is an Indian bowl,
with a knotted raffia covering. The three-handled plant-bowl on the
right has a gray-green mat-glaze. It is suspended with raffia ropes.]
To begin with: Thread a No. 18 tapestry needle with a strand of Indian
red raffia. Twist the end three or four times around the middle and
forefinger of the left hand, and cover the small ring thus made with
button-hole stitches. The ring should be about an inch in diameter.
[Illustration: FIG. 47]
Finish off the end of the raffia by sewing several stitches through
and through the ring. Pin this ring to a cushion on one’s lap or to
some firm, soft object near at hand. Take two strands of raffia,
double them around the ring, and with the four ends thus made tie a
Solomon’s knot as follows: Hold the two upper strands straight and
taut. Bend the under strand on the left across them to the right (see
Fig. 47), and bring the under strand on the right over the end of the
left strand, back of the middle strands, and through the loop made by
the left strand in starting. Another pair of strands is knotted on in
the same way, and another, until there are thirteen groups around the
ring. Beginning anywhere on the ring, the strands on the right of a
group are brought beside the two on the left of the group to the right
of it, and the middle pair of the four are held straight down, while
the strands on the right and left are knotted upon them as already
described. This knot should be about half an inch from those in the
previous row. Make a double knot this time—that is, repeat the process
already described. Take the strand which was on the left after the
first knot was tied, bring it over the middle strands to the right, and
after bringing the strand on the right over the end of the left one and
back of the middle strands, pass it up through the loop made by the
left strand in starting. The two strands at the right of the right-hand
group are next knotted in the same way with two on the left of the next
group to the right, and so it goes on around the net—making a double
Solomon’s knot each time.
Five rows more of this knotting are made, each row being half an inch
from the previous one, except the fifth, which is three-quarters of
an inch from the fourth. Now bring all the strands from three groups
together at an inch and three-quarters from the last row of knotting.
Hold the middle one of the three groups taut, and tie the strands to
right and left upon it in a Solomon’s knot. Tie another knot close to
the first one, and another, until there are seven—one below the other.
Three more groups are brought together at an inch and three-quarters
from the last row of knotting, and tied in the same way. Then another
three. The fourth bunch will have four groups of strands in it (as
there were thirteen groups in all at starting). Two of these groups,
the middle ones, are held taut, and those to left and right are tied
upon this double group as the others were. Then, taking the long ends
of one of these bunches, tie them again in three Solomon’s knots at an
inch and three-quarters from the seventh knot. They are next brought
straight down without knotting, for two inches more, when two knots are
made. For two and three-quarter inches more they are brought without
knotting, then tied and wound around a large ring—an old curtain
ring about two inches in diameter will do. When all four bunches
have been knotted in the same way, and the ends of all have been
fastened securely to the curtain ring, the ring is covered neatly with
button-hole stitch in raffia, and a raffia binding about half an inch
wide is made just below the ring, where the strands are fastened to it.
_Green Pottery Jar Inclosed and Suspended with Brown Rattan_
=Materials required=:
The Pottery Jar: About 2½ pounds of clay,
The wooden modelling tools,
The rectangular tool of sheet steel,
The pointed steel tool,
A bowl of slip,
A small sponge,
The Basket Covering: About six lengths of No. 4 deep-brown rattan,
A piece of fine but strong wire 24 inches long,
A pair of pliers,
A bunch of deep-brown raffia.
Around the quaint and attractive hanging jar from which this one is
copied is woven a tale as curious as its covering of knotted brown
twigs. It is this: the rectangular green jar, which looks like a
pottery box, was once the casket in which some Chinese lady kept her
pomades and perfumes. When she slept, her head, which had been dressed
most elaborately with the aforesaid pomades, was laid upon this same
pottery box for a pillow—another instance of the painfulness of pride
in China!
How strange the little Chinese lady would think it of us to use her
earthen pillow as we do—for a hanging flower-jar! Who covered it with
knotted wistaria twigs? I should suspect it was some deft-fingered
Japanese—though the jar was bought in Hawaii.
It will not be very difficult to copy. First there is the box-like jar
to be made. A rectangular bottom is cut from a well-worked lump of
clay after it has been patted flat with the hand and rolled with the
rolling-pin. It should be five by three and a half inches—which allows
an inch on length and breadth for shrinkage. Upon this foundation
coils of clay are built, as described in previous chapters, making
them thinner, however, than usual—not over a quarter of an inch thick.
As the walls are built they should be finished carefully inside and
out, keeping them straight and true at the corners, as well as on all
sides. When the jar is seven and a quarter inches high, the top is
made even by eye and perfected on the ground-glass slab, as described
in Chapter II. A rectangular piece of clay is then rolled and cut the
size of the bottom; an oval piece about two by three inches is cut
out of the middle, with the pointed steel tool, and it is left on a
plaster slab to stiffen for half an hour. The upper edge of the jar is
then criss-crossed with the pointed steel tool and wet with slip, and
this flat top is attached to it deftly and carefully. After drying for
several hours, it may be finished with the sheet-steel tool, the shape
perfected, and the surface dampened with a sponge and polished with the
fingers. When it has dried for several days it is coated with a glossy
green glaze and fired.
[Illustration: FIG. 48]
The covering of knotted rattan is made as follows: Six pliable lengths
of No. 4 brown rattan are needed for this covering. They must be
carefully selected, for as they are to be tied they should, when wet,
be almost as pliable as cord. It is not difficult to find them as soft
as this, especially after they have been dyed. In starting, a length
of rattan which has been wet until soft is tied around the jar at
about half an inch from the top. The long end is twisted once around
this foundation ring. This may be done off of the jar if it is easier.
When the ring has been replaced on the jar, two pieces of very pliable
rattan about sixty inches long are doubled around the ring at the
middle of the front of the jar and tied in a Solomon’s knot, as already
described (see Fig. 47). The second part of the knot, however, is not
tied as the raffia was in making the knotted covering for the Indian
bowl. Instead, the end which is on the right after the first knot has
been tied is brought over to the left, above the middle strands, and
the one on the left, coming down over its end, goes back of the middle
strands and up through the loop left in starting the right strand (see
Fig. 48). Another pair of strands of the same length is tied in this
way around the ring at the middle of the back of the jar, and a pair
at either end. The strands at the right of the knot in the middle of
the front are then brought beside those at the left of the group on
the right end, and these are knotted as just described, at about an
inch and three-quarters from the first row, and at the corner of the
jar. The remaining strands of the group on the right end are knotted
with those at the left of the group in the middle of the back, and
so on around the jar. There will then be four knots, all an inch and
three-quarters from the first row, and each at a corner of the jar.
Three more rows of knotting are made in the same way, and then the four
ends remaining at the front and back after the fifth row of knots has
been made are wet with warm water until very pliable and tied together
under the jar. Those from the sides are tied in the same manner and at
the same place. All the ends are bound securely just below these knots
with fine wire, and over this an inch-wide band of raffia. The ends are
cut irregular lengths, the longest not more than fourteen inches from
the bottom of the jar.
A handle is then made as follows:
A piece of pliable brown rattan, No. 4, about two yards long, is wet
until soft and passed around the knot nearest the top at one end of the
jar. The ends are brought together and twisted for their entire length.
At the opposite end of the jar they are brought around the knot nearest
the top, turned up, and firmly bound to the handle with a piece of
wire, which may then be covered with a binding of raffia.
Take care to make this wire binding secure, for this is the place
where the greatest strain comes. It is in such places as this that the
Oriental craftsmen show their superiority. Their ends, thus bound, are
bound to stay, while ours sometimes slip.
_Jar of Flemish Pottery Inclosed with Pale-Green Rattan_
=Materials required=:
A jar of Flemish pottery, 4 inches high, 2½ inches in diameter at the
bottom and 1 inch at the top,
About six lengths of No. 00 green rattan.
A little jar of quaint Flemish pottery, charming in form and colour, is
the foundation of this piece. This ware, which is just becoming known
to us, is interesting in many ways. First of all, for its own sake—the
attractive shapes: candlesticks, bowls, jugs, jars, and tiles all have
the stamp of individuality, rare in any ware that is within reach of
the average purse. The colours are beautiful—deep greens and blues,
soft browns and dull orange for the most part. Some of the pieces are
made by Belgian school children, others in potteries started by a club
of men in Belgium, followers of Ruskin, who have revived the craft,
employing only Belgians to design and mould the ware. The old methods
are carefully followed—the pieces are wheel-made, not formed in moulds.
Much of the decoration is done by boys, who make a charming picture,
clad in blouses and sabots, their young faces all interested and
absorbed in the work.
The open-meshed weave of pale-green rattan with which this jar is
inclosed only slightly veils the colour of the glaze—deep-green at
the base, shading through blue to a soft mousy-brown at the top. The
covering is made as follows:
One end of a piece of green No. 00 rattan twenty-seven inches long
is tied into a ring two inches and a half in diameter. Around this
foundation ring the long end of the rattan is twisted in and out, until
it has made the circuit twice—three times, counting the foundation
ring. Some very pliable lengths of No. 00 green rattan are cut into
twenty pieces thirty-two inches long. They are wet until quite soft,
and then two of them are doubled around the ring and tied with a
Solomon’s knot (see Fig. 47). Another pair is doubled and knotted upon
the ring, and another, until ten groups have been attached at intervals
around the circumference. Starting with any one of the groups, the two
strands on the right are brought beside the two on the left of the
group to the right of it, and knotted together as described on page
132, at three-quarters of an inch from the first row of knots. The two
remaining strands of the right-hand group are brought beside those on
the left of the next group to the right, where another knot is made,
and so on, until the circuit is complete. One more row of knots is
made in the same way, three-quarters of an inch from those in the
previous row. The whole network is then wet thoroughly and fitted over
the lower part of the jar, tying it if necessary, to mould the rattan
in to the form. At about an inch and a half from the last row of knots,
a row of pairing is made with a very pliable piece of No. 00 green
rattan. For the benefit of those who may not know this simple basket
weave, the following directions are given:
Holding the jar with its partial covering of rattan right side up, draw
the ends of the strands remaining after the last row of knots was tied,
close up against the sides of the jar. Double the pliable piece of No.
00 rattan around a pair of ends which formed the middle strands of one
of the knots. Taking the upper half of the piece, which seems to come
from behind the two strands (to the left of them), bring it over them,
under the next pair and out in front. Hold down, with the left hand,
the end you have just used, while with the right bring the other end
(which was on the right of the first pair of strands) over the next
pair of strands on the right and under the next. It is now held down in
front, while the process is repeated—always taking the end on the left
to weave with.
[Illustration: FIG. 49]
The doubled strands, or spokes, on which these stitches are woven,
should be drawn close together, till not more than a sixteenth of an
inch apart, so that they will cling to the jar. When the circuit of
the jar has been made, another row is woven. At the end of this second
row both of the weaving strands are cut, so that their ends will come
back of the last pair of strands in the circuit. For half an inch the
strands are drawn up toward the top of the jar without weaving; then,
one row more of the pairing is made, and after thoroughly wetting the
ends of the vertical strands the following border is woven: Bring each
pair of strands over the next three on the right under the succeeding
two and outside of the jar. The entire circuit of the border is made in
this way, only leaving the first part of it loose and open, so that the
last strands can be woven in easily. When finished, the border is again
wet, and its edge made even and true, on a line with the top of the jar
or slightly above it. The ends of the strands are then cut close to the
jar, so as to allow each to lie back of the last strand it went under.
If the covering stands out from the jar—does not cling as it ought, it
should be thoroughly wet and bound around with string or raffia, and
firmly tied, until it is dry. Fig. 49 shows the completed covering.
_Green Pottery Bowl with Covering and Handles of Green Rattan_
=Materials required=:
A green pottery bowl 5½ inches in diameter at the upper edge and 3¼ at
the bottom,
30 pieces of pale-green No. 00 rattan 48 inches long,
2 lengths of pale-green No. 00 rattan.
This green bowl, inclosed with a knotted covering of pale-green rattan,
may be used as a hanging flower-pot or for cut flowers. The original
was a piece of deep-green Spanish pottery, but if one can make the
bowl, so much the better—as long as the dimensions are those given
above. In starting, fifteen pieces of No. 00 green rattan which have
been wet until quite soft and pliable are laid side by side in a group
which is doubled at its centre, and the ends tied securely together,
about two inches from where it was doubled. One group of ends,
containing fifteen pieces, is made flat and even, and then separated
into three groups of five pieces each and braided in a three-stranded
plait ten and a half inches long. It is then tied securely. The other
group is separated and braided in the same way, keeping the strands
flat and the plaiting close and even. Fifteen more pieces of rattan of
the same size and length (which have been wet until pliable) are now
passed through the loop made by doubling the other pieces, bent at the
middle and tied as the others were, two inches from the place where
they were doubled.
The ends of these pieces are also braided in two plaits for ten and a
half inches and then tied firmly.
[Illustration: FIG. 50]
Holding the braids so that the ends of the strands turn up, and
starting at about two inches from where the braiding stops, a pliable
piece of No. 00 rattan is doubled around the pair of ends on the
left of one of the groups, and is woven in pairing upon these ends
and those succeeding them—keeping them about half an inch apart. As
there is an uneven number of ends in each group, the fifteenth one is
brought beside the first end in the next group, and the pairing woven
upon them (see Fig. 50). Thus it goes on, until the circuit has been
made, when the bowl is fitted into the ring (the braided handles, of
course, turning up; and the ring about an inch below the top of the
bowl). If the ring is too loose, the stitches may be wet and drawn up
a little; if too tight, they are wet and stretched. Two more rows are
woven with the handles turning down; then the work is reversed, so that
the unfinished ends shall turn down. The ends are wet until soft and
pliable, and at three-quarters of an inch from the last row of pairing
they are tied into a row of the knots described on page 132. A second
row of knots is made at an inch from the first. The case is then fitted
over the bowl and wet if it is necessary in order to mould it in to fit
the shape. Turn the bowl upside down, and at half an inch from the last
row of knotting double a pliable piece of No. 00 rattan around a pair
of ends anywhere on the circumference of the covering and weave one row
of pairing, drawing the ends of the strands in, to fit the bottom of
the bowl. This will bring them about three-eighths of an inch apart.
Another row of pairing is woven, and then a base is made as follows:
After the ends have been wet until pliable, start with any one of the
pairs, bringing it over the first pair on the right, under the second,
over the third, and under the fourth, taking care to leave the base
loose and open where it begins, that the last strands may be easily
woven in (see Fig. 51). The next pair of ends on the right is woven in
the same way over the first on its right, under the second, over the
third, and under the fourth. So it goes on around the bowl until the
time comes to weave in the last strands, which will not be difficult if
the caution in regard to leaving the beginning open and loose has been
heeded. When the base is finished, wet it thoroughly, and draw up the
strands or let them out until the edge is even and on a line with the
bottom of the bowl. The ends of the strands are then cut so that the
tip of each will lie behind the last strand it went under.
[Illustration: FIG. 51]
_Three-Handled Bowl for Plants or Flowers_
=Materials required=:
About 3½ pounds of clay,
A plaster mould for a bowl,
The wooden modelling tools,
The oval tools of sheet steel,
The sharp-pointed steel tool,
A bunch of raffia.
This charming bowl for a growing plant or cut flowers may either be
used as a centrepiece on a table, or suspended by a heavy raffia
braid in the recess of a window or on the porch. The dull gray-green
mat-glaze with which it is finished harmonises delightfully with the
colours of growing things.
It is formed in a bowl-shaped plaster mould in the same way as the
rose-bowl described in Chapter VII. and the bowl for a lamp in Chapter
VI., but the bottom is made unusually thick (three-quarters of an inch)
to allow for cutting away, as the form is as nearly a hemisphere as
possible, only flattened slightly at the bottom.
When the bowl has been built up to within an inch, perhaps, of the top
of the mould, if it is not a deep one, make the next coil free from the
sides of the mould—almost vertical, in fact. The coil that succeeds it
slopes in ever so slightly.
This will make the shape deep enough. It is now necessary to let the
bowl harden enough so that it can easily be slipped out of the mould.
The hollows between the coils, after they have been wet with slip,
are filled in with clay of the consistency of the bowl. The bowl is
again set away to harden, and then smoothed and finished, as described
in previous chapters, aiming to trim it as nearly as possible to the
form of a half-sphere. After the edge has been cut as nearly true as
possible by eye, it is made absolutely even by the process described in
Chapter II.
[Illustration: FIG. 52]
Three handles are cut from a flat piece of clay about three inches wide
by sixteen long and half an inch thick, in the shape shown in Fig. 52,
and attached as follows: The circumference of the top of the bowl is
divided into thirds and marked with a tool or pencil. It is then an
easy matter to place the handles so that the centre of each shall be
just above one of the marks on the top edge. At the points where the
handles are to be attached, the top of the bowl is criss-crossed with
the pointed steel tool and wet with slip. The handles are then placed
in position, and their edges worked closely against the top and sides
of the bowl with the flat of the nail. They should be curved in a
little to follow the lines of the bowl (see Plate).
After the inside has been glazed with the glossy mixture mentioned in
Chapter V., a mat-glaze of gray green will complete the bowl. The three
raffia ropes by which the bowl is suspended are made as follows:
Thirty strands of natural-coloured raffia are doubled around one of
the handles, and the ends are braided in a three-stranded plait for
twelve inches, where they are tied. Two other braids are made on the
other handles in the same way, and when they are twelve inches long the
strands from all three braids are united in a thick loop.
Indian Pottery
CHAPTER XI
INDIAN POTTERY
In no other country can primitive pottery be so conveniently studied
as in ours. Within our borders, he who digs may read the history of
clay-working from the earliest days. Those who are denied this study
at first hand will find in museums plenty of material—quaint bowls and
jars, some of them smoke-stained and cracked, but all wonderfully well
preserved when one thinks of their age. From the rudest pots, made
by inferior tribes, we can trace the progress of the craft gradually
advancing until, in the pottery found in or near Mexico, we see what
may be considered the masterpieces of American ceramic art.
In the United States, the pottery of the Pueblo tribes ranks first,
and, close to that, the charming wares of the Mississippi Valley and
Gulf Coast.
There are many tribes which are still practising the craft, some
following the old methods, while others, influenced by the white
man, are making ware of little interest to the student of primitive
pottery. The Indians of the Pueblo country are using almost the same
processes as those of ancient days.
[Illustration: FIG. 53]
[Illustration: FIG. 54]
The pottery of different sections of the country varies in material,
form, colour, and decoration. That the ware of a certain tribe was
crude and imperfect does not necessarily indicate that the people who
made it were inferior in culture, but that the natural conditions were
not favourable to pottery-making. A tribe living near clay-beds would
as naturally make good pottery as one around whose homes materials for
basket-making grew in abundance would excel in that craft. Perhaps, on
the whole, the pottery of the South is more advanced than that of the
Northern tribes, probably because of the difference in climate. While
the people of the North were wandering hunters for the most part, those
of the South were more prosperous and stay-at-home, and would be likely
to have more wants than the Northern tribes, with leisure to gratify
them.
[Illustration: FIG. 55]
[Illustration: FIG. 56]
[Illustration: FIG. 57]
As to the uses to which the Indians put their pottery; most of the
pieces show with simple straightforwardness what purposes they served.
In only a few cases is there any doubt—notably some spool-shaped
articles of clay, found in the Ohio Valley. At first, pottery was
chiefly used for the storing, cooking, and carrying of water and food;
taking the place, in some degree, of vessels of wicker, horn, and
stone. This has always remained its most important function. Earthen
vessels were employed in religious and other ceremonies, and earthen
tools were often made, while there are, besides the myriads of pipes,
a host of small clay vessels and figures which were evidently toys or
used in games (See Figs. 53 and 54). It is interesting to note the
difference between our cooking-pots and those of this primitive people.
Theirs have almost invariably a round or cone-shaped base (See Fig.
55), which Prof. W. H. Holmes explains was natural, as, among barbarous
nations, hard, level floors were the exception, while those of sand and
soft earth were the rule. Under those conditions, the rounded base
would be much the best. In putting the pot over the fire, the fuel or
other supports kept it in position. Often cooking-vessels were made
with short, strong handles (See Fig. 56) or a flaring rim, so that
they could be conveniently swung over the fire with vines or cords. In
certain parts of the country where the Indians made salt by evaporating
the water from saline springs, large vat-shaped vessels of clay are
found which were evidently moulded for the purpose. They are peculiar
because of their size and the great thickness of the walls, while
almost invariably they have, on the outer surface, markings which seem
to have been impressed with a woven fabric.
[Illustration: FIG. 58]
Other Indians made maple sugar, using earthen vessels to collect and
boil the sap.
Numbers of the early writers tell of the use of clay vessels for drums,
and earthen whistles and rattles are common to-day (see Figs. 57 and
58).
A curious-shaped implement, somewhat like a toadstool, was evidently a
modelling tool—to support the walls of a partially stiffened piece of
pottery from within, while the outer surface was finished with other
tools.
In the lower Mississippi Valley clays were employed in plastering the
walls of cave dwellings, as well as for the floors.
[Illustration: FIG. 59]
As burial urns, pottery bowls and vases were often made use of. Not
so often, however, for holding the ashes of the dead as for the skull
and other bones, which were crowded into a single jar, or bowl, such
as was common in the household. This was covered with a smaller vessel
(see Fig. 59). Sometimes several of these bowls surrounded and covered
the bones. Occasionally, an earthen casket seems to have been made
especially for the purpose. There have been found, beside these burial
vessels in the Indian graves, smaller receptacles for food, and even
rude toys. The latter were usually animal forms—figurines, images of
fish, turtles, and birds. It is surmised that these were offerings made
with the expectation of their being of service to the dead in a future
life.
[Illustration: FIG. 60]
Unlike the Egyptians, the Indians made little use of clay in moulding
beads and other personal ornaments. They evidently did not find it
gay enough in colour, not knowing the secret of the brilliant enamels
with which the early Egyptian potters coated their clays. Pipes, while
they were often made of stone and other substances, were in some parts
of the country moulded from clay, and ranged in form from a simple
tube to curious and grotesque shapes. Those made by the Iroquois were
particularly elaborate—a head of an animal or bird formed the bowl, or
a snake coiled about it (see Fig. 60).
One would have thought that, in making their clay pots, which were
primarily planned to serve useful purposes, and were, moreover,
somewhat perishable, no attention would have been given to decoration;
yet this is far from being the case. Bowls, cups, and cauldrons,
water-jars and bottles (see Figs. 61 and 62) were often elaborately
incised with beautiful and intricate designs. The forms, too, were
simple and good.
[Illustration: FIG. 61]
[Illustration: INDIAN POTTERY
The black pitcher on the right is of Santa Clara ware. Beside it is a
water-cooler or tenaja made by a Zuñi.]
The clay used at first was such as could be found almost anywhere near
the surface, and consequently was full of impurities. Later, however,
clean clays were much sought after, and no pains were spared to grind
and work them into good condition. This was done with the feet or
hands, or both. As the craft advanced, potters began to temper their
clay with other ingredients, according to the use to which the vessel
was to be put. For instance, the clay for toys and the smaller vessels
needed no tempering. Pipes were made of such clay, or of one tempered
with a finely ground substance, while cooking-pots and cauldrons, which
were subjected to constant heat, were made of clay containing a large
amount of coarser tempering ingredients. Some of the tempering agents
were rock, sand, pulverised shell, bits of baked pottery, cinders,
ashes of bark, and even raw vegetal materials. The heat at which the
pieces were fired was rarely strong enough to change any of the mineral
substances in the clay.
[Illustration: FIG. 62]
In shaping the pieces, the fingers did the work unaided, except where
a basket or gourd was used as a mould, or where such simple tools as
could be fashioned of clay, stone, or shell were employed. A piece of
a gourd was sometimes held against the inner wall to support it while
the outer surface was being scraped and smoothed with these rude tools.
The bottom of the piece was formed either from a small lump of clay
patted and moulded into proper shape by the fingers, or with the end of
a clay strip which was coiled around on itself. In whichever way the
bottom was begun, the walls were made of coils of clay. The ancient
Cliff Dwellers, or Pueblos, used this method very skilfully. Their
strips of clay were cut and coiled with great exactness, and the edges
overlapping on the outside made spiral markings. There are no evidences
of anything like the potter’s wheel, the nearest approach being the
basket-mould, which was probably turned with one hand as the coil of
clay was applied with the other.
The markings of cords and weaving which are often seen on the outer
surfaces of Indian pots and vases were probably made by pliable
fabrics, which were used to support the piece as it was formed. Woven
textures were also wrapped over the hand, or a tool, to impress the
wet clay, and cords wound about paddles or other tools made similar
impressions. In some cases, the outer surface was rubbed smooth with
the fingers and thumb, or with a stone; in others, the coil structure
is plainly seen. After the body of the piece was finished, the rim
was perfected, and the handles, legs, or other parts in relief were
applied. These were made separately, and were attached by pressure and
rubbing.
In decoration, the potters of each tribe had different ideas, as well
as tools and devices for working them out. The fingers and nails were
used to produce certain effects, and tools of various kinds were made
for special purposes—pointed ones for incising, gouge-like tools to
scrape away the clay, and all kinds of stamps for impressed designs.
Some of the stamps were in paddle form (such as we use for making
butter-balls), others were thin disks with indented edges, which were
rolled over the soft clay surface.
Incised designs were perhaps the most usual, though colour was often
employed in decorating the ware. Especially was this the case in the
Pueblo country and in Arkansas. The colours were white, brown, red, and
black, and they were mostly powdered clay, sometimes mixed with ochres.
The surface of the piece first received a wash of fine paste, and
afterward the colours, ground fine and mixed with water, were applied
with the finger or a piece of reed-grass. The designs were generally
made by the women. Circles and curved designs were most used, probably
because they could be made with such freedom, in contrast to the slow
and painstaking process of weaving right-angled designs into baskets.
[Illustration: FIG. 63]
The pottery was dried in the shade, in the sun, or before the fire, and
afterward baked more or less thoroughly. Some tribes—the Catawbas, for
example—simply baked their ware before the fire, while others covered
the pieces with burning bark or other fuel, surrounding them evenly
with it inside and out. The pieces were protected from contact with
each other by broken pieces of pottery. They were carefully kept from
draughts during the firing and the first part of the cooling, for fear
of cracking.
Among the Cherokees, a glossy black was given to the inner surface of
the pottery by what was known as smother-firing. When the process of
baking, just described, was completed, the vessel was turned bottom
up, over a small hole in the ground, which had been filled with burning
corncobs. From time to time the fuel was renewed until in half an hour
the inside of the piece had become glistening black.
[Illustration: FIG. 64]
It is to be regretted that, among the Indians, this art, like that
of basketry, is passing. The coming of civilisation has brought iron
and tin cooking-vessels and ordinary tableware to take the place of
the bowls, platters, and cups, the jars and bottles of clay, so full
of individual charm. Not only to the collector and the student of
ethnology is Indian pottery of value; the potter of to-day finds much
that is helpful and suggestive in primitive processes, as well as in
the forms and decoration.
[Illustration: FIG. 65]
A study of the range of shapes and designs in Indian pottery is a
revelation to many who have thought of the Indian as an ignorant
savage. Aside from its beauty and decorative value, the uses to which
Indian pottery can be put in our homes are many. The great bowl shown
in the plate suggests one delightful way of utilising this ware.
Foliage plants of any size, from a tiny cactus, which seems to find
a bowl with a rounded base the most comfortable of abiding places,
to a great spreading fern, harmonise with the Indian colours. So
will flowering plants, except those which have red, pink, or purple
blossoms; and what a relief these plant-bowls are to the eye after some
of the jardinières one sees!
[Illustration: INDIAN POTTERY
On the right is a piece of pottery in terra-cotta and black, made by
a Pima Indian. Beside it is a dish with a handle, moulded by a Zia
Indian of New Mexico. The bowl is also of Zia ware. On the left is a
water-jug such as the Maricopa Indians make.]
Large bowls are useful, too, for holding fruit on the porch of a
country house, while smaller ones serve as nut-bowls. Low plaque-shaped
pieces make excellent card-trays, and the small bowls hold matches.
There are curious little pieces in the form of shoes made by the
Indians of New Mexico. These also are useful for matches or cigar
ashes (see Fig. 63). Last and least, though only in size, is the toy
pottery—money-banks in the form of well-fed pigs, whistles, and toy
dishes, cups, jugs, and plates—bewitching alike to little girls and
big. A few of them are shown in Figs. 64 and 65. They are Indian red
and creamy yellow in colour, with designs of black, and rarely are two
of them alike.
Fashions change in pottery as well as in other things, and freakish
forms which please us to-day may be ridiculed to-morrow; but primitive
wares have an enduring value. Pieces that were moulded for service,
by potters whose love for nature and its beauties must needs express
itself even on the decoration of a cooking-pot, will last long after
the ware that is made only for money has gone back to the ground from
whence it came.
Modern American Pottery
CHAPTER XII
MODERN AMERICAN POTTERY
One of the most encouraging signs of the advance in taste among
American people is to be found in their appreciation of the pottery
which is now being made in this country. Time was when majolica
jardinières and Austrian china, with their high colours and glassy
glazes, were things to be desired. Happily, they are going the way of
plush-covered “suites” of furniture and crazy-quilts.
Much of the simplicity of method and design in American pottery comes
from the study of primitive processes, shapes, and decorations.
Indian ware, though of less value than some others to the student of
ceramics, on account of its softness of body and unglazed surface,
is nevertheless full of artistic feeling and suggestion to makers of
pottery. There are many evidences also of French and Japanese influence.
In various parts of the country, true art pottery is being made—each
ware with its own individuality and more or less characteristic of
the section of the country from whence it comes. As yet but little
tableware has been attempted at these potteries—the Dedham being almost
the only one where it is made.
Modern pottery is either moulded by hand, thrown on the potter’s wheel,
or cast in moulds. After it has been formed, it is generally decorated,
either by the artist-potter himself or by some young man or woman who
has learned design as applied to pottery. The decoration is either
painted with colours which have been mixed with clays, like some of
the Rookwood ware, or incised, modelled in relief, or built up, as the
Volkmar pottery.
After it is quite dry, the pot is fired in the great kiln, this time
without glazing, or in the biscuit. It is then glazed, and fired for
the second time.
The philosophical potter—and every potter needs philosophy—will not
despair if, in the second firing, the piece is not satisfactory. He
glazes it again, with every care, in time for the next firing, and is
often rewarded by having this ugly duckling of one kiln turn out the
swan of the next.
Among the pioneers of art pottery in this country was Mrs. Maria
Longworth Storer, a Cincinnati woman, who in 1880 opened a pottery
called by the name of her father’s place, Rookwood. Mrs. Storer had, in
addition to an artistic temperament, the patience and determination,
as well as the financial resources, necessary to such an undertaking.
The first kiln of the new pottery was drawn on Thanksgiving Day. By
1889, the pottery had become self-supporting. Rookwood has always
been a distinctively American pottery. From the first, native clays
were used, and their possibilities were discovered with the firing of
each new kiln. Clays that fire at a comparatively low heat were used
at first, and this necessitated employing the soft glazes. Later, the
yellow, or Rockingham, ware formed the body of the pieces, and now
a creamy-white body is used, which produces a strong and beautiful
pottery. This is finished with a mat-glaze. At first, the tint of the
native clay inclined the colour scheme to warm browns, yellows, and
reds. This ware was decorated with flower or figure designs under a
brilliant glaze. It is known as Standard Rookwood. The Tiger Eye and
Goldstone are other wares with glaze effects not unlike the Standard
Rookwood. Both of these have dark grounds with an occasional luminous
gleam of gold—one of the interesting accidents of the kiln. Other
varieties of Rookwood, in the order of their development, were Sea
Green, in which an opalescent green effect is sometimes relieved with
a touch of yellow or red, and Iris, which has the creamy-white body
already referred to. This enables the potter to produce gray tones
in his glazes. In Rookwood, which is coated with the flowing glaze,
there is a quality not unlike some of the old Chinese wares. It has
a richness of texture luminous and beautiful. The decorations are
painted in relief, so simply that the glaze flows charmingly over them.
There is also a variety of the Rookwood pottery with a mat-glaze. In
this, the process is entirely different from that used in making the
other kinds of Rookwood. The glaze is of the greatest importance, the
forms are simple, sometimes almost rugged, and the decorations are
subordinate. There are even pieces entirely undecorated, which depend
upon their beauty of colour and texture alone. Decorations adapted from
Indian designs are often modelled in relief or incised. Occasionally,
metals are applied. Mantels, wall-panels, drinking-fountains, and
architectural reliefs are also made of the Rookwood faience.
[Illustration: FIG. 66]
Many are the potters’ marks that have been used at Rookwood. Before
1886 there were eight in all. At that time, the mark shown in Fig. 66
was adopted. This was used, with the addition of a flame mark for every
succeeding year, until 1900, when the mark was like Fig. 67. Since that
date, a Roman numeral has been added below the mark, according to the
year the piece was made. For example, the pieces of the present year
have the Roman number IV. below the mark used in 1900.
[Illustration: FIG. 67]
A comparatively near neighbour of Rookwood is the Gates pottery, near
Chicago, where Teco ware is made. The potter’s love for his work, and
the potter’s zeal to produce something more perfect and beautiful than
he had ever done before, led William D. Gates, who had long made terra
cotta for architectural purposes, to experiment with clays and glazes
until finally Teco ware was evolved. It is a hard, durable pottery
built on simple lines. Western artists and architects of note have
contributed designs and forms for this ware, and, for the most part,
the pieces are beautiful and restful to the eye. The few incised or
moulded decorations are not made prominent, but are suggested rather
than sharply defined. Over all is a mat-glaze of soft, wax-like texture
in green—the green that makes one think of weathered bronze.
Set in a picturesque valley, surrounded by flowers, and near a little
lake, the Gates potteries are so situated as to inspire the artist
potters who mould the forms and decorate the ware. It has been the
aim of the makers of Teco pottery to produce a ware that shall be
satisfying and beautiful, and yet of comparatively slight cost.
[Illustration: TECO WARE]
It is a far journey from these potteries to the three New England
cities where are the Grueby, Dedham, and Merrimac potteries. Grueby
ware, which was first made in Boston in 1898, is remarkable for the
glaze, which was discovered by Mr. William H. Grueby. Although, for
many years, dull-finished pottery has been produced by sand-blasting
ware with a glossy finish, or by taking a piece of glazed pottery and
treating it with acid, to make it dull, the Grueby potteries were the
first in the history of ceramics to make a dull-finished pottery
in their kilns. The surface thus obtained has a deep, velvety look,
unlike any other finish made—such as that which was possessed by old
Corean pottery. The ware was first exhibited in Paris, in 1900, where
it made quite a sensation, and the French Government awarded the Grueby
Potteries a gold medal for enamels and glazes, as well as a silver
medal for design, and gave Mr. Grueby personally a gold medal for the
work he had accomplished in dull-finished enamels. The forms are simple
and good, and the decorations, which are incised or modelled in relief,
are planned so that the glaze shall flow well over them. Common plant
forms, such as the mullein leaf, blades of grass, plantain, and the
enfolding leaves of the lily, are the motives for these designs. There
is a delicacy—one might almost say a reserve—in their treatment that
is rare and very interesting. The pottery is hard, and the glaze such
as is applicable to a ware which fires at a great heat. The colours of
Grueby pottery are beautiful and rich, ranging from an old ivory tint
to golden yellows, russet browns, and velvety blues and a variety of
green shades. The texture of the glaze is soft, like the bloom of a
melon, and it has an unusual network of markings. No moulds are used
in making this pottery; it is all thrown on the wheel, and, as in the
old wares, no two pieces are exactly alike.
Besides its beauty and artistic value, the fact that the Grueby pottery
is made in forms that are useful makes it doubly desirable. Among
lamp-jars, particularly, there is the greatest variety. These are made
both for oil and electricity. In the Grueby-Tiffany lamp, two charming
products of applied arts are combined—the jar being Grueby ware, and
the leaded or blown-glass shade of Tiffany design and workmanship.
The Dedham pottery is remarkable for many reasons, chief among them
being the fact that it is, as already stated, almost the only place
in this country where art tableware is made. Some of this ware, which
is popularly known as the Bunny china, has lifelike little rabbits
on the border, other pieces have designs of ducks, and others still
have borders of fruit. The wonderful Oriental glazes that are used on
pieces of Dedham ware were re-discovered by Mr. Hugh C. Robertson. The
best-known glaze of this pottery, however, is the gray crackle-ware
with designs of blue.
At the Merrimac pottery, in Newburyport, an excellent ware is made.
A few of the pieces are moulded, but the majority are thrown on the
potter’s wheel. Little decoration is used, the charm of the ware being
its form and colour.
Among the most remarkable of the artist potters of this country is Mr.
Charles Volkmar, of the Volkmar Kilns, in Metuchen, New Jersey. An
artist to his finger-tips, he has a potter’s thumb which is the envy
of all those who were less evidently born to the craft. Mr. Volkmar
studied not only art, but his craft as well, in Paris, wearing the
blouse of a workman in the potteries, where he learned so admirably
how to work in clay that there are few in this country who approach
him. The ware made by Mr. Volkmar and his son, Mr. Leon Volkmar, is
remarkable for the simple beauty of its forms and for the quality of
its glazes. The body of the ware is pale yellow, and it is exceedingly
hard and durable. Years ago, Mr. Volkmar made a fine blue-and-white
ware, which was decorated with historical scenes. His pieces now
are for the most part finished with a mat-glaze, although some have
a glossy transparent surface. All are beautiful in colour. Here is
where the artist shows preeminently. The deep, rich texture of the
mat-glaze softens, but does not hide, the simple incised or built-up
designs. The pierced designs of Volkmar pottery are decorative and
strong. This ware is as practical to use as it is charming to look
at. The flower-jars are in tones that harmonise delightfully with
the blossoms that fill them, and the jugs have flowing and graceful
lines, and yet are substantial and of generous proportions. The plate
shows a few pieces of this ware. The piece on the left is a pale
yellowish-brown, with a glossy finish; this is suitable for a lamp-bowl
or for flowers. Beside it is a sturdy little mug, with a deep green
mat-glaze. The next jar is finished with a dull blue transparent glaze,
and the taller vase-shaped piece on the right has a mat-glaze of pale
gray-green. Not far from the Volkmar Kilns, at Woodbridge, New Jersey,
is the Poillon pottery, where garden ware is made. Great tree- and
plant-tubs, sun-dial stands, well-curbs, and window-ledge boxes are
a few of the things that come from this pottery. The forms of these
pieces are substantial and good. Some excellent indoor pottery is also
moulded—candlesticks, toilet sets, jugs, and flower-bowls—a host of
useful and attractive shapes, coated with a flowing glaze. The ware
is finished in a variety of colours, yellow being one of the most
successful. The Poillon potteries have designed special earthenware
for country clubs—lamps, toilet sets, ashtrays, match-bowls; all
uniform in colour and design, and each specially adapted in form to the
use for which it is intended.
[Illustration: SOME PIECES OF VOLKMAR POTTERY]
The work of the Brush Guild of New York is more like Indian pottery
than any other of the American wares. The pieces all have a
hand-moulded look, and the few designs are quite primitive in their
simplicity. The glossy-black finish suggests Indian smother-firing. It
is not unlike the black pottery which the Santa Clara Indians make, and
the great generous pieces are also suggestive of this ware. Unlike any
Indian pottery, however, the bowls and jars of the Brush Guild will
hold water perfectly.
From the far South comes an exceedingly interesting ware: this is the
Newcomb pottery, made by the students of Newcomb College, New Orleans.
It may be seen at exhibitions of arts and crafts guilds here in the
North. The ware originated in the art department of Newcomb College.
Here, for years, teachers of drawing and painting had been educated,
but it began to be manifest that, with the lack of other fields for art
workers, this department could not be widely useful. The establishment
of a pottery was the practical solution of this difficulty. Many young
women have found, in the making of this pottery, an artistic vocation
from which they reap profit and reputation. The aim of the originators
from the first has been to make a ware that would be individual—one
that should have a charm all its own. This has been accomplished by
taking as motives for the designs the unusual and beautiful Southern
flowers, plants, and trees, as well as the animal life of that part of
the country. A charming pitcher has a design of snow-drops, painted
in cream-white slip on a yellow-gray background. Another piece has a
decoration of fishes, and on still another, a high, slender flower-jar,
stalks of the sugar-cane form the design.
The methods of decoration are incising, painting, and modelling, used
together or singly, according to the requirements of the design.
Great freedom is allowed in the choice of colour as well as in the
decoration, each worker feeling the responsibility attached to a
signed piece of pottery. Some of the ware is undecorated save for
the unexpected touches of the kiln, which give charming and unusual
effects.
[Illustration: A PIECE OF NEWCOMB POTTERY]
The mark shown in Fig. 68 distinguishes the Newcomb pottery, and only
those pieces receive it which are approved by the art department.
[Illustration: FIG. 68]
Individual work of merit is being produced every year in this country,
and it will not be long before the solitary potter of to-day, moulding
his pieces and testing his glazes in some little workshop, like a brown
chrysalis, will perfect his ware; so that the tiny workshop will expand
into a great building, and another beautiful ware will be added to
modern American pottery.