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#ceramics

50 posts27 participants6 posts today

@nancylwayne
And I found a lovely pottery workshop, just a few minutes’ walk from our apartment in Santa Ana, San Jose, Costa Rica. The master potter who runs it, Dennis Cheverria, is a third generation potter, who designed the ‘vanola’ coffee maker, which you will find all over Costa Rica - now in Florida and Arizona too. The clay comes from the mountains nearby and is smooth but groggy and a delight to handle.
#costarica #handmade #pottery #ceramics #coffee #clay

Pot of The Day - Black-topped Red ware Jar - Predynastic Egypt, Naqada II ca. 3650–3300 B.C.

Black-topped red ware pots are a specialised type of pottery which developed during the Egyptian pre-dynastic period (4000–3000 BC).

The two tone colour effect on the pots is achieved through a combination of oxidation (red) and reduction (black) firing. This shows early potters had sophisticated ceramics skills and there’s been extensive research done by archeologists to determine how they did this. The current understanding is that the ancient potters fired the pieces in two stages. The first stage was to bring the ware up to a ‘red-hot’ stage in a kiln (approx 540 degrees C), the pots would then be removed and placed top down into a bed of sawdust (or similar material). The buried section of the pot would be in a ‘reduced’ environment allowing the carbon to develop and thus giving the dark back colour. The bottom of the pot would be in the open, exposed to the air allowing the iron in the clay to oxidise resulting in the bright red colour.   

Although it was over 5000 years ago, those early potters had such a deep understanding of the subtle interactions between fire and clay. Blows my mind!  

Photo credit - The Met Museum

#pottery #ceramics #history #ancientegypt #ancienthistory #arthistory

Among my four grandparents' last names is my grandfather Thomas, of Welsh ancestry. He was a huge reader, my mom even more, then me, who finds TV and films boring compared to reading. I can thank him for a love of books.
I love Dylan Thomas poetry, and I would joke to my mom that he was a cousin of ours, and she would respond, not incorrectly, that half of Wales has the last name Thomas. But still 🙂 Some new work of mine with thanks to Dylan Thomas #art #mastoart #clay #ceramics #pottery

My new crackly pot inspired another blog post because 500 characters just isn't enough.

"The cracks are unpredictable but beautiful, like a dried lake bed or elephant skin. They’ve come to feel like a map of this place: a visual echo of our fractured geology, our sinkhole-prone foundation, our porous aquifers and eroding coasts. The fragility of the sig surface mirrors the fragility of the land itself."

potterybyosa.com/blogs/clay-pe

Pottery by OsaFractured, Fragmented and Fragile"The cracks are unpredictable but beautiful, like a dried lake bed or elephant skin. They’ve come to feel like a map of this place: a visual echo of our fractured geology, our sinkhole-prone foundation, our porous aquifers and eroding coasts. The fragility of the terra sigllata surface mirrors the fragility of the land itself."

Ran a clay bird making workshop at my community studio today. A class of ten, including some young children. I love how the flock of birds all look together. Much fun was had by all participants!

#Ceramics
#MakerLife

Pot of the Day – Inca Urpu (c. 15th Century)

Although similar in style and function to the amphorae of ancient Greece, the urpu has a distinctive Inca shape, with its low handles, tall neck, and bulbous body. Rather than being strapped into ships like the amphorae, these vessels would have had ropes slung through the handles, around the lug at the base of the neck, and then strapped onto a porter’s back for transportation. They would have contained a variety food and beverages, most commonly chicha (fermented corn beer).

Most urpu bottles are decorated with this distinctive polychrome geometric design - black and red on a cream-colored background. It’s rare to find any kind of representational motifs on these pots; however, some examples have been shown to include khipu designs which is very intriguing!

Photo credit - The Minneapolis Institute of Art

#ceramics #pottery #history #inca #southamerica #peru #ceramicart #potoftheday