Journeys

    Pottery is one of the oldest human technologies and art-forms, and remains a major industry today.  Chronologies based on pottery are often essential for dating non-literate cultures and are often of help in the dating of historic cultures as well.  Pottery is everywhere and is a functional as well as artistic art form.  We have had the privilege of travel and an opportunity to view the similarities and differences of pottery cultures worldwide.  The following are excerpts from those Journeys:

Tuscany - Italy - 2002

    Tuscany has been an important center for Tuscan ceramics since Medieval times, thanks to the great quality and quantity of clay in the surrounding area and to the role Florentine merchants historically played in trading Tuscan pottery throughout Europe during the Renaissance.  These techniques were developed from third century Middle Eastern glazes, forms originated in eighth century Spain, and united by the maiolica of Renaissance Italy.  The intense colors of majolica are famous. The design is either painted freehand or with the use of a type of stencil.  To use the stencil, the artist lays the design on the piece and then gently taps it with a “spolvero” a bag of charcoal dust that marks the design. The glazes used to paint the decoration do not appear in their true colors, making it difficult to paint the finished product, but talented artists render works or art. 

Copper Canyon - Mexico - 2005

    The Tarahumara Indians history in Copper Canyon region of Mexico dates back to the 16th century. They call themselves Raramuri [the runners] because this is their primary mode of transportation. Their population, approximately 50,000, still live in caves and small wood or stone cabins in the Copper Canyon region of Mexico. They still live a primitive lifestyle dressing in traditional clothing, and farming mostly corn--their primary source of food. Their pottery and ceremonial drums are still used as standard items. What is now labeled as Casas Grandes Pottery was first produced about 1,000 years ago in an area of Northern Mexico, called Paquime. This Native pottery was very primitive, at first, then evolved into a higher and desirable art form using intricately detailed decoration.  Casas Grandes Pottery is so detailed that it requires months of hand painting with brushes made of human hair.    [information cited fromthisplanet.com]

Costa Rica - 2006

    The indigenous people of Costa Rica were skilled at making ceramics, gold and metal. These people traded for artifacts and materials from as far away as Mexico and Ecuador. There is Olmec influence in the Pacific Northwest of Costa Rica and the people of Nicoya created a pottery that is a hybrid of the southern Mexican style of Olmec.  Using many of these same techniques modern Costa Rican artists create pottery whistles and highly decorated, incised pottery, and colorful hand-painted wooden works of art including masks and furniture.

National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference - 2006-

Portland, OR - Frank Goser:

    His Off Center Ceramics is located in Eugene, OR.  All of Frank's stoneware pottery is hand made, wheel thrown or thrown-and-altered; All the decoration  is original artwork, no decals or stencils are involved.  He hand-paints all pottery using traditional ceramic colorants: cobalt, iron, chrome and rutile, as well as commercial red and black stains using commercial sumi-e brushes for color and shading, but most of the drawing is done with brushes he makes himself.  See his website: www.offcenter.biz

Robin Hopper Workshop - Flat Rock Studio, Fayetteville, AR- 2008:

    A 3-day demonstration workshop in March, 2008, which featured a combination of wheel work, both functional and one-of-a-kind assemblage and the art of finishing works with colored clay techniques, traditional slip ware, brush work and other decoration techniques.   

Robin Hopper and Judi Dyelle- Chosin Pottery: 2009

    Robin and Judi share over ninety years combined experience in the field of pottery. They produce a wide range of work, mainly in high-temperature, reduction-fired porcelain. It ranges from one-of-a-kind pieces for decoration or contemplation to an excellent selection of functional pottery for everyday use. This includes mugs, teapots, goblets, pitchers, bowls, creams and sugars and a variety of casseroles and serving dishes. All of the functional pottery is oven, microwave and dishwasher safe. The majority of the work is wheel thrown, but there is also a selection of unique handbuilt forms - see their website: www.chosinpottery.ca

Victoria, BC:

 The Yucatan - Merida, Mexico:  2010

Maya ceramics are important in the study of the Pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica. Through the years, the vessels took on different shapes, colors, sizes, and purposes. The intense artistic mosaics that grace the walls of the ancient masterpieces reveal stories of rulers, the underworld (Xibalba), Maya creation, and even the particular function of the vessel.

Used for a plethora of daily activities, such as the storage of food and beverages, ceramics were also a canvas of commemoration.

The Maya were a diverse people whose culture has developed through the centuries. As they developed, so did their pottery. Archaeologists have found stages of commonality between types of ceramics, and these phases coincide with the Mayan timeline.

Early Mayan ceramics stemmed from a past that began even years before the Maya became a group. Originally, the early Maya used gourds cut into useful shapes to create vessels to carry liquids and foodstuffs. These portable and durable gourds made excellent containers. The first ceramics closely resembled gourds and many were decorated with rocker stamps and simple slips. During the Late Preclassic period, many of the ceramics took on appendages of tetrapod mammiform supports. These supports were four legs underneath the pot holding it up. Characteristic cream-on-red stripes colored these unique vessels.

The pottery of the Maya Early Classic dated from AD 250 to 550. The Maya soon began using polychrome slip paint, meaning they used many different colors to decorate the pots. This method of decoration became almost homogeneous for Mayan potters, thus signaling the beginning of the Classic Period. The Classic Period of the Maya provided beautiful ceramics in many forms. The lidded basal flange bowl was a new style of potter to add to the already growing repertoire. This type vessel usually had a knob on top in the form of an animal or human head, while the painted body of the animal or human spreads across the pot. Many of these pots also had mammiform supports, or legs. These unique vessels are usually found in great condition signaling a ritual function.  [Pottery images below: photographed by Sarah Young at the Archeological Museum, Merida, Mexico]

Heads and human figures are the longest surviving tradition of East African terracotta pottery.

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