Integration of Technique and Art
7 min readMaking a pottery is not only a practical process, but also revelation of ancient people’s spiritual world. It is a perfect integration of technique and art.
Making a pottery ware mainly needs the following steps: First is selection of raw material. The best material for making pottery is plastic clay, such as colloid soil or sedimentary soil in riverbeds. The selected clay must be cleansed with water to wash off impurities, so that the surface of fired pottery can be exquisite and smooth. Of course, potters only gradually learnt to cleanse clay, and the earliest pottery-wares were not cleansed before shaping.
Thus there were pottery-wares of different textures and qualities. As time went by, in order to improve the clay quality, potters intentionally added other materials into clay, such as sand and mussel shell, which would make clay more resistant against fire to avoid cracks during firing; and chaff, stems and leaves, which would reduce the degree of deformation to enhance rate of successful products. Normal utensils of sand clay and clay mixed with charcoal are all made with mixture of these supplements. The clay prepared according to the procedures mentioned abov should then be shattered, refined and fermented, to make it more delicate and plastic.
Due to relatively high proportion of iron contained in clay for producing pottery in early age, they usually appeared red or grey on surface, such as the great number of red pottery wares produced by the Yangshao culture. Meanwhile, whitepottery was produced in some regions at the lower reaches of the Yellow River, with clay containing less iron, which was already very similar to porcelain clay.
After the material has been prepared fully, potters can make different kinds of greenwares as they need. This process is called “shaping”, conducted mainly by hands or wheels. Hand-making methods included kneading, moulding and clay-strip forming.
Just as its name implies, clay-strip forming is to rub clay into strips and nip the both ends together into rings, pile them up one over another, and finally mop theinterior wall and exterior wall even. This method is the most common and lasting handicraft for pottery making.
Wheel-made technology refers to the process to place clay in the center of a turntable which the potter rotates while lifting the clay, so that it is swirled into desired shapes. This method is not only efficient to create various shapes, but also makes pottery wares more regulated, creative and artistic. During the wheeling process, some engraved lines or patterns can be added, which will integrate harmoniously with the body, displaying craftsmen’s urge for art creativity.
It was a great renovation in the history of pottery production to evolve from hand-making to wheel-making, while the wheel-making method itself also underwent a development fromslowwheel to fast wheel.
Initially, potters just placed handmade greenwares onto a turntable, so as to briefly trim their mouth rims during rotation of the turntable. It was not until the advent of fast-wheel production that the hand-making method was totally replaced. Pottery clay was then directly put onto the turntable and shaped through its fast rotation. Pottery ware made by such technique was no longer heavy as produced by hand, and boasted thin crust with fine delicacy. The black egg-shelled pottery produced by the Longshan culture was the best representative of the fast-wheeled pottery, whose exterior wall was only one to two millimeters thick, with a surfac as black as lacquer. The application of the fast-wheel also formed a technical foundation for the advent of Chinese porcelain later.
Before firing in kilns, shaped pottery would be aired under sunshine for a period of time, when decorations were to be applied. In early days, pottery wasmainly functional, thus decorations were not popular. But as time went by, with satisfaction of practicality, potters began to decorate the surface of pottery with various patterns which gradually developed in diversity. Generally speaking, these
pottery decorations mainly fall into the following categories: Burnishing. In order to make pottery more lustrous and delicate, potters would burnish its surface in one direction with stiff tools made of bone, bamboo or stone when it was half-dried.
Through this process similar to the polishing technique of today, granules contained in clay could be arranged in one direction, so that the surface could become lustrous.
Embossed decoration. It was a kind of tridimensional decoration method. The clay strips or the lumps of clay were stuck onto surface of a greenware when it was half-dried to be incised with various patterns, such as floral patterns and decussate or paralleled lines. These patterns are not merely decorative, but may help stabilize the utensil as well.
Stamped and rolled decoration. Pottery or wooden bats were often unearthed from ancient sites incised with fine patterns, which were applied to stamp patterns onto pottery ware. Meanwhile, some other patterns were left on pottery by rolling items such as a rope on its surface. The invention of stamped and rolled patterns extremely enhanced the efficiency and productivity of pottery decoration. Incisedand cut decoration. These two methods were relatively simple and direct, which was to cut or incise various patterns on half-dried greenwares with firm tools, such as awl-shaped patterns, bowstring patterns and saw-like patterns, as well as some simple symbols. Carved decoration. This method was widely applied on vessels with thin exteriors. The patterns were usually carved in openwork triangles or rounds.
Colour painting. This was the most common method applied for pottery decoration, consisting mainly of two ways: one was to paint colour before firing, while theother was to paint after firing. Comparatively speaking, patterns painted after firing were easier to come off, thus it was more popular to paint before firing.
Before the painting process, potters usually daubed the surface of greenware with a layer of slurry made of elaborately ground clay. Such engobe was just like clothes worn by people, which made the surface smooth, even and purified, thus ready to b painted. The designs mainly featured abstracted geometrical or animal patterns in black, white and red. After high temperature firing, the painting on pottery stuck to the surface and could last longer.
Interestingly, in early days the decorations, especially coloured patterns, were mainly adorned on interior of basins, bowls and dishes, or upper part of bottles, jars and pots. This probably was resulted from the habits and customs then, when people usually sit on the ground and looked those utensils froma higher angle of view. Naturally enough, decorations were only made on the parts which could be seen easily.
The final process for producing pottery was to fire themin kilns, which was the most essential step as wel1. In early time, greenwares were straightly placed onto burning bonfire in open air, which were fragile and easy to deform after firing. Later on, potters learnt to fire greenware on piled brushwood. This method now is sti1l adopted by Dai ethnic group in Xishuangbannan region, Yunnan province. These two approaches were both carried out in open air, where pottery was directly exposed to air, thus with a low firing temperature generally no more than 600℃, so that the finished products were not fully sintered. Besides, due to the oxidizing atmosphere fostered by plenty of oxygen in the air, the colour of finished potteryusually appeared red or brown, while parts in direct contact with fuel were smokedinto black or grey. Furthermore, the whole utensil was not evenly heated due to the sway of flame in the air, resulting in colour variations on the surface. In one word, potteries fired in open air were in lowquality.
Kiln was thereupon invented to solve such problems. Archaeologists have found kiln sites dating back to the Neolithic time. The earliest kilns were sort of alarge kitchen range, composed of a firebox, kiln floor and kiln chamber, and ther were two kinds of them. One was horizontal kiln with a flame path connecting thekiln chamber and firebox, while the other was shaft kiln, with kiln chamber right over the firebox. Archaeologists have found that, before the Shang dynasty, most kilns along the Yellow River basin were made up by digging pits on the ground, and horizontal kilns took the majority.
The invention of kiln was a successful leap in the history of pottery making.
Thanks to the thick kiln wall the temperature inside rose greatly，and the fired pottery became much more solid and durable.”窑”，the Chinese character for kiln，with”穴”（meaning pit）over””（meaning a kind pottery），smartly implies the function of kiln as a pit for firing potteries.Furthermore，as kiln could separate fuel from greenwares，the pottery colours became more even.However，due to the oxidizing atmosphere in such primitive kilns，potteries fired then were mainly in red or brown.
Atmosphere，referring to the special air environment inside kilns which is different from the open air，is a vital element of pottery firing.
Actually，inflammation in kilns is a strong oxidizing process，which consumes excessive oxygen.When oxygen inside kilns is sufficient，large numbers of dissociative oxygen ions will take shape to form an oxidizing atmosphere.Due to different amount of ferric oxide contained，vessels fired under such condition appear in different hues of red and brown.On the other hand，well-sealed kilns with insufficient supplies of oxygen will produce a reducing atmosphere to make thepotteries appear in grey tinctures.Through great deal of practices，potters had learnt such impacts of kiln atmospheres on pottery colorization as early as the Neolithic age.
