Pottery Enhances Enjoyment
December 21st, 2010 10:35 AM
Think of the pleasure of holding that hot cup of tea or coffee as you relax for a moment. Or the serving dish that makes the food look so good it even tastes better as you sit down to enjoy a meal with family and friends. The gorgeous vase that shows off your fresh flowers. Or the sculptural piece in that right place accents your room beautifully.
There are several different types of pottery that have been adding to the quality of people’s lives since time began.
When ancient ruins are explored it’s the pottery that provides vast amounts of information about a culture. Cultures world-wide made containers to eat and drink from, and jars to store food and hold liquids. Most took extra care and time to decorate their surfaces.
Pottery was so relevant and part of almost every culture with jars even used as burial containers or special pieces to accompany the dead with food and treasures into the afterlife. More than 10,000 years ago, the Japanese Jomon culture made large jars with rope decorative designs. Historically, when the Japanese won wars against the Koreans they brought the potters to Japan to make pottery – it was that important culturally.
Think of the reverence of the tea ceremony or the discovery of Raku (a low-fire type of pottery). The ongoing presence of pottery in the Japanese culture today continues to reflect pottery’s importance. Pottery tended to be fired at lower temperature with red clays until the Chinese discovered a high-temperature stoneware now known as bone china. They also developed high-temperature glazes with a wide range of colours and rich blue on-glaze decorations. This was revolutionary world-wide with huge trade between China and Europe. It was so important that many European countries changed their historical ways of making pottery and endeavored to replicate the Asian clay and glazes.
This wealth of knowledge and rich historical traditions are all part of the pottery being hand-made today. Hand-made pottery uses red and white clays and fire from low to high temperatures using electricity, gas, or wood as the fuel to heat kilns.
My favourite work is made using a white stoneware clay and is fired to a high temperature in a salt-fired gas kiln. Salt-firing is thought to have been discovered in Germany in the 1500s. It’s surmised that when old salt brine barrels for preserving food were being burnt to heat the kiln, the salt impregnated in the barrels vaporized and interacted with the pottery forming a unique glaze surface. Salt-firing creates rich varying toned surfaces and hues that have a wonderful organic quality. So even today when you use hand-made pottery, you are connecting to an important ancient history.
For further information
604.929.9175 or cathi@cathijefferson.com
Open Studio, Sat Dec 16th at Centre 4, #202 - 975 Vernon Drive, Vancouver.
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Dec 06 - Jan 07
There are several different types of pottery that have been adding to the quality of people’s lives since time began.
When ancient ruins are explored it’s the pottery that provides vast amounts of information about a culture. Cultures world-wide made containers to eat and drink from, and jars to store food and hold liquids. Most took extra care and time to decorate their surfaces.
Pottery was so relevant and part of almost every culture with jars even used as burial containers or special pieces to accompany the dead with food and treasures into the afterlife. More than 10,000 years ago, the Japanese Jomon culture made large jars with rope decorative designs. Historically, when the Japanese won wars against the Koreans they brought the potters to Japan to make pottery – it was that important culturally.
Think of the reverence of the tea ceremony or the discovery of Raku (a low-fire type of pottery). The ongoing presence of pottery in the Japanese culture today continues to reflect pottery’s importance. Pottery tended to be fired at lower temperature with red clays until the Chinese discovered a high-temperature stoneware now known as bone china. They also developed high-temperature glazes with a wide range of colours and rich blue on-glaze decorations. This was revolutionary world-wide with huge trade between China and Europe. It was so important that many European countries changed their historical ways of making pottery and endeavored to replicate the Asian clay and glazes.
This wealth of knowledge and rich historical traditions are all part of the pottery being hand-made today. Hand-made pottery uses red and white clays and fire from low to high temperatures using electricity, gas, or wood as the fuel to heat kilns.
My favourite work is made using a white stoneware clay and is fired to a high temperature in a salt-fired gas kiln. Salt-firing is thought to have been discovered in Germany in the 1500s. It’s surmised that when old salt brine barrels for preserving food were being burnt to heat the kiln, the salt impregnated in the barrels vaporized and interacted with the pottery forming a unique glaze surface. Salt-firing creates rich varying toned surfaces and hues that have a wonderful organic quality. So even today when you use hand-made pottery, you are connecting to an important ancient history.
For further information
604.929.9175 or cathi@cathijefferson.com
Open Studio, Sat Dec 16th at Centre 4, #202 - 975 Vernon Drive, Vancouver.
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Dec 06 - Jan 07
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