APPENDIX I

The Equipment

The divinity that presides over potting is an expensive as well as an exacting mistress. The equipment of even a small pottery is, unfortunately, a matter of considerable expense. Try it from whatever angle we may there is the cost of the kiln to be faced, besides a host of other small but cumulative expenses. The first essential is, of course, a roomy workshop with if possible a top as well as a side light. If the craftsman means business, he should remember that the initial cost of a kiln is often in inverse ratio to its upkeep. If he would aspire to big things, full-bellied pots, plaques, reliefs, and figures,—and every craftsman would,—a brick kiln will be wanted. One holding a dozen saggars could be built, but where some experience has been obtained with materials and processes, a larger one would be more economical. With oil or gas kilns of the ordinary school size the cost of firing and the extra time is proportionately too great to permit of any but comparatively high-priced pots being turned out. This may serve in some cases, but usually it is not practical potting where a livelihood has to be obtained. Where only the painting is to be fired on, an oil or gas kiln is exactly what is wanted.

In this appendix is given a plan of a workshop that has all the equipment necessary for the whole-hearted pursuit of the craft. In such an one a good craftsman, capable of

modelling and painting decently a figure or a panel, a good thrower, and a handy boy could work wonders. They would be capable of turning out a surprisingly wide range of “pots”: jugs, mugs, pots, bottles, bowls, buttons, dishes, plaques, panels, vases, tiles, and statuettes,—useful and beautiful things. Anything in fact worth doing can be done except fine tableware or those articles that by their nature demand more mechanical accuracy than is possible, or even desirable, for a craftsman to exhibit. Where much plaster turning for moulds was attempted, a lathe would be required; ordinarily the hiring of one should be practicable and expedient. Where only built or cast shapes were attempted, the wheel and its long years of drill might be dispensed with, and it is possible, with strong individual work of high finish and fine quality and the consequently restricted output, that an oil or gas kiln would give economically practicable results. Between the kiln for firing decoration simply painted on the ready-made shape to the full equipment here described will be found several modifications, but to try the craft without a kiln of some sort is an imbecile proceeding.

Small brick kiln supplied with saggars. Small muffle kiln—oil or gas—for over-glaze and lustres. Small enameller’s kiln for firing quick trials. Kick wheel, and tools for throwing. Clay bin, zinc-lined. Damp-box. Drying cupboard. Plaster bin. Pot boards and brackets. Table, strong and heavy. Clay: white, red, buff. Plaster. Glaze materials. Oxides, lustres. Under- and over-glaze colours. Modelling tools, callipers. Painter’s outfit. Brushes, straight-edges. Shellac, beeswax, French chalk.

Gum arabic and tragacanth. Glaze tubs, teak. Sieves, glaze and slip, Nos. 80, 100, 120. Buckets. Bowls, enamelled and earthenware. Small porcelain ball mill, hand or power. Spray and pump (respirator). Small outfit for carpentry. Files, sheet iron, and zinc, wire and cutters, cords, sandpaper. Benches and shelves ad lib., odd cupboards, chairs, etc., Shovels and slicer for firing, tongs for trials. Two large tubs and rubber tubing. Sand and flint. Spurs, props, fire tiles. Tile boxes. Disc (emery) for grinding. Small pestle and mortar. Jugs and funnel. Potter’s knife, sponges. Whirler. Turning tools and lathe. Temperature indicators. Oil can, oil, waste. Callipers and compass, rulers.

Most of this equipment has been previously described and needs no further comment.

The pot boards and brackets are simple but indispensable devices. The boards are about six feet long, iron shod or cross battened to prevent warping, and six or nine inches in width. The brackets of any serviceable kind are fixed to the wall at convenient distances. When throwing, turning, or glazing, the pots are stood on one of these boards to dry, and each board as filled is slipped onto the brackets. Thus the pots may be carried about to the kiln, drying cupboard, or glaze tubs without loss of time or frequent handling.

The table must be stout enough to withstand the heavy work of wedging and should have a top of hard wood. Teak or hard-wood glaze tubs have the advantage of not breaking either themselves or pots accidentally knocked against them. Further, some glazes stick badly to porcelain or enamel tubs.

EQUIPMENT FOR A SMALL POTTERY

In the small pottery plotted here, the equipment and arrangement were as follows:

An anthracite stove with the pipe running into the large room warmed the workshop in winter, but no wet or half-dry pots were left where the frost could get at them. The glaze materials, oxides, colours, painting paraphernalia, finished pots, trials, and trial kiln were in the small room. The wheel had a good top and side light. The drying cupboard, plaster bin, and moulds were at the end nearest the stove; the clay bin, damp-box, and sink farthest away. All the walls were copiously supplied with brackets and shelves and handy benches. Outside, in a well-built lean-to, was the muffle kiln for onglaze and lustre decoration. This was well bracketed and shelved for the biscuit, and here was done the glazing, handy for packing in the brick kiln just outside. This was protected from the weather and other lean-to’s held the saggars, coke, and coal.

EQUIPMENT FOR SCHOOLS

The teacher with ample funds and a free hand will find the previous chapter all-sufficient, but in many cases the purchase of a kiln will nearly exhaust the allowance and the rest of the equipment becomes sketchy.

The indispensable appliances are as follows:

A kiln, with fire tiles or shelves, props, spurs, and stilts, etc., for packing. A good clay bin and sieve for slip (No. 80) with a tub and two pails. Scales and weights, pestle and mortar and glaze lawn (No. 100), shot for weights. Plaster, for drying bats and working discs. Large drip pan and three round pans. Several jugs and bowls. Spoons (wooden), knives, and big brushes. Oil, gum, boards, strips, rolling pin. Hammer, saw, iron straight-edge, sponges. Glass slab and muller, palette knife and brushes for painting.

An atomizer or spray pump. Glaze materials: Kaolin, China stone, flint, silver sand, whiting, felspar, borax. A supply of ground pitchers and grog, cones. Metallic oxides: Tin, white, oxide of, iron, copper, manganese, cobalt, etc. Under-glaze colours to taste. Glass jars with lids to contain materials. Gummed labels, India ink.

For a school in the country or where ground is available, a kiln like the one shown at p. [164] should be practicable. It costs very little to build or to fire. Next comes the question of the clay. This is one of the most abundant of nature’s materials, and almost any river bank or creek will supply clay of some kind. Any sort of clay near to hand should be thoroughly tested before going to other or distant sources.

The clay should be dried, then broken up with a hammer, and mixed with water, and the resultant “slurry” passed through a sieve (No. 80). The slip is allowed to settle and the water siphoned off. The thick slip is then dried on the plaster bats until stiff enough to work up between the hands. From this clay a tile, a plate, and a vase should be made and fired. If the pieces stand a fire of about 1100° (cone .03) without buckling, splitting, or crumbling, the clay should do quite well for school work. Possibly when screened fine enough for working, the clay may be too rich or long and will split at a moderate fire. Then the screenings might be pounded in the mortar, passed through the sieve, and added to the slip. Again, ground pitchers, fine grog, kaolin, or calcined flint could be tried as stiffening agents. In the unlikely event of the clay being too refractory or short, a portion of rich, fusible, or fat clay might be added, or the addition of powdered spar tested. (See chapter on Clays.) The colour of the body will hardly matter for schools; indeed

a brown, red, or cane-coloured clay will give better results than a staring white paste, when working out simple school problems.

Where necessary, tin glaze could be used for a white ground, or an engobe; that is, a dip of white clay slip over the coloured body. For glazing, a leadless glaze is strongly to be advised. Lead is often indispensable to the craftsman, and with care need not become a danger; but in schools a lead glaze is positively harmful.

A glaze with a borax base, if ground dry and mixed with water and re-ground before sieving, will give little trouble if used immediately. It will answer for all grade work and may be used for spraying, dipping, pouring, or painting, with absolute safety.

The ground pitchers and grog may be obtained by pounding up broken biscuit and pieces of fire tile, respectively. This, and the glaze grinding, is, of course, laborious work, and suggests correlation with the Physical Education Department. The drip pan and the round tins make excellent moulds for casting drying bats and working bats.

For casting purposes plates and shallow bowls may be moulded in one piece as described, p. [26]. If no lathe be handy, glazed vases may be used as substitutes, the “waste” being added in plasticine to the neck and base.

For tile-making, strips nailed on a stout board will serve in place of tile boxes. The clay is rolled out on cheesecloth with a rolling pin. Various other expedients for drying cupboards, damp-box, etc., will suggest themselves as the course develops.

The above equipment need not be very costly. With it the students should be capable of producing all kinds of tiles, built, pressed, and cast shapes, decorated in relief, with inlays or in colours or glaze.

SIMPLE RAW GLAZES. COLOURLESS

No.	Materials	Parts	Sieve No.	Cone	Method of Using
I Glossy	Lead oxide, red	50	100. Mesh	.03	Applied evenly with a brush to the green shapes. Fired very slowly. Earthenware body.
	China stone	30
	Flint	10
II Glossy	Borax	70	80. Mesh	2	Green shapes dipped thick and slowly fired. Stoneware body.
	China clay	10
	Felspar	75
	Flint	20
	Whiting	25
III Glossy	Borax	360	100. Mesh	.03	Ground dry for ¹⁄₂ hour. Wet for 1¹⁄₂. Used when fresh on biscuit (earthenware body) for under-glaze painting.
	Silver sand	160
	China clay	120
	Whiting	20
	Flint	10
IV Glossy	Lead carbonate	130	80. Mesh	.04	Used with metallic oxides for simple colours on earthenware body; both green and biscuit.
	Calcined kaolin	150
	Flint	50
	Felspar	50
	Whiting	10
	Zinc oxide	10
V Matt	Lead carbonate	375	120. Mesh	.04	Used thick on hard white earthenware (CC) body.
	Kaolin	210
	Felspar	175
	Flint	120
	Whiting	105
	Zinc	25
VI Matt	Lead carbonate	120	100. Mesh	.02	Used thick on stoneware body. Coloured with 3 to 7 per cent of glaze stains or U. G. colours. The proportion of lead and whiting may be varied as found expedient.
	China clay	50
	Felspar	80
	Flint	15
	Whiting	45
VII Enamel	Borax	70	80. Mesh	.07-.05	Used with various combinations of cobalt oxide, copper oxide, and iron oxide and copper carbonate, giving wide range of blues and greens. On stoneware body.
	Lead carbonate	300
	China clay	50
	Felspar	120
	Lynn sand	50
	Tin	40

All the above colourless glaze masses may be coloured with combinations of the various metallic oxides, or from 3 to 7 or even 10 per cent of glaze stains or under-glaze colours.