The Potter's Craft: A Practical Guide for the Studio and Workshop

by Charles Fergus Binns

The necessity for some kind of decoration upon the clay will always be a point of difference amongst artists. Some prefer the simple form with a glaze treatment only, others consider that the surface should be broken up by design. The question will not be debated here. The aim of this hand-book is instruction and the individuality of the worker is to be encouraged. Directions for executing the different treatments do not imply that these elaborations are advocated. That must be left to the inspiration of the worker.

Decorations may be applied upon the soft clay by incising, inlaying and embossing; upon the dry clay or upon the burned pottery in color under the glaze or with no glaze at all; in the glaze by the use of colors or colored glazes; or over the glaze with colors and enamels. Each of these methods possesses special features. Each has its own possibilities and limitations and these should be mastered by the craftsman.

As in the production of form a well-planned design should be prepared. The first sketch should be made on paper or on a slab of clay but the fitting and final arrangement are best made on the piece itself.

Incising consists in the excavation of a shallow trench or trough on the surface of the clay. The vase or jar having been finished should be kept in a damp place so that the clay does not dry out completely. The design may be made in India ink with a brush. A steel tool with a narrow chisel end is used for cutting and care must be taken that the clay is in such a condition of moisture as will admit of a clean trench being dug without any rough or broken edges. The bottom of the trench need not be very smooth but the edges should be sharp and the lines well defined. At the same time a mechanical hardness of finish is to be avoided. The plastic nature of the clay should be kept in mind and every surface, though decided in character, should be soft and expressive. This result can be secured by working over the cutting with a moist camel-hair brush. The work must not be mopped so as to leave a woolly effect, but a little sympathetic penciling will remove the hard lines of the tool.

There are two possible developments of incised work. The details of the design may be excavated or the background may be cut out leaving the drawing in relief.

In modeling embossments the piece should be a little softer than for incising. It is important that in any clay work attached to a clay body the same amount of moisture should be present in both parts. This is not entirely possible in modeling upon forms which have already been shaped, for if the form be as soft as modeling clay it will not bear to be handled, while if the clay were as hard as the form it could not be worked. A compromise is therefore necessary. The vase must be kept as soft as possible consistent with holding its shape and the clay must be as stiff as the working will allow.

As little water as possible should be used and the modeling should not be brought to its full height at once. If the clay be laid on little by little there is much less chance of cracking. Low relief is sometimes produced by painting in slip but here even more care is necessary. The slip should be laid on with a brush in thin coats, each coat being allowed to stiffen before another is applied and the whole work being kept moist.

An atomizer with clean water is useful in this regard. The work, being kept on a whirler or turntable, is sprayed now and then with water and thus prevented from becoming too hard.

When the slip work has been raised to the desired height the surface is tooled over so as to remove the brush marks. This is the method which has been brought to such perfection by the French artists and by them named pâte-sur-pâte.