The Craft and Art of Clay

by Peterson, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780131844261
• ISBN10: 0131844261
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-08
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

The Craft and Art of Clay is the most comprehensive introduction to ceramics available. The book contains numerous step-by-step illustrations of all ceramic techniques to guide the beginner, as well as an inspirational portfolio of ceramic pieces from contemporary international potters. For the more experienced ceramist, there is a wealth of invaluable information on glaze formulas and other technical details, including temperature conversions, which make the book ideal as a reference. NEW FEATURES OF THE FOURTH EDITION INCLUDE: bull; bull;Trailblazers-special profiles of key ceramists who have made significant contributions around the world. The seven artists featured are: Juan Quezada, Peter Voulkos, Luo Xiao-Ping, Toshiko Takaezu, Huey Beckham, Otto Heino, and Janet Mansfield. bull;A new chapter on Marketing and Computers. The material on marketing in the last edition is expanded to provide more detail on how to sell your work successfully, including preparing it for display, approaching galleries, and finding venues for showing your pieces. New computer material includes technical aspects, from using computers to calculate glaze formulas and computerized firing, to useful programs and websites, and the creation of "virtual ceramics." bull;New material on using gold, alternative glazes, and paperclays. bull;150 new color illustrations. bull;A revised and clarified Compendium of technical information. Invaluable features, such as safety icons to warn beginners of potential hazards, a concise history of ceramics and its traditions from prehistory to the present day, and an updated bibliography, glossary, list of museum collections, residencies and magazines, are retained in this new edition. Susan Peterson's engaging writing style, deep knowledge, and boundless enthusiasm encourage creativity and engender an appreciation of the oldest of arts.

Author Biography

Susan Peterson is Professor Emerita of Ceramics at Hunter College at the City University of New York, and is a practicing ceramist whose work has been exhibited throughout the world

Table of Contents

PREFACE	9	(1)
1 THE CRAFT AND ART OF CLAY	10	(12)
SAFETY ISSUES	20	(2)
2 FABRICATION METHODS	22	(80)
INTRODUCTION	23	(3)
HANDBUILDING	26	(24)
Clayworking tools	30	(1)
Spiral wedging	31	(1)
Pinching a vessel	32	(1)
Coil building	33	(1)
Coil and pinch sculpture	34	(1)
Handbuilding with porcelain	35	(1)
Slab building	36	(1)
TRAILBLAZER: Juan Quezada	37	(1)
Large slab constructions	38	(2)
Handbuilding in or over forms	40	(1)
Figures	41	(3)
Mechanical methods of forming	44	(1)
Making walls	45	(2)
Walls	47	(1)
John Mason's handbuilt sculpture	48	(2)
WHEEL-THROWING	50	(41)
Throwing on the wheel	53	(1)
Throwing faults and remedies	54	(1)
Centering	55	(1)
Opening the ball	56	(1)
Pulling up	57	(1)
Throwing a bowl	58	(1)
Shinsaku Hamada's large bowl	59	(1)
Toshiko Takaezu's balloon-form	60	(1)
Throwing a pitcher	61	(1)
Bowl forms	62	(1)
Pitcher and bottle forms	63	(1)
Throwing a bottle	64	(1)
Methods of footing pots	65	(1)
Pulling and attaching handles	66	(1)
Thrown and cut handles	67	(1)
Flat lids for flanged pots	68	(1)
Dome lids for flanged pots	69	(1)
Flanged lids: domed and flat	70	(1)
Lidded pot forms	71	(1)
Casserole dish with inside flange	72	(1)
Casserole trimming and lid making	73	(1)
Thrown casserole knob	74	(1)
Platter throwing	75	(1)
Platter and plate trimming	76	(1)
Platter forms	77	(1)
Teapot forms	78	(1)
Teapot throwing, lid and spout	79	(2)
Susan Peterson's wheel-thrown forms	81	(1)
Donut throwing and trimming	82	(1)
Off-the-hump throwing	83	(1)
Pedestal vessels	84	(1)
Large constructions	85	(3)
TRAILBLAZER: Peter Voulkos	88	(2)
Thrown and hand construction	90	(1)
PLASTERWORK	91	(11)
Preparing plaster	93	(1)
Making a one-piece mold	94	(1)
Making a two-piece mold	95	(1)
Two-piece mold with handle	96	(1)
Slip casting and press molding	97	(1)
Multipiece molds	98	(1)
Wheelheads and complicated molds	99	(1)
Inventing with molds	100	(1)
A ceramic installation	101	(1)
3 DESIGN, DECORATION, AND GLAZING	102	(26)
DESIGN: FROM IDEA TO ART	103	(7)
An exercise in how to see	106	(1)
Experimenting with design	107	(1)
Design ideas from nature	108	(2)
DECORATION	110	(6)
Decorating with clay	111	(1)
Pre-patterned decoration	112	(1)
Creating line in three dimensions	113	(1)
Texturing clay	114	(1)
Prints from clay	115	(1)
GLAZING	116	(12)
Weighing and mixing a glaze	118	(1)
How to glaze	119	(1)
Decorating over and under glaze	120	(1)
Decorating with glaze	121	(1)
Glaze application	122	(2)
Decorative techniques with glazes	124	(1)
Surface details	125	(1)
The Japanese way	126	(1)
Photo-emulsion and decals	127	(1)
4 CLAYS	128	(30)
Science and ceramic art	129	(2)
Geological types of natural clays	131	(3)
Commercial clays after firing	134	(1)
Test results of commercial clays	135	(1)
Classifying fired clay wares	136	(3)
What is a clay body?	139	(1)
Testing materials	140	(2)
Composing a good clay body	142	(2)
Talc body	144	(2)
Paperclay	146	(1)
TRAILBLAZER: Luo Xiao-Ping	147	(1)
Additions to the clay-body batch	148	(2)
Preparing the clay for work	150	(1)
Making casting slip	151	(1)
Historical clay bodies	152	(4)
Unusual clay bodies	156	(2)
5 GLAZES	158	(54)
Origins of glazes	158	(2)
Feldspars: clay and glaze fluxes	160	(1)
Developing glazes	161	(1)
Fine examples of glazes	162	(2)
Visual samples: 34 glaze materials, alone and in 50/50 blends	164	(4)
Reading the test photographs	168	(2)
50/50 blends of 34 glaze materials, cone 5 oxidation	170	(2)
50/50 blends of 34 glaze materials, cone 10 reduction	172	(2)
Compounding a complete glaze	174	(1)
Composite glaze fluxes	174	(2)
Organic materials for glazes	176	(1)
Fusion buttons of frits	177	(2)
Garbage glazes	179	(1)
Colors	180	(4)
Ceramic coloring implements	184	(1)
Stains for coloring implements	185	(1)
Ways of blending colors	186	(6)
Ferro frits-plus-stains - low-fire	192	(2)
Frits-plus-stains - high-fire	194	(2)
Simple ways of changing glazes	196	(2)
Low-fire treatments	198	(2)
MayCo "one-strokes" (stains)	200	(1)
MayCo "underglazes" (engobes)	201	(1)
MayCo "art glazes"	202	(1)
MayCo "special glazes"	203	(1)
TRAILBLAZER: Toshiko Takaezu	204	(1)
Lusters for reduction firing	205	(1)
China paint process	205	(1)
Making your own lusters for oxidation firing	206	(2)
Working with gold	208	(2)
Drawing a grid pattern	210	(1)
Glaze faults	211	(1)
6 FIRING THE WARE	212	(36)
MARKETING AND COMPUTERS	248
TEMPERATURE	214	(4)
ATMOSPHERE	218	(1)
KILNS	219	(8)
Placing kilns	223	(1)
Kiln materials	223	(2)
Stacking kilns	225	(2)
FIRING	227	(21)
Principles of kiln firing	228	(2)
"Rebirth through clay"	230	(1)
Special firing techniques	231	(2)
Firing faults	233	(10)
Fired in place sculpture	243	(1)
Patinas developed in firing	244	(1)
TRAILBLAZER: Huey Beckham	245	(1)
Potters who also work in glass	246	(2)
7 MARKETING AND COMPUTERS	248	(14)
Marketing	249	(4)
TAILBLAZER: Otto Heino	253	(1)
Computer programs	254	(2)
Virtual ceramics	256	(3)
Tableware	259	(3)
8 HIGHPOINTS IN CERAMIC HISTORY	262	(44)
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW	265	(33)
Influences in our time	279	(5)
Site-specific installations	284	(5)
Tile	289	(1)
Narrative	290	(5)
Mixed media	295	(2)
Kaneko's Fremont project	297	(1)
ANCIENT TRADITIONS	298	(54)
Bridging two worlds	303	(1)
Golden Bridge Pottery	304	(1)
TRAILBLAZER: Janet Mansfield	305	(1)
9 PORTFOLIO	306	(46)
10 COMPENDIUM
GLAZE OXIDES	352	(5)
CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONS	357	(9)
Calculating glaze, batch to formula and formula to batch	359	(5)
More charts for use in glaze calculations	364	(2)
DATA AND CONVERSIONS	366	(52)
Feldspars, frits, and clays	366	(1)
Frits	366	(1)
Ferro lead-bearing frits	367	(1)
Ferro leadless frits	368	(1)
Pemco lead-bearing frits	369	(1)
Pemco leadless frits	369	(5)
Temperatures and cones	374	(5)
Conversion charts	379	(1)
ARTISTS' TECHNIQUES	380	(11)
LIST OF ARTISTS	391	(5)
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS	396	(16)
GLOSSARY	412	(6)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY	418	(6)
General books on ceramics	418	(2)
Ceramic history	420	(3)
Technical books	423	(1)
CERAMICS MAGAZINES	424	(1)
RESIDENCIES	425	(1)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	426	(1)
INDEX	427

Excerpts

I graduated from Alfred, New York State College of Ceramics, in the first Master of Fine Arts class after World War II, following an undergraduate degree in Painting (with Ceramics from F Canton Ball) at Mills College in California.At mid-century we were heavily into pots and visions of design for industry that would bring "the greatest good to the greatest number." Functional and decorative pots were our business, although in the early 1900s artists such as George Ohr, Susie Singer, Adelaide Robineau, Wilhelm Koge of Gustavsberg, and George Tinworth of Royal Doulton were among the first purveyors of Funk. Also early in the 20th century some famous painters such as Matisse, Gauguin, Renoir, Chagall, Leger, Miro, Picasso, Braque, Rouault and others were delving into clay, without making much of a dent in the potter's world. Years later we pay homage to their work.The 1950s brought to the fore the Hamada/Leach/Cardew angle of vision, whose legacy it would take us to the 1970s to truly understand. Shoji Hamada (d.1978) and Bernard Leach (d. 1979), two of the most renowned potters who ever lived, founded the concept of studio pottery--Hamada in Japan, Leach and his follower Michael Cardew in England. Many of us were also drawn to the robust Rosanjin or the vibrant Kanjiro Kawai, Japanese masters who also encroached on our Western senses.The Voulkos phenomenon, and the hundreds of international potmakers-turned-sculptors, followed from the 1960s on, Peter Voulkos, the central figure in a group of experimental artists, was responsible for a new vocabulary of clay that spread from the USA abroad. A few schools teaching ceramics in all parts of the world mushroomed into many schools in every corner of our planet.Today workshops, community programs, alternative spaces, exhibitions, fairs, and the like, have caused an explosion in clayworking that seems to encompass the earth. Clay is everywhere and so are the artists. We are even beginning to care about the past millennia of ceramic art history, and we research to increase our knowledge. We have grown up and we are still growing.And so this fourth edition ofThe Craft and Art of Clayhas been revised and expanded again. Each time I think there cannot be more to say or more tests to run, but each edition is changed a lot and added to, with more photographs, more text, so I always find ways to expand. This edition has 22 Ferro Frits pictured and described, because Ferro is about the only frit manufacturer left in the world. The Pemco Frit photos are still here because many of us still have supplies.The fusion button photographs of 34 basic ceramic materials fired at three temperatures, the glaze application 50!50 line blend tests of those 34 materials at cone 5 and 10, the feldspar photographs of bar tests at cone 5 and 10, the six pages of color tests of commercial glazes, the new line blend tests of glazes on iron-red and white clays at three temperatures and two atmospheres, and the many other visual tests of materials, are unprecedented visual aids that appear in no other ceramic book, Who but I would undertake all these tests! This pictorial information is invaluable for clay and glaze work.The huge clay bar test of china clays, ball clays, stoneware clays, fire clays, and common surface clays at three temperatures in two atmospheres was made for the first edition of this book. While clays are generic and similar in their geological classification all over the world, the brand names change, the mines change. The next edition will include this test done anew with currently available mined materials.The next edition will also need more new photographs in the Portfolio, and I need your help with that. Those of you in the book now should send new work, and help me find artists who are not in my file of 1,500 or more international clayworkers.This book contains hundreds of photographs of work from artists arou