Ceramics of South and Central America Grade 10 Ceramics

“Pre-Columbian” Arts and crafts of native peoples of North, Central, South America and the Caribbean Islands from 13 000 BCE – 1500 CE Before the arrival of Columbis in 1492 Major empires: 1) Mayans in Central America were overrun by Aztecs in 11th and 12th centuries 2) Aztecs in Central America 3) Incas of Peru

Key features of Pre-Columbian Ceramics Hand built, often using coils Not glazed, but had coloured slips Burnished Earthenware

What is Earthenware? Earthenware is pottery that has not been fired to the point of vitrification and is thus slightly porous and coarser than stoneware and porcelain. Vitrification (from Latin vitreum, "glass" via French vitrifier) is the transformation of a substance into a glass, that is to say a non-crystalline amorphous solid. In the production of ceramics,vitrification is responsible for its impermeability to water. It is low-fire. It is usually reddish-brown Coloured slip seals the pores of the clay when it is fired. *We are going to use terra sigillatta, a very fine clay slip.

How Pre-Columbian Ceramics were made Clay is mixed with a temper such as rock pieces, ash, pieces of shell or old pottery. The temper strengthens the clay and allows for grit and more even drying. The clay particles stick to the temper. A ball of clay is shaped and coils are added, smoothed and pinched to give height. Feet or lids would be made of slabs At the leather hard stage, the pot would be inscribed or have coloured slip added for decoration. Mayan painters used mainly red, black and cream coloured slips. Kilns were outside and usu fired by wood, charcoal or even grass.

Videos Pots were fired in a heap placed on the ground or in a pit and covered with wood.[4] The use of this method for firing most often led to incompletely fired pots, Watch video of pinch pot technique and firing in Egypt: 3 mins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_1JafLWFLw Video of coil and pinch technique and firing of Mexican ceramics. 7.5 mins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omcsjx53HQY&list=PLCgJlEhI22TP84XF6GT_b8OpnHiuaqfqt ]

How to burnish When the piece is dried to the greenware stage, (just past the leather-hard stage and before it is bone dry), take a smooth stone or the back of a spoon and rub the piece of pottery until it taken on an ultra smooth surface and shine.

Slip Slip is a liquefied suspension of clay particles in water. It differs from its very close relative, slurry, in that it is generally thinner. Slip is usually the consistency of heavy cream. It is made with extremely fine clay particles. Slip is often used in decoration. It may be left the natural color of the clay body from which it is made, or it may be colored with oxides. It is applied to wet or soft leather-hard greenware. Slip may also be used for casting clay in plaster molds. Casting slip almost always has added ingredients to keep it in a uniformly consistent suspension until dried. Slip as Glue for Scoring and Slipping Slip can be made from scraps from your clay body. Soak them in water until they have softened into a slurry and then stir and screen it through a mesh to remove any lumps. Apply it to scored surfaces you want to join together on your greenware. Sometimes this is called slip-slurry.

Zapotec Wheel Disc or plate balanced over another inverted one. The piece is given its basic shape by coiling or molding and then it is finished while turned on the disc.

Mayan Pottery: Late Preclassical Period (250BCE-250 CE) Adding appendages to pots developed Intricate human and animal forms “A characteristic ceramic bowl was one made in the shape of a tropical bird, perhaps a cormorant, in the act of catching a fish in its beak. The bird’s forehead is marked with a disk, probably depicting a mirror. Details of the bird are rendered on the lid, where its head forms the knob and its wings spread out onto the expanse of the lid. The fish is rendered three-dimensionally, carefully held in the wide bird beak.”  Image and Description via The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York

Mayan Pottery: Early Classic Period (250 BCE-550 CE) Great attention to detail Scenic mosaics of battles, rituals and games More pigments being used in slip

Mayan Ceramics: Late Classic Period (700-850 CE) Bright orange and deep red hues

Inca Pottery Colour palette: red, black and white Anthropomorphic figures and animal faces and bodies Inca pottery did not portray the human form. They used geometric patterns and shapes and heads of animals.

Inca Pottery Geometric patterns

Aztec Pottery Black, white, red and orange colour Geometric shapes Over time, artists began using more naturalistic imagery.

Aztec Pottery

Post-colonial ceramics in Mexico Between 1521 and 1821, the ancient Mexican ceramic art of unglazed, low-fired earthenware was exported to Spain where it became quite fashionable. In return, Spanish artists introduced the potter’s wheel and high-fired hard glazes to Mexico, producing a pottery known as majolica. Trade brought Chinese porcelain to Mexico and its decorative motifs influenced both native earthenware and Mexican majolica.

Chinese Porcelain – Delftware and Faience -- Majolica

Majolica or Maiolica Majolica: Any tin-glazed earthenware with opaque white glaze, decorated with metal oxide enamel colours