Pottery

Pottery is a technique for the production of ceramics, mainly formed in the objects of clay / loam, dried, decorated and fired, causing the ceramic end products are hard and partially waterproof. The term is also general use for the manufacturing of ceramic products or products such as vases, jars, pots, cups or bowls. Depending on the raw materials used and the manufacturing technology, the ceramics produced are generally allocated according to the classification of ceramic bodies various classes, subclasses, groups and subgroups.

Importance

The processing of clays and firing the so-called Irdenguts are probably the first handicrafts, which are closely related to the emergence of human culture. Both the craft and the art of pottery, the oldest method for the production of vessels, objects, plastic molding at all, kept its importance for centuries.

A person who manufactures pottery products is, as a potter and the place where the potter works, so the workshop is ( as the craft itself) also called pottery. The importance of the Occupation pottery, however, varies regionally. In some cases including also the profession of translator oven understood - the setting of a tiled ceramic elements. To differentiate partially the term " pottery wheel " used. The correct job title of the craft guild chambers or in essence is no longer " potter " but ceramist. The latter term is used preferably for people with artistic talent.

Molding techniques

In order to mold clay pots, there are several techniques: In the simplest Tonfladen are assembled and the transitions smoothed ( construction technology). When Wulsttechnik thin strands of clay are layered annular or in spirals over each other, the forms with the potter's wheel in a fast rotation offset lump of clay is pulled by hand or with stencils to a rotationally symmetrical vessel. After molding, the pre-dried plant pieces were baked and cured thereby. To temperatures of 450 ° C to about 1280 ° C are required. At temperatures below 1000 ° C, the earthenware water permeable ( terracotta ) remains above it begins to glaze. Only certain clays can be as high fired to vitrify; these are particularly Klinkerton, stoneware and porcelain as a special product ( kaolin). To make porous pottery vessels impermeable to water and also for aesthetic reasons, low -fired clay pots are often coated with a glaze.

Today, pottery, mainly use harnesses, mainly produced industrially. The artisanal pottery used in Western cultures often for artistic purposes, for care of tradition or as a hobby. In the potter's fields, for example, the Westerwald ( Kannenbäckerland ), Upper Lusatia, of Alsace, etc. However, you can still find many potteries in which the craft is traditionally practiced and maintained.

Indigenous peoples, however, is the sale of pottery and other crafts as an important source of income. In the less developed countries where electricity is not sufficiently and cheaply available, pottery still play an important role in the storage of food.

History

The earliest European pottery - fired clay figures - date from the Upper Paleolithic. They were observed by common idea as a product of chance at the campfire on loam or clay soil. The first ceramic figures are over 24,000 years old.

The oldest known pottery vessels originate from the cave Xianrendong in the People's Republic of China; they originated approximately 20000-19000 calibrated calendar years before present (cal BP). The oldest evidence for a specific use of pottery was dated to the beginning Jōmon period in Japan, specifically with reference to vessels which are 15000-11800 years ( cal BP) old and were used for cooking seafood.

The first vessels in Wulsttechnik from the 8th millennium BC have been found in Asia. Since the 6th millennium BC the slowly rotating potter's wheel was used in the Middle East. At the same time came to the painted pottery and peaked in the ensuing millennia, a flower in Mesopotamia, Iran, Asia Minor and Greece. The invention of fast rotating potter's wheel around 4000 BC, the production of mass-produced goods began.

Glazed ceramic is known since the 3rd millennium BC in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The earliest pottery in Africa date back to the period around 7000-5000 BC, in America finds around 3900 BC shows in Oceania around 1600 BC. Several cultures of prehistory are named after their ceramic products, for example, the Linear Pottery culture or the bell Beaker culture.

In the Middle Ages the pottery belonged to the " dishonest " professions. Pottery centers there were in the Rhineland, where different forms Rhenish ceramics were produced.

In the present, the predominant amount is produced industrially on earthenware. The artisanal pottery is now rather operated as arts and crafts and the products offered, for example, on pottery markets and medieval markets for purchase.

Today, the modern pottery has made a name with high quality ceramic work in the applied arts. Not only utilitarian pottery, including ceramic sculptures, reliefs and ceramic jewelry are offered in the different techniques such as majolica, fine stoneware, raku pottery and smoke fired ceramics.

From the pottery originated pioneering other discoveries: The invention of the potter's wheel probably led to the invention of the wheel ( at least 6,000 years ago). Both inventions may arrive at different places ( but not in Africa and never on the American and Australian continents ).

Patron saint

Concerned with the protection of the potters are Radegundis as patron saint, as well as Simon Peter and Goar as a protective cartridge.