Ceramic Pottery Making

Playing with mud is as old as man himself. I think that is why as young children we are drawn to and gain so much satisfaction from getting our hands dirty; molding, patting, rolling, splatting, making and baking mud pies in the sun.

In ancient times the simple sun-baked clay brick was used to build homes and fortified walls around villages and towns.

The first potter's wheel is thought to be used in early Mesopotamia around 3500BC. A crude hand operated turn-table used to hand-build pots.

Of course we have grown up since then and with the discovery that fire could change simple clay creations into harden vessels of usefulness, mud pies made an evolutionary leap to Ceramic Pottery Making.

The discovery of stoneware pottery, the baked clay pot, had a profound effect on ancient mankind. Simple implements that we take for granted today changed civilization.

Ceramic pottery bowls and platters changed the way we prepared and ate our food. Pottery enabled us to discover new ways to cook our food and we now had ceramic pottery to hold water, milk, and yes, alcohol.

Ceramic pottery design changed the way we expressed ourselves, our perceptions, and our beliefs in the form of sculpture, decoration and religious idols. Ceramic pottery vessels became a canvas for expression of the people of that era with intricate patterns etched into them.

With the discovery of glass making, ceramic pottery took on a new form. Not only did glazing change the way a potter could decorate their pots but the second glaze firing also made the pots water-proof.

Ceramic pottery making has had millennia to perfect itself and various civilizations such as the Chinese and Japanese have contributed to it's refinement.

Modern industrialization of ceramic pottery making has replaced our dependency on the humble potter however the art has been kept alive by those passionate about expressing their creativity through clay, glaze and fire.

The tools may be modern with electric potter's wheels and kilns however many of the techniques still used are ancient. Handmade pots are still made by hand-building with coil and slab, and are thrown.

Modern civilization may no longer be dependent on ceramic pottery making but it still contributes to our lives aesthetically in our homes and gardens in the practical form and as decoration and artwork.