Experimental pottery

My goal in this project was to create some pottery that resembled an Anglo-Saxon pot that would be commonly found in grave sites. More than material or design I was interested in stamps and decorations. I had looked at few papers on the internet and found some interesting ones about different kinds of stamps, one of them was about cruciform stamps the other about animal stamps. I also discovered that a lot of designs or markings on pots are made from different animal parts, like the horns or teeth from a deer. A common thing found on the pots are lines and triangles, it is thought that each design is specific for each person that the pot was buried with, but this mostly only applies to cremation urns.
(C) Thorskegga
This is a Anglo-Saxon Cremation Urn, from Loveden Hill cemetery. It has a couple of stamps on it and the traditional lines going around it, the runes are most likely the persons name.


The pot I tried to create had a similar shape to the on above, put due to limited supplies it had to be made a bit smaller in size. I started out with a solid base for the pot made out of one piece of sculpey, I then added some larger coils to the pot. After my first attempt and failure i learned that the coils had to be thick or else when you smooth them out they will become too thin and will loose their shape or collapse.

Image from beginning of second attempt.
I kept on progressively adding coils to the pot and smoothing them out as I added them, this may or may not be the same way that the Anglo-Saxons did it. They could have made all the coils and added them up and then smoothed it or they could have done it in chunks like us. I think it is likely that they would have built it up bit by bit and smoothed it along the way like we did, that way it is easier to get to any spots that need reinforcing.

I slowly built up the bottom part of the pot then I made a top part separately and attached it, then i made the very top spout thing and attached them all together.
In the end this is what i got, i used two of my necklaces as stamps for the pot and for the lines and circles i used one tool that has two metal prongs on it. It was lots of fun making the pot even though we did run across some complications.

Pot building

Although Jazmine has already outlined some of our building experiences, I am now going to recount my experiences. I will also discuss the techniques I utilized, as well as difficulties I may have encountered.

My goal was to create a vessel, which possessed at least a handful of characteristics of an Anglo-Saxon Urn. Due to the fact that I figured I would be limited by materials (Although I ended up having a decent amount left over in the end) I decided to create a smaller scale replica. Examples I have examined in the literature depict such urns being roughly 9in, and instead I have created an object of between 5-6in.

As the material we were using is somewhat plastic and does not allow for inclusions such as water, we were not able to make a slip or slurry that would aid in smoothing out lines and ridges. As we were utilizing a coil building technique, it becomes imparitive that the sections are smoothed over in order to create strength and favorable aesthetics. This factor also aided in my decision to create a smaller vessel. Without slip I was unable to create the strength I would have preferred, and the malleability of the material would have make working on a larger scare very difficult.

Another aspect of the material that created some difficulty was the fact that it would not dry out on its own. While there was a certain amount of solidification, it would not air dry as regular clay would. However, this also had advantages. We did not have to wait days for the clay to dry to a state in which it would be ready for firing. Instead of traditional firing, the items we created were simply baked (For only 15 minutes).

While we were not working with similar materials to that of Medieval ceramics, the sculpty allowed us to focus more on form and decoration. In the end, I feel this was more of a benefit than a hinderance.

Below I have included a selection of photos to illustrate the steps I took in building my pot.


First, the bottom section was coiled and smoothed out using my fingers. I used a spatula, replicating any flat and easily maneuverable tool to support the edges as I worked.

I continued to use this technique and produced two more sections. These would serve as the upper half of the vessel and the rim. Due to the constraints of the material, I decided to create sections, smooth them out and then assemble them. My aim was to create the highest structural integrity while not compromising the form I was working towards.

I utilized a bowl for support while I completed decorations. In the foreground are two of the tools i used: The spatula/paddle used for support and the pronged fork I used to replicate the decoration tool as illustrated in Jaymie's post below. In addition, I used a simple stick to at dots.

And a final closeup of my designs before baking.

As the material we used was completely white, I plan on simply painting the object in order to achieve a certain level of realism. Once again, I will post pictures and comments on my progress.

-SDP

Experimental Archaeology

After we chose to focus on pottery for our project, I was really excited. I hadn’t been on a wheel in a long time and this was an excuse to have fun and create something. I was looking forward to this for a while until Jaymie told us that the Anglo- Saxons didn’t make wheel-thrown pots. Now, I have done pottery off and on since I was a child. What has never changed during this time is my absolute disdain for hand building pots. Be it pinch pot or coil, they never turn out well for me.

When the time came for us to create/recreate pots this past weekend, it actually started out surprisingly well. The material we were using, Sculpey (see above), was definitely not clay (it was all that had been available at the art store). Shane found out, to our dismay, that the material tended to repel water rather than mix with it. This was problem number one. I was planning on using something similar to a slip to smooth out the coils on my pot. By this time, I hadgone too far to turn back. I just kept on coiling. And, just to make matters worse, my coils began to get thinner and thinner. Sculpey was too heavy and hard to, one, keep its structure when taken too high and, two, be smoothed out from such thin coils.

Eventually, my already crooked pot collapsed while being “fired” in the oven. Frustrated, I turned to a flat piece of my leftover Sculpey to replicate decorations from Anglo-Saxon pottery.

I should add that, regardless of my many issues with this process, Shane and Jaymie made absolutely fantastic pots that not only look great, but managed to not collapse upon themselves. One benefit of every time I become annoyed at my failed coil pots is that it really makes me think about how skilled some people are. The pots they are able to create blow my mind considering how much difficulty I have with the simplest coils.

Experimental Beginnings

Much of my initial research has been theory laden and it has been quite difficult to track down any sources that illustrate particular designs and vessels. While the information I have found is certainly useful for any written project on Anglo-Saxon ceramics, it makes it quite difficult to create any replications.

Thankfully we have been grated access to a wonderful resource, as pictured below.

While obviously not exclusively about ceramics, this book contains many wonderful illustrations that will aid in the modelling our vessels. In addition, there are many colour photographs that depict the inlaid designs in detail. For example, the illustrations pictured below will aid greatly in attempting to create similarly constructed vessels.

This, along with many other similar pages will help our construction process. Through research, as mentioned  in our project proposal, we have determined that coil building techniques were the predominant method of ceramic construction. With the pottery experience I personally have I hope to be able to replicate one or more of the vessels as closely as possible.

In our construction we have already encountered a couple of our expected difficulties. First of all, we were not able to gain access to the pottery studio we had wanted to. Due to time constraints, in conjunction with a studio schedule that required 3 full classes, we have instead decided to take a different approach.

Using clay purchased from an art supply store, we now are going to attempt construction at home. Although it will not be kiln certified clay, and we will instead be oven baking our vessels. The process should be essentially the same.

After initial construction we will allow them to dry to a leather hard state. At this point they will be ideal for decoration such as inscribing and carving. Once we have achieved the desired results we will then allow them to dry further before baking them in the oven.

As the process of construction continues I intend to post pictures. In this I hope to show success and possible failures during the experimental process.

-SDP

I have discovered that most if not all early anglo saxon pottery was done without pottery wheels. Instead they had a technique for building pots using coils of clay; they would make circles of clay and build up the pot using those. For decorating the pots they would use anything that was available including animal bones, animal teeth or even broken brooch pieces. Another tool that was used was a drill type thing that would make round circles with a upraised edge. The tool would resemble the simple drawing below.

Anglo-Saxon Ceramics, an Intro.

Welcome!

We are the Pottery Pals, and we are comprised of Jazmine Clark, Jaymie Chudiak and myself, Shane Polkey.

This blog has been created as a starting point for discussion and explanation of Anglo-Saxon ceramics. As our project progresses we will add info, be it dissections of articles we have discovered or simply images of our experimental process.

Our project proposal will be added shortly in order to illustrate the full extents of our research questions and aims.

Enjoy!

-SDP