Prehistoric and Anglo Saxon Pottery Workshops

When I talk about making Prehistoric Pottery, Neolithic, Bronze-Age and Iron-Age, or indeed Post Roman Anglo Saxon/Early Mediaeval  ceramics, I often get the response "Oh, that's coiled isn't it?".  Coiled pottery is a term that jars with me, it conjours in the mind images of primary school classrooms with pots made of little clay sausages, gradually falling apart as they dry. The range of techniques used by potters before the Romans introduced the potters' wheel to Britain and in the centuries after Roman Rule ended, are wide and varied, they are robust and were carefully chosen to create strong, functional vessels. The same is true of their choice of tools, materials and firing method.  In a one day workshop, I can't teach you everything there is to know about Ancient Ceramics, but I can give you a pretty good grounding in the basic methods, I can show you how to select the best materials for the job and I can get you to make a couple of decent replicas. The first three workshops at our Rothbury Studio, for 2019, are now available for booking on our website 

https://potted-history.co.uk/collections/workshops

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The Writing Is On The Pots

I always say that I have a constant stream of new commissions that keeps me on my toes, often sending me off to my library to research a new technique or genre, but I think this is the first time that I've been asked to add Latin inscriptions to pieces that I've made. That's exactly what the Ashmolean Museum, Latin Inscriptions Project asked me to do, firstly in creating a full Arretine Ware, Terra Sigillata, (Samian Ware) production set: Punches, Mould and Finished Bowl.

Then there was the beautiful Victory Lamp, bearing the greeting, ANNV / NOVM / FAVTVM / FELICE(M) Annu(m) / nov(u)m / fau(s)tum /felice(m) which translates as ‘A happy and prosperous New Year!’  In this case the museum asked for not only the lamp itself, but the mould that made the lamp and the archaetype that was used to make the mould, again providing an insight into the complete making process.

And last but by no means least this set of Pan Pipes, or Syrinx. The brief did not require that the pipes should actually be able to be played, but as I had all the measurements I felt I should at least try, and they do in fact make quite a passable tune, which can be heard here https://youtu.be/zFLME8SZAvQ  All are now in use at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford 

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Roman Pottery Kiln and Workshops at Vindolanda

I'm really excited about this new collaboration with Vindolanda Roman Fort near to Hadrians Wall, the first stage has been to create a reconstruction of a Roman pottery kiln as a permanent feature of the site. Built with the help of a very enthusiastic team of Vindolanda volunteers, the kiln is sited in the valley, beside the burn, near to the museum and visitor centre, so look out for it next time you're there.

This fully functional replica of a Roman up-draft pottery kiln, is based on information gained from the excavation of such kilns at archaeological sites across the North of England. The body of the kiln itself (1) is constructed entirely from a mixture of materials found on site, Clay, Earth and plant matter such as straw. The internal floor and central support, (2) also known as Kiln Furniture are made from specially selected clay which will survive repeated exposure to high temperatures.

While the kiln is cold, dry, raw pots are packed into the Ware Chamber (3) the top of the kiln is closed off with a temporary dome of clay and straw (4), leaving small holes as exit flues. A small fire is then lit in the Fire Box (5) allowing hot gasses and flames to pass through into the combustion chamber (6) then up through the ware chamber. Starting slowly and steadily building up the fire the the pots are brought up to a temperature of between 8000 and 10000 Centigrade.

The first firing took many hours of constant stoking as we not only needed to fire the pots, but to dry out the structure of the kiln itself. Nevertheless we achieved a temperature of between 700 & 800 degrees Centigrade, hot enough to fire the kiln load which included two amphorae.

This type of kiln would have been used by potters working in this region, to manufacture coarse wares such as Black Burnished Ware and Gray Ware cooking pots, indented bakers, plates, bowls, flagons and the like. While fine wares such as Samian Ware, Terra Sigillata and the Aphorae that carried produce around the empire would have been imported from production sites in Gaul and elsewhere in the Roman World.

The latest firing of this kiln is recorded here Firing the Vindolanda Kiln

From now on I will be running regular Roman pottery workshops at Vindolanda where you will be able to learn the techniques and skills that went into making the ceramics of the Roman Empire. Workshops and courses will include: Kiln Building & Firing; Samian Ware; Barbotine Ware; Black Burnished Ware; Lamps & Goddesses; The Potters' Wheel, Roman Head Pots. For more information on these workshops, follow me on Twitter @PottedHistory, visit the Vindolanda website or email me info@pottedhistory.co.uk.

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Roman Samian Ware or Terra Sigillata Pottery Workshop

Just had a great weekend running a Roman Samian Ware or Terra Sigillata workshop here in my Rothbury studio, and if you like the sound of it, you might like to join me on my next one. Email me if you're interested info@pottedhistory.co.uk.

A great group of participants have made their own set of Samian Ware punches based on designs from original archaeological finds. Punches were used by Roman potters; impressed into the inner surfaces of moulds in order to transfer their patterns onto decorated pots and bowls. That's exactly what the people at my workshop did, using their own punches along with some of my own to build up their own design. While some of the participants had a go on my momentum wheel, I'd made a blank mould for each of them, to ensure that everyone went home with a finished mould.

Now the next part of the process is to fire the moulds, but as it wasn't possible to get the moulds fired, as this can only be done after several days of drying, the participants used some of my own moulds for actually making their pot. As the mould spins quickly on the wheel, clay is firmly pressed into it to pick up all the decoration, then it is set aside to dry overnight. After a few hours the pot has dried to leather-hard and shrunk back from the mould, sufficiently to allow it to be removed. 

It now goes back onto the wheel, but this time upside down, a ring of clay is applied, shaped and smoothed to form a foot-ring. 

After drying again, the pot is dipped into the specially prepared colloidal slip, which dries to the beautiful satin sheen that makes Samian Ware so special. In addition to making some great replicas the participants learned about the history of Arretine and Samian ware, about the ceramic chemistry that makes this pottery so special, about the amazingly advanced kiln designs that made it so durable that it emerges from the ground looking brand new after two thousand years, about the slip trailing technique that decorated closed forms not suitable for mould making and hopefully much more.

Most importantly everyone had fun!

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It's been a busy time just recently, to start with I've moved premises, I'm still in Rothbury, Northumberland, and only a few hundred metres away from my old workshop, but with much more space. In addition I now have an assistant, my daughter Sarah Lord, who will not only be expanding the range of replica pottery that we can offer but be bringing her expertise as a costume maker to the business.  Sarah holds a degree in performance costume design from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and worked for several years as a costume maker with Scottish Opera. She also has a Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE), and has worked as a Key Stage 3 & 4 (KS 3 & 4) Design Technology Teacher, so is perfectly equipped to deliver school workshops.

Sarah has also been working on our range of retail goods for museum shops, in particular small Neolithic and Bronze Age pots for the Stonehenge Gift Shop.

In the meantime I've been all over the country from Caithness to Wiltshire, from Glasgow to Lincoln delivering workshops and demonstrating, as well as running workshops right here in Rothbury.

I've also been entering the world of Academia by uploading my CBA paper "Mud and Fire" to Academia.edu and having had the honour of being asked by Dr Neil Wilkin to co-present a paper at the European Association of Archaeologists conference in Glasgow.

And last but by no means least, I've been inundated with requests for replicas which I'm now working on, sorry if you've been waiting for yours, it will be with you soon.

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Neolithic Carinated Bowl: complex simplicity

At first glance a Neolithic carinated bowl, the earliest type of pottery in Britain, looks like a very simple pot. Certainly they were hand formed often from very coarse natural clay, to function as humble cooking pots. In fact when making an average sized bowl, up to about 20cm in diameter, its form flows almost naturally from the process itself. The curve of the bowl nestles nicely in the hand, the concave form of the upper body conforms to the curve of the thumb, while the fingers stretch down inside to push out the carnation.  All well and good, but when one comes to make a bowl as big as the one I made for Stonehenge, it's a different matter.  For a start there's the weight; at over thirty centimetres in diameter it requires nearly five kilos of coarse clay in its construction. This makes it virtually impossible to hold the soft vessel in one hand.  If I start building on a base (flat stone, grass mat whatever is handy) this gives it a flat base, which can only be expanded out once the clay has stiffened.  Alternatively working into the base of an old broken pot does allow one to make a round bottomed piece but only to a predetermined form and, as clay shrinks on drying it will easily release from its "mould" but will also be considerably smaller than the former.  Once the pot becomes firm enough to support itself it can be picked up and worked on but this brings with it its own problems, the stiffened clay becomes brittle, the least deformation of the rim and the pot will crack, a flaw which, in the firing, could result in total failure.  One possible solution to this is to add organic fibrous material which will act as reinforcement in the unfired pot and one of the most suitable sources of this is animal dung. Finally, once the pot has reached a leather hard stage, the entire inner and outer surfaces need to me slip coated by rubbing with a wet hand and finally burnished all over, again without putting undue stress on the rim.

Firing small pots in an open fire is a relatively simple matter provided a strict set of rules are adhered to, a large pot on the other hand is quite a different matter. That pot needs to be absolutely dry before it comes anywhere near to a flame. In a Neolithic hut it would undoubtedly have spent several days on the outer edges of the hearth, occasionally being turned to present a new face to the warmth of the fire.  Only once the potter was certain that all moisture had left the clay would the firing process begin: The pot would be moved a little closer to the fire, inverted, and with its rim supported on three stones a few embers from the fire would have been pushed underneath its dome, their rising smoke and heat filling the vessel. Replenishing and increasing this small glowing fire over the next couple of hours the potter would have carefully and steadily raised the temperature until, at around about 400 degrees C the organic matter in the clay would have begun to burn, turning the outer surface of the pot dark brown or black.  This would also be an indication that it was ready to move to the next stage of firing, surrounding the pot with embers and eventually immersing the pot into the fire, bringing up its temperature until at seven or eight hundred degrees, in the darkness of the hut interior it could be seen to glow deep red. The firing complete, the fire would have been allowed to burn down and go out and the pot would have been cooled while protecting it from sudden cold draughts that might cause it to crack.

Simple as that!

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Greek Pottery Workshops at Wolfson College Oxford

Here are some photographs from my recent Greek Pottery Technology workshop at Wolfson College Oxford, in which participants not only learned about the ceramic science behind the creation of Black and Red Figure wares, but also had the opportunity to try their hand at a Greek style momentum wheel and created their own Rhyton.

 

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Pots for Stonehenge and Wiltshire

I take delight in every project that I undertake but being asked by English Heritage, to make all the replica pottery fro the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre and by the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes, to make replicas for the Gold from the time of Stonehenge have been a particular highlights of the past year. In each case making the pots not as they look now, after several millennia in the ground, but as they would have looked when new. The first part of the project was to produce a selection of large Neolithic Grooved Ware vessels, to be used in the prototype Neolithic Houses which English Heritage built at Old Sarum, as a precursor to building a group at Stonehenge. These pots were based on originals excavated at Durrington Walls. 

Grooved Ware pots based on finds from Durrington Walls

Next came a film role, at least for my hands. I was filmed making a replica grooved ware pot, from crushing and preparing the raw clay and grog, through building and decorating the vessel, to firing it on an open hearth and finally removing the finished pot from the fire. This video will be showing on a loop in the visitor centre, alongside one of Phil Harding making a flint axe and Neil Burridge casting bronze.

Grooved Ware pot glowing in an open fire

At this point I was invited to join archaeologist and curator Sarah Lunt at Fort Cumberland and at Salisbury Museum, to look at the originals pots that I would be replicating for the Stonehenge Museum display, and the education rooms. It is a huge privelage to have had the opportunity to see and handle such iconic pots as: The Wilsford collared urn, grape cup and Stonehenge cup, excavated by William Cunnington during his excavation campaign 1802 – 1810, along with beakers, carinalted bowls and the small grooved ware pot from Durrington Walls.

Back in my studio I began replicating these masterpieces of Neolithic and Bronze-Age ceramic art, for both Stonehenge and the Devizes Museum, here are some of the results.

Wilsford Collared Urn and Grape Cup along with "The Ceramic Object"

The beautiful collared urn here from the Wilsford G7 burial is one of the finest examples from the whole of the UK, here's the original . I'm not the first to attempt to replicate it, Josiah Wedgwood had a go, although in terracotta and over industrialised for my liking. The refinement of this pot and the care with which the decoration has been applied make it a real challenge to replicate. To a lesser degree the same is true of the grape cup with over 150 individually applied pellets and between each pair, a hole bored through to the interior, at only 6cm tall, that's a lot of detail packed into a very small pot. The third item here is the "Ceramic Object", found in the fill of Aubrey Hole number 29 and so called because no one knows exactly what it is.  

My replicas on display at Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes

The pots below are in the education rooms at Stonehenge

Early Neolithic Carinated Bowl, Grooved Ware Pot, Wilsford Beaker and Ceramic Object

My final job is to make the pots for the Neolithic houses so watch this space.


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Replica Egyptian Canopic Jars

A set of canopic jars with their storage chest made recently for Maidstone Museum's educational handling collection.

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Slipware Exhibition Pieces

In preparation for a couple of forthcoming exhibitions I've been making a few slipware pieces, starting with this jug for the Saint Valentine's show at Crown Studio Gallery, Bridge Street, Rothbury, Northumberland. It has a heart formed from flowers on one side and Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments", on the reverse.

For the Parkmade exhibition at Preston Hall Museum, Eaglescliffe, Stockton, I've made this piece inspired by Lewis Carroll's poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter, from Through the Looking- Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872. 

And lastly this platter also on its way to Preston Hall.

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Roman Antefixa for Grosvenor Museum

I've been making lots of replicas for museums and individuals in the past few weeks.  Today I sent out three Replica Roman Antifixa (Antefixes) which will become part of the new display at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester.  An antefix is a decorative terminal which finishes off the lower edge of a tiled roof, in this case a Roman roof covered with Tegula and Imbrex tiles.  From left to right they bear the following relief images:
The Boar emblem of the 20th (XX) Legion, the lion and Jupiter Ammun.  The making of these involved first calculating the shrinkage of the clay through each stage of the manufacturing process so that I could make punches, to make the moulds, to make the antefixa. Given the high quality moulding on the faces and the rather rustic approach to the rest of the decoration, I suspect that the faces may have been 'sampled' from something like a legionary standard.

Here you can see a set of Antefixa in place on a miniature Roman roof that I also made for the Grosvenor.

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Potted History Public Events 2012

It's been a hectic summer and I've been all over the country demonstrating ancient pottery techniques, here are some of the main events I attended.

I had a great weekend at  the Bedford, River Festival on 21^st and 22nd July making replicas of ancient Greek Rhytons, Amphorae and Epinetrons. On Friday 3^rd August  I was on the Solway, at Senhouse Roman Fort, Maryport, Cumbria.  Demonstrating Roman pottery making with both the Potter’s Wheel and moulds, including the Senhouse Samian bowl. quite a few children had a go at making their own Samian Ware bowl.

On a very rainy Sunday 5^th August I was at Paxton House, celebrating Paxton "Before the House" with some Prehistoric, Neolithic and Bronze-Age pottery demonstrations.  I showed how the beakers discovered last year at Fishwick had been created, from the making of stone, bone and antler tools through processing the clay to decorating pots. I was joined by Kristian Pedersen the archaeologist leading the excavation, who demonstrated the ancient craft of flintknapping.

From Saturday 11^th to  Monday 19^th August, I worked my way along the middle section of Hadrian's Wall in the guise of Bellicus the itinerant Roman Potter demonstrating how the Romans made many different types of pottery and answering questions on how they used these pots.

Saturday 25^th to Monday 27^th August I was atop the dizzy heights of Dover Castle demonstrating Roman pottery making and giving children the chance to make a Roman Gladiator votive plaque.

Kirknewton Festival, in Northumberland on Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd of September was an absolute joy and here you'd have found me  making and firing Prehistoric Bronze-Age pottery, While Paula Constantine demonstrated ancient spinning, dying and weaving.

On the 22nd & 23rd September I had my first opportunity to work at Beamish Open Air Museum.  In the wonderful surroundings of the Home Farm I made country slipware jugs, bowls and platters in the style of !8th and 19th Century potters.

And continuing the theme of Victorian Pottery on Sunday 30^th of September I’ll be at Preston Hall for their Parkmade Event, where I’ll be demonstrating the skills of a Victorian country slipware potter and even offering you the opportunity to have a go and possibly purchase some of my wares.

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I'm working on stock for my trip to TORM (The Original Re-enactors' Market) next week, so today I've been making Roman barbotine decorated, colour coated, hunt cups.  This involves building up the relief decoration using very thick slip.  For absolute authenticity I'm using a cows horn and goose quill slip trailer!

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The Eagles Have Landed Installation at Tullie House Carlisle

OK I'm going to try to catch up on some of the projects that I've been involved in over the past year, they might not be in chronological order but here goes.

First I have finally installed the sculptural piece that I made along with students from Burnside Business & Enterprise College at Wallsend.  (Click here to see my earlier post) It's situated in the Border Galleries, not in the new Roman Frontier Gallery and, if I do say so myself, I think it looks pretty good.

The piece features a Haltern70 Amphora pouring out coins across a map of the Roman World and represents the idea of Rome as a global commercial enterprise.  

The map itself is composed of terracotta fragments each one bearing the thumbprint of one of the students that made it.  Since the most common artifact on a Roman site is usually  the pottery sherd it seemed appropriate that the empire should be represented by this medium.

The coins bear the heads of emporers like Galba, Titus, Vespasian, and the provinces of the empire and beyond are named on embossed copper plaques.

The Amphora and the coins were fired in one of my Roman kilns and here you can see a pot full of the coins glowing red hot in the fire.

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