Carter Pottery: Yixing: BIG pots pt. 3. The biggest surprise of my Yixing trip was viewing their big pot tradition for the first time. I have been using Yixing big pot clay for my own work for the past 18 months but I had yet to see one of the pots in person. They knocked my socks off to say the least. The tradition ranges from closed jars to "planter" shapes. Originally used for pickling and food storage these are now mostly decorative. The building technique is a variation of coiling and paddling that is similar to the Korean Onggi style of big pot making (Click here to see a video).
The decoration is applied by smearing on white clay. I was struck by the similarity between these pots and some of the 19th Century Alkaline glazed stoneware of the Carolinas. The pots pictured above are from the late Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. In the picture below you can see the saggars stacked inside the chamber. My last post about Yixing will be about the clay itself. Handmade pottery by vesselsandwares. Jeanette zeis ceramics. Louisville Stoneware | Home. Pottery Gallery: fine art ceramics studio pottery clay artists. Founded in 2002, MudFire Gallery combines the formal aesthetics of a white box exhibit space, with the casual atmosphere of our Front Room, which presents an assortment of accessible functional ceramics.
The Gallery mounts exhibitions highlighting the work of studio potters, clay artists and ceramic sculptors with a strong emphasis on emerging and mid-career artists. Curated and juried shows highlight works in solo and themed group exhibitions. The gallery is located in Decatur, a college town in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia. For over nine years, the gallery has shared its location with MudFire Clayworks, a pottery studio which supports the ceramic arts through workshops, artist residencies, studio space and lessons geared to all levels of pottery students.
Approximately twenty-five exhibitions are mounted each year, including large group exhibits and solo shows. Our current Calls for Artists for group theme shows are available here. New Georgia Encyclopedia: Folk Pottery. Georgia is famed for its bountiful clay resources. It is not the state's ubiquitous red clay that has been exploited commercially, but more localized clays such as kaolin and fuller's earth. Most important in the story of Georgia folk pottery is stoneware clay, concentrated as alluvial deposits along middle Georgia's fall line and scattered above in the Piedmont geologic province. Wares made of this fine-grained, relatively pure clay, which fires to a light gray or tan, were tough enough to withstand rough usage on the farm. Georgia's 450 or so known folk potters did not consider themselves artists but humble artisans, like the blacksmith or basket maker.
They were in business to provide fellow farmers with such sturdy vessels as jugs to store whiskey and cane syrup, churns to make butter and buttermilk, and jars to preserve vegetables, fruit, and meat. Pioneer potters settled along the fall line and in the Piedmont where the relatively pure stoneware clay was concentrated. Welcome to the Georgia Clay Council. Pottery for Sale - Something Southern Pottery.