Our nation's fair capital boasts a rich collection of museums and some of those museums have pottery and some of that pottery is Relevant To My Interests. I've already shown you the pictures I took in the Freer and Sackler galleries in one of my very first entries. Here I am going to follow up on all that and tell you what I actually learned from those pieces and the captions of the pieces in the Sackler exhibit "Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia."
Potters in Southeast Asia are to this day primarily women and as far as I can tell by looking at the captions of this exhibit, didn't use potter's wheels. The tool kit is minimal, and the hands are the best tools. (I like this, I agree with it.) The actual tools vary among cultures.
The potter first makes the vessel mouth and rim on a preliminary form and then shapes and finishes the body. (At first I thought this meant the pots are made in two pieces and then joined, but I decided I think it just means that the piece is made and the rim is shaped first and then the potter moves on to finishing the body.) Most potters use wooden paddles and anvils of stone or fired clay for shaping. They strike the paddle against the soft wall of the pot, which is supported by the anvil held inside, to produce the final form. Some potters use bamboo or metal rings to scrape the clay to its desired thickness and shape.
Stoneware vessels served universally as containers until the introduction of glass, metal, and plastic. Small jars (with stoppers of wood, paper or leaves) held tea, salt, or cooking sauces. Some jars, such as the thick-walled bottles made at the Sankamphaeng kilns, probably transported specific, though unknown, commercial products. Larger jars contained a fermented mixture of cooked ricce and yeast, which were used to make beer.
Containers for lime paste, a substance made from burnt shells which was stimulant and a symbol of hospitality, were prevalent in east Asian culture, especially Cambodia, where the pot is named for the ak, a bird which cries for its mate when it is absent. The pots were sometimes shaped like the bird as well.
Stoneware was also used to make ritual vessels, which often involved the pouring of water or oil. ourd-shaped bottles with human features were for pouring water. Other common containers have lids with lotus leaf designs, and were probably used for holding cremated human remains. A lot of stoneware sculpture has also been discovered, mostly animals, which may have been offered to gods or may simply have been children's toys, nobody knows.
On making clay vessels:
The potter first makes the vessel mouth and rim on a preliminary form and then shapes and finishes the body. (At first I thought this meant the pots are made in two pieces and then joined, but I decided I think it just means that the piece is made and the rim is shaped first and then the potter moves on to finishing the body.) Most potters use wooden paddles and anvils of stone or fired clay for shaping. They strike the paddle against the soft wall of the pot, which is supported by the anvil held inside, to produce the final form. Some potters use bamboo or metal rings to scrape the clay to its desired thickness and shape.
On the uses of clay vessels:
Containers for lime paste, a substance made from burnt shells which was stimulant and a symbol of hospitality, were prevalent in east Asian culture, especially Cambodia, where the pot is named for the ak, a bird which cries for its mate when it is absent. The pots were sometimes shaped like the bird as well.
Stoneware was also used to make ritual vessels, which often involved the pouring of water or oil. ourd-shaped bottles with human features were for pouring water. Other common containers have lids with lotus leaf designs, and were probably used for holding cremated human remains. A lot of stoneware sculpture has also been discovered, mostly animals, which may have been offered to gods or may simply have been children's toys, nobody knows.
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