1.

Introduction

Pottery has been around for many years to express different styles of art in different
countries. To be very well in pottery one must have patience and take the time to
practice and learn the skills.

2. Body
A. History
A1. The oldest known pottery fragments stem from the Hittite
civilization, 1400-1200 B.C.
A9. Around 5000 B.C. the potter's wheel was invented, probably by the
Sumerians of the Tigris-Euphrates basin or by the Chinese. The potter's
wheel allows the potter to throw even, symmetrical shapes in much
less time and with far less effort. They are thought to have been in
operation even before wheels were used for transportation.
D1. p.13- Much early pottery was made in the shape and texture of
baskets--a fact which strongly suggests the probability that pottery
began as mud smeared on the inside of baskets to make them more
water or rodent proof.
H1. The word ceramic can be traced back to the Greek term keramos,
meaning a potter or pottery. Keramos in turn is related to an older
Sanskrit root meaning to burn. Thus the early Greeks used the term
to mean burned stuff or burned earth when referring to products
obtained through the action of fire upon earthy materials.ceramic
materials
H2.Ceramics can be defined as inorganic, nonmetallic materials. They
are typically crystalline in nature and are compounds formed between
metallic and nonmetallic elements such as aluminum and oxygen
(alumina-Al2O3), calcium and oxygen (calcia - CaO), and silicon and
nitrogen (silicon nitride-Si3N4).

B. Different styles in countries

C1. In the Middle Neolithic, people began producing another kind of
pottery with red and white decoration in geometric patterns, which is
known as Sesklo ware.
C3. When the Indo-European Greeks arrived in Greece around 2100
BC, they brought with them a new kind of pottery known as Minyan
Ware. Minyan ware is kind of boring to look at, because it is just plain

gray all over (though it is a rather attractive gray, and well-made in

nice shapes).
Paleolithic Pottery-Pottery found in the Japanese islands has been
dated, by uncalibrated radiocarbon dating, to around the 11th
millennium BC, in the Japanese Paleolithic at the beginning of the
Jomon period. This is the oldest known pottery. In Europe, burnt clay
was already known in the late Paleolithic (Magdalenian) and was used
for female figurines, like the Venus of Dolni Vestonice (Czech
Republic), as well as figures of animals.
Korean potters-Chinese pottery and porcelain always exerted a
strong influence in Korea, but Korean potters introduced subtle
variations on Chinese models. Gray stoneware, found in tombs, was
typical of the Silla dynasty (4th to 10th century ad).Song-influenced
celadons characterize pottery of the Kory dynasty (918-1392)
Neolithic pottery-In Palestine, Syria and south-eastern Turkey, the
earliest finds of clay pots date from Neolithic times, around the 8th
millennium BC (black burnished ware).Before that, clay had been used
to make statuettes of humans and animals that were sometimes burned
as well. In the preceding Pre-Pottery Neolithic, vessels made of stone,
gypsum and burnt lime (vaiselles blanches or white ware) had been
used. Sometimes a mixture of clay and lime was used, not very
successfully, in the earliest pottery
Pottery in Egypt-Pottery was one of the earliest art forms
undertaken by the ancient Egyptians. Pieces from the Predynastic
period (5000 bc-3000 bc) are decorated with ostriches, boats, and
geometrical designs.In the 5th millennium bc Egyptian potters made
graceful, thin, dark, highly polished ware with subtle cord decoration.
The painted ware of the 4th millennium, with geometric and animal
figures on red, brown, and buff bodies, was not of the same high
standard
Ceramics in Greece-The fashioning and painting of ceramics was a
major art in classical Greece. Native clay was shaped easily on the
wheel, and each distinct form had a name and a specific function in
Greek society and ceremonial

C. Pottery Skills
G2. P.34- Rope-like strips of clay, called coils, can be wrapped to create
flat or dimensional forms, or used to reinforce part of a clay piece.
G3. P.46- Tossed slabs are best suited for the kind of organic forms you
get from hump and slump molds because the clay particles are
repeatedly curved during the tossing. Organic form are more forgiving
of slight shifts in shape during drying and firing.

G5. P.117- You don't just fill a kiln with forms, flick a switch and walk
away. The temperature of the kiln must be raised slowly, held at a peak
temperature, and then lowered in a controlled fashion. This is called
the firing schedule
F1. P.18- While clay is in a soft, pliable state it will respond to pressure
exerted on it, this is called Beating. Throwers sometimes beat the sides
of pots to make a flattened surface. Or "paddle" the shape they are
working on as a method of construction.