November, [906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



3' 7 



Domestic Art Pottery and Its Manufacture 



By Jane Stannard Johnson 



1 [E manufacture of art pottery is one of the 

 industries taken up in America in recent 

 years as a profitable business. Its growth 

 has been rapid, and the products from the 

 potteries are more perfect in artistic beauty 

 each year. Skilled artists and workmen ex- 

 pend brain and brawn striving to attain higher goals in the 

 perfection of these wares, and some beautiful productions 

 are now on the market of American manufacture. 



That all things were created for a wise purpose 

 one may believe, though but a small part is compre- ^£ 

 hended of the wonderful laws of creation in their 

 cause and effect. From very common mate- 

 rials beautiful results are often produced, 

 and nowhere do we find a more impressive ex 

 ample of this than in the magnificent and 

 costly ceramics, china and art pottery, 

 which are evolved from the common clay 

 dug from the ground, originally clay, but 

 finished a perfectly colored and blended 

 art jardiniere or vase. These wares pos- 

 sess an added charm from the very cir- 

 cumstance of their humble origin, and 

 the work of making art pottery presents 

 a subtle claim, for the process is somewhat 

 mysterious, and anything mysterious is 

 usually interesting. 



First, the clays must be procured from 

 which the bodies of the fine wares are made. 

 These are mined in most instances, but in some 

 cases they are obtained by stripping the earth 

 down to the body of the clay. The clay is com- 

 posed of several ingredients, such as spar, flint, 

 kaolin, and others, together with some foreign 

 substances which must be removed before the clay 

 can be used. 



After reaching the pottery, the several ingredients enter- 

 ing into the composition are weighed, and for this process a 

 most ingenious scale has been perfected. These scales are 

 sealed, so that the person performing the work can not 



Shaping Top of 

 Jardiniere 



tell just what weight of each kind of material enters into 

 the mixture. The illustration represents the scales as the 

 clays are being weighed out. The projections on the front 

 of the scales which look like hooks are markers. The body 

 of a vase is composed of various clays and substances, and 

 each one of these hooks represents a certain number of 

 pounds or ounces when the scale is balanced at certain 

 weights. A certain kind of clay is shoveled into the box 

 until the first hook comes down and balances. The 

 hook is then locked, and a certain amount of different 

 clay is shoveled in until the second comes down and 

 balances, showing that the right proportion of 

 this ingredient has been obtained, and so on 

 until the entire mixture is complete. The ob- 

 ject in keeping hid from the worker the exact 

 amount of all the different ingredients is 

 to preserve the secret of the body, the 

 composition of which is the first thing a 

 successful potter must know. 



After the weighing is completed, the 

 ingredients are thoroughly pulverized and 

 blunged (washed). The mixture then 

 passes through a filter press, after which 

 it is put into a mixing mill and mixed with 

 water to consistency required for working 

 into ware. The vase may be made by 

 hand or in a mould. If it is to be made in 

 a mould, the clay is mixed to the consistency 

 of thick cream, called "slip," and poured into 

 a plaster of paris mould. The mould absorbs 

 the water, and as the water oozes into the 

 mould, the clay is carried to the sides, where it 

 clings close. When the mould will no longer ab- 

 sorb water, the remainder of the mixture is poured 

 out of the mould. The shell of clay thus gives the 

 form of the vase. From the mould, the vase goes to the 

 finisher, who trims, sponges and smooths up the piece, and 

 removes all defects. 



If it is to be an underglazed art vase, it next goes to the 

 blender, who sprays it with a clay liquid containing mineral 



Varieties of Shapes and Decorations of Finished Pottery 



