User:TheA04/Potter's wheel

History

A graphic representation of a primitive rotating pottery wheel made of clay and positioned on the ground, based on archaeological finds in Romania

A graphic depiction of an ancient potter's wheel proposed by archaeologist Ștefan Cucoș, based on the findings in Valeni, Feliceni and Ghelăiești in Romania

Most early ceramic ware was hand-built using a simple coiling technique in which clay was rolled into long threads that were then pinched and smoothed together to form the body of a vessel. In the coiling method of construction, all the energy required to form the main part of a piece is supplied indirectly by the hands of the potter. Early ceramics built by coiling were often placed on mats or large leaves to allow them to be worked more conveniently. The evidence of this lies in mat or leaf impressions left in the clay of the base of the pot. This arrangement allowed the potter to rotate the vessel during construction, rather than walk around it to add coils of clay.

Before discussions involving the Potter’s Wheel starts there is need to acknowledge the techniques used before the Potters wheel. Prior to using a wheel all of these civilizations used techniques such as pinching, coiling, paddling, and shaping to create ceramic forms. In addition, several of these crafts can continue to be used while on the wheel to create more rounded or symmetrical shapes.

The Potter’s Wheel was created and formed in many different cultures from all around the world, and for different reasons. Some examples include the Sumerians, Chinese, Japanese, Egyptians, Byzantines, and various other Native American groups. These groups have created different technologies which employ very distinct skills and inventions, which represent their own cultures and values that they have.

The oldest forms of the potter's wheel (called tourneys or slow wheels) were probably developed as an extension to this procedure. Tournettes, in use around 4500 BC in the Near East, were turned slowly by hand or by foot while coiling a pot. Only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. The introduction of the slow wheel increased the efficiency of hand-powered pottery production.

In the mid to late 3rd millennium BC the fast wheel was developed, which operated on the flywheel principle. It utilised energy stored in the rotating mass of the heavy stone wheel itself to speed the process. This wheel was wound up and charged with energy by kicking, or pushing it around with a stick, providing angular momentum. The fast wheel enabled a new process of pottery-making to develop, called throwing, in which a lump of clay was placed centrally on the wheel and then squeezed, lifted and shaped as the wheel turned. The process tends to leave rings on the inside of the pot and can be used to create thinner-walled pieces and a wider variety of shapes, including stemmed vessels, so wheel-thrown pottery can be distinguished from handmade. Potters could now produce many more pots per hour, a first step towards industrialization.

Potter in Guatil, Costa Rica, using a hand-powered wheel, 2003

Many modern scholars suggest that the first potter's wheel was first developed by the ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia. A stone potter's wheel found at the Sumerian city of Ur in modern-day Iraq has been dated to about 3129 BC, but fragments of wheel-thrown pottery of an even earlier date have been recovered in the same area. However, southeastern Europe and China have also been claimed as possible places of origin. Furthermore, the wheel was also in popular use by potters starting around 3500 BC in major cities of the Indus Valley civilization in South Asia, namely Harappa and Mohenjo-daro (Kenoyer, 2005). Others consider Egypt as "being the place of origin of the potter's wheel. It was here that the turntable shaft was lengthened about 3000 BC and a flywheel added. The flywheel was kicked and later was moved by pulling the edge with the left hand while forming the clay with the right. This led to the counterclockwise motion for the potter's wheel which is almost universal." Hence the exact origin of the wheel is not wholly clear yet.

A potter shapes pottery with his hands while operating a mechanical potter's wheel with his foot, 1902

In the Iron Age, the potter's wheel in common use had a turning platform about one metre (3 feet) over the floor, connected by a long axle to a heavy flywheel at ground level. This arrangement allowed the potter to keep the turning wheel rotating by kicking the flywheel with the foot, leaving both hands free for manipulating the vessel under construction. However, from an ergonomic standpoint, sweeping the foot from side to side against the spinning hub is rather awkward. At some point, an alternative solution was invented that involved a crankshaft with a lever that converted up-and-down motion into rotary motion.

In Japan the potter's wheel first showed by in the Asuka or Sueki period (552–710 CE) where wares were more sophisticated and complicated. In addition to the new technology of the wheel, firing was also changed to a much higher temperature in a rudimentary kiln. The industrialization continued through the Nara period (710–794) and into the Heian, or Fujiwara, period (794–1185). With higher temperature firings, new glazes followed (green, yellowish brown, and white), in addition new styles and techniques of glazing emerged.

Ceramics wares that emerged from China were processed with a very similar beginning as Japan. Chinses pottery was started in the Neolithic era about 4300 BC down to 2000 BC. Unlike Japan, who focused on production of everyday wares, China create mostly decorative pieces and created very little opportunities for industrialization and production of ceramics wares. Because China focused on decorative wares most of their pottery was centered around porcelain instead of earthen wares seem almost everywhere else. The Chinese created the potter's wheel for the development of porcelain clay culture. Porcelain took off during the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), this is when the decorative landscapes and flower emerged in the iconic blue and white porcelain ceramics. Although the art has died out, several places in China mix traditional elements and methods with modern design and technologies.

Native American Shipibo jar

Native Americans have been creating ceramics by hand and in more modern eras started incorporating a wheel into their work. Pottery can be identified in the Southwest of North American dating back to 150 CE and has been an important part of Native American culture for over 2,000 years. Historically Native Americans have been using the coiling method to achieve their decorative and functional pieces, and the technology to create an electric wheel did not show up until the arrival of Europeans. However, smaller turntables or slow wheels could have been used occasionally. Nowadays the wheel is used to speed up the process of Native American pottery, while still retaining the cultural ties and the symbolism.

The use of the motor-driven wheel has become common in modern times, particularly with craft potters and educational institutions, although human-powered ones are still in use and are preferred by some studio potters.

Industrialization

Production of Ceramics

Social consequences that can arrive of these technological advancements include increased economic advancements in the sales of pottery created using the potter’s wheel and industrialization of the ceramics processes. The potter’s wheel greatly increased the production rate of ceramics, which allowed for more products to be created. In Japan, pottery took on a functional role as ceramics became a material for bowls and pots that were priced very reasonably. However, with the industrialization of ceramics in Japan, ceramics also lost some of its historical value, and some techniques and meanings of the ceramics were lost in the process.

The Native Americans made sure to utilize the ceramic wheel in such a way that their historical culture and meaning behind the ceramics were not lost. Only using the wheel to lessen the burden of hours and hours of work put behind these pieces.

Social Issues

There is interplay between the potter’s wheel and many different social identities that can be discussed, most noticeably: class, disability, and underrepresented groups. Class has a connection to the pottery wheel in modern times due to the high cost to obtain the materials and technology to complete the craft. Therefore people who come from lower income backgrounds are excluded from trying pottery and are separated from this technology.

Disability also creates a divide in the interplay of pottery. The determination of who gets to use the potter’s wheel is separated by the necessity for a person to be physically able to participate. This separates people based on their ability to utilize their bodies. The potter's wheel requires some amount of physical ability, and this is a boundary that may not have a solution. However, you can create function pieces for those with disabilities with the potter’s wheel.

People are separated by the underrepresented groups and the overlooked contributions throughout history. History, especially history taught in the west, is focused on the western contributions and overlooks the Native Americans, Asians, Africans and the Middle East. In addition many groups are treated as less deserving of recognition. Many groups of people who made inventions related to the potter’s wheel are not credited or treated without respect.

The original ceramics wheel was only available to artists and had to be created by craftsmen. It is through industrialization that people from different walks to life can try using a potter’s wheel. In addition, there have been more movements to make art more accessible people from many different classes. The potter’s wheel can solve some boundaries with functional pieces of ceramics, however there are still many barriers such as money and physical ability that the potter’s wheel creates.

Techniques of throwing

A skilled potter can quickly throw a vessel from up to 15 kg (30 lb) of clay. Alternatively, by throwing and adding coils of clay then throwing again, pots up to four feet high may be made, the heat of a blowlamp being used to firm each thrown section before adding the next coil. In Chinese manufacturing, very large pots are made by two throwers working simultaneously.

The potter's wheel in myth and legend

In Ancient Egyptian mythology, the deity Khnum was said to have formed the first humans on a potter's wheel.