Chapter I: Preface

An art like pottery-making, which is nearly as old as the human race, is naturally approached with some degree of reverence. One thinks of its old masters in various lands and ages—how they were content to spend a lifetime in the study and practice of it.

There is, however, another thought that comes to mind—that this art, like every other, had to have its beginning. Moreover, every potter, from the primitive man who first realised that clay which held water could be moulded into portable vessels for a like purpose, to the artist potter of to-day, has learned the first steps of the craft.

It was this thought that encouraged me to study the beginnings of pottery, and that leads me to offer this book to those who would also start clay-working, with no other qualification than the wish to learn how to make pottery.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Clays and Tools 3

II. Hand-made Pottery 15

III. Working on the Wheel 27

IV. Methods of Decoration 41

V. The Glaze and How to Apply It 55

VI. Pottery for Beauty and Use 67

VII. How to Make a Plaster Mould 91

VIII. The Making of a Tile 103

IX. The Kiln 113

X. Basket-Covered Pottery 125

XI. Indian Pottery 149

XII. Modern American Pottery 167

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Newcomb Pottery Jug _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

Building a Piece of Pottery:

1. Making the First Coil. 2. Testing the
Outline. 3. Continuing the Piece 18

Working on the Wheel:

1. A pale-green bowl for flowers. 2. A cream-jug.
3. A flower-jar with two handles. 4. A
nasturtium bowl 38

Methods of Decoration:

1. A large fruit-bowl. 2 and 3. Low dishes
for candy. 4. A lamp-bowl 38

Where Use and Beauty are Combined 68

Pottery for Beauty and Use:

1. Rose-bowl. 2. A low Dutch dish. 3. Fruit-bowl 80

How to Make a Plaster Mould:

1. A plaster mould. 2. A rose-bowl 80

Pottery for Beauty and Use:

1. Lamp-bowl. 2. Candlestick. 3. Wall-jar
for water-plants. 4. A flower candlestick 80

The Making of a Tile 108

Basket-covered Pottery 126

Indian Pottery 156

Indian Pottery 162

Teco Ware 172

Some Pieces of Volkmar Pottery 176

A Piece of Newcomb Pottery 178

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURES PAGE

1 10

2 10

3 10

4 10

5 10

6 11

7 11

8 12

9 17

10 27

11 29

12 33

13 33

14 34

15 35

16 35

17 39

18 39

19 39

20 45

21 46

22 49

23 49

24 50

25 70

26 72

27 73

28 77

29 79

30 80

31 84

32 84

33 94

34 96

35 99

36 104

37 104

38 106

39 106

40 107

41 107

42 109

43 109

44 115

45 116

46 120

47 127

48 133

49 138

50 141

51 142

52 144

53 150

54 150

55 151

56 151

57 152

58 153

59 154

60 155

61 156

62 157

63 160

64 161

65 162

66 171

67 171

68 179

The Clays and Tools

HOW TO MAKE POTTERY