(in this picture, we are warming the pots up to the fire, before putting them in. This helps prevent cracking)
I recently got some film developed and I am super excited that the primitive pottery firing I did with some friends turned out. Since my camera is pretty old, (a Pentax k2) sometimes things just don't turn out or a whole roll is weird for whatever reason.
Primitive pottery is essentially the process of making ceramics without most modern technology. You dig the clay, temper it, strain it, cure it. You mold the clay by hand (in this case we hand coiled). You make the paints from plants or other pigments in the land. You burnish it if you want with stones. You shape the pots with roots. You fire the pots using a hot fire with wood that burns hot. How this process looks will be different depending on where you are.
(my friend Erin helping co-teach pit firing)
(John Makhewa in front, Hopi/Tewa potter, who was teaching us traditional coiling techniques)
(A crazy triple exposure photo done on accident. My camera tends to do this at the end of the roll, This is showing us mid-firing)
I like to document things like this in my travels. I also truly value making things with my hands, from the earth with simpler technology. I find it therapeutic, comforting, centering.
I am starting a podcast, both Erin featured in one of the photos, and John, have been interviewed and will be featured in the coming months. Itunes is in the process of 'approving' the show, and when it does, I will be relieved! I aim to interview craftspeople, herbalists, farmers, artists, folks who work with the land in some way.
I think because of being from a small town in the southeastern region of the U.S., which is seen from the outside as super conservative and single-minded, I'd like to dispel some of that myth, as well as form bridges to other places and cultures through interviews, and my artwork and writing too. I'm not trying to say that some of the bad stuff that happens, and the discrimination that occurs in the south is okay. It happens everywhere though. I think the biggest bridge I have found is between people and things they make with their hands.
We all have heritages that contain traditions that connect to the land in some way. John taught us his pottery techniques, but of course we wouldn't copy the Hopi/Tewa art that is traditionally used. There is a fine line between respect/connection and disrespect. Perhaps though, that conversation is for another time (and certainly will be happening on the podcast).