Coiling 5 Places Lecture
1) Minoan Culture, southern islands of present day Greece. 2700-1450 BCE.
Images: Octopus Pot, Crete
Coiled Pitchers from Santorini
2) Bantu Speaking Africa, South and Central Africa
Images: South African Artist Nesta Nala with fine art examples of Black
Fired Zulu Beer Pots.
Pottery made by her daughter Jabu Nala.
Black Fired Figurative Effigy from Congo. These were made for local chiefs and
western trade between 1900-1920 when the Congo was first a private fiefdom of the
Belgian King Leopold II (1885-1908) and then a Belgian Colony governed by the
Belgian Parliament.
Vessels made by Magdalene Odundo. Odundo: born in Kenya, raised in India, went to
university in England, studied pottery in American Southwest , Kenya and Japan, now
teaches in Surrey, England.
3) Ancient traditions and revived forms from what is now U.S. Southwest (New Mexico,
Arizona, Colorado) and the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora where Anasazi,
Mogollon and Hohokam Cultures lived
Images: Pottery from Casa Grandes area of Chihuahua, circa 13th and 14th century,
pre-Spanish.
Mimbres plate from southern New Mexico. The Mimbres people lived in the area from
100 AD to 1150 AD. They are sometimes seen as a branch of Mogollon Culture.
Juan Quezada, who in the 1950s, developed a contemporary style of pottery that
revived the ancient designs of Casa Grandes. His village, Mata Ortiz, is now a center
of pottery production.
Pottery by Maria Martinez, San ldefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. The Pueblo people have
continuously inhabited San Ildefonso since 1300 AD. The Pueblo people’s ancestors
were the Anasazi, or Ancestral Pueblo People whose pottery shards can still be found
in nearby cliff dwellings. Already a potter, Martinez work became famous when she
and her husband Julian Martinez began incorporating pre-historic, Anasazi
techniques into their work around 1904.
4) India – For a comprehensive look at historic Indian ceramics, see Traditional Pottery
of India by Jane Perryman (here in the ceramics library).
Images:
Coiling method that starts with a thick disc that is thinned and pulled upwards before
coils are added - all this done on a bat turned with the foot. Maharashtra, Central
India.
Expanding thrown pots with paddles and anvils in Himachal Pradesh (N. India, near
the Himalayas).
Firing large water pots made by coiling inside press molds, just outside Delhi, Capitol
of India.
Coiling large ceramic horse, Tamil Nadu, Southern India.
5) Korea, the Onggi Tradition.
Onggi are a folk pottery tradition. Onggi are used to store and ferment vegetables and
sauces (kimchee, soy sauce). They are often coiled on a kick wheel, using both flattened
and round coils. There is now an Onggi Festival in Ulsan, Korea every autumn.
Images: Onggi and utube: “Korean Onggi Potter”, Part 1, Part 2 and Lids.