Handmade Pottery Starts With THIS Brutal Process

The clay deposit lies about three feet beneath a layer of loamy topsoil. Because of this, it can be reached easily in the small open pit the potter has dug in his own meadow. The unusable loam is first loosened with a mattock and then shoveled out. To make it suitable for pottery it has to be blended with a richer, lighter coloured clay. The freshly dug clay, or earth as the potters call it, is packed into baskets that also serve as a standard unit of measure. Each basket holds about 50 pounds. A load of four baskets weighs roughly 200 pounds total. Mixed with an equal amount of clay from the Sponheim forest, this provides enough material for two full workdays at the potter's wheel. Fresh clay has to be brought through the driveway into the courtyard. In one corner is a walled clay storage pit, used for holding raw material. Before the raw clay can be used in the workshop, it must first be processed and prepared for throwing on the wheel. First the large clumps are broken apart with a mattock. The two kinds of clay, the red clay and the white clay, are stored separately in different corners of the pit. Water is then poured over the material so it can soak thoroughly. After that, the two prepared piles are moved to a separate area away from the remaining raw clay. There the soaked clay is left to sit for one to two days until it has fully absorbed the water and softened enough for further processing. In the next stage of preparation, the soaked red clay must first be cut and blended. This is done on a rounded three-legged chopping block set up inside the workshop. Cutting means thoroughly mixing the two types of clay together. To do this, the clay is stacked basket by basket on top of the block. First, one basket of rich pottery clay is placed down. To keep the clay from sticking, the inside of the basket is dusted with wood ash. The potter then fills it with the lean Bokkenau clay. By rolling the basket back and forth on the ground, he loosens the clay from the basket walls before flipping it upside down onto the first layer. To keep the stacked layers standing upright, the sides are tapped into shape with a wooden clay beater. The two kinds of clay can still be clearly distinguished by colour in the layered column. The finished clay stack measures about 16 inches across and stands roughly 31 inches high. It weighs approximately 440 pounds. After processing, this quantity of clay is enough for one potter to shape into vessels during a single workday. Before the cutting begins, the stone floor around the tripod block in the front part of the workshop is carefully cleaned. The cutting tool is a sickle-shaped blade, which the potter uses to shave long, thin strips downward from the top of the clay stack. As the strips fall to the floor, the two types of clay begin their first rough blending. Stones caught by the blade interrupt the smooth cutting motion and produce a metallic rattling sound, making them easy to locate and remove. To prevent the clay stack from toppling over, the potter alternates between opposite sides as he cuts, moving his position around the block as needed. Smaller stones that could interfere with forming the pottery are much harder to detect during cutting. Later, hard impurities are crushed in the clay mill and become harmless, while fibrous material is worked to the surface during kneading at the wedging bench, where it can be picked out by hand. Each cut always passes through two layers of clay at once. When the potter has moved around to the fourth side, his helper has already begun gathering the sliced clay from the floor. By now, only a narrow, four-sided cone remains standing on the tripod block, where the original clay stack has been cut almost completely away. The remaining clay is cut completely away from the block, because leftover clay scraps can dry out and later become hard lumps when mixed into freshly soaked clay. The wooden chopping block has to be cleaned carefully after each batch. One stacked clay column usually produces 15 workable lumps, each about 10 to 12 inches thick. For the next preparation stage, these pieces must be gathered together again into a single pile. The next goal is to moisten the clay as evenly as possible. The potter dips and turns each individual lump in water before throwing it forcefully onto the working area near the wall. He builds this pile, where the clay is meant to age or mature, with a broad base, tearing the lumps apart slightly so they join together into one continuous mass. Water is then added so it can remain in the gaps between the clay sections. To reduce drying, the surface area of the pile is kept as small as possible by shaping it into a rounded mound without bumps or ridges. Finally, the entire pile is smoothed and compacted with a wooden mallet. Until further processing, the mound is covered with wet sacks to keep it from drying out. The earliest it can be used is the following morning, after the moisture has spread evenly throughout the clay. At that point, the clay has reached the necessary softness and flexibility for grinding. The clay mill, operated with a hand crank, is built similarly to the grape crushers traditionally used during the wine harvest. At the bottom of the hopper are two iron rollers set close together and turning in opposite directions. They grab the slabs of clay cut from the pile and press them into sheets only fractions of an inch thick. During this process, any remaining stones and hardened lumps are crushed apart. Even after grinding, however, the clay is still not ready for the potter's wheel. Its streaked colouring shows that the two clay types are not yet fully blended. Once part of the clay has passed through the mill, the potter removes it from beneath the rollers, gathers it into a mass and carries it to the other end of the workshop. From this point on, the helper takes over the grinding work. Along the window side of the shop stands the wedging bench, built from thick oak planks reinforced underneath for strength. This is where the final stage of clay preparation takes place. Wedging the clay. The potter slams a lump weighing about 40 to 50 pounds down onto the bench surface, presses part of it downward over the edge with both hands and then folds it back onto the main mass. The clay must be worked on the wedging bench until it becomes completely uniform in texture. Although the two clay types were combined during cutting and grinding, they were still only partially mixed together, as shown by the visible streaks. During the wedging process, which lasts about 20 minutes, the rich clay and lean clay gradually become fully integrated with one another. Eventually the clay develops a uniform pale yellow colour, signalling to the potter that it has been fully prepared. Because ready-to-throw clay quickly loses its proper qualities as moisture evaporates, it is never prepared in large quantities. The potter usually finishes preparing the day's clay in the morning before beginning work at the wheel. The clay originally stacked into a single column yields enough material for four of these large prepared lumps after nearly all of it has passed through the mill. The repeated slamming and folding process also compresses the clay, driving out trapped air completely. The remaining ground clay is carefully covered with wet sacks to keep it workable for the following day. The finished lump of wedged clay is then kneaded once more on the bench before use. During this step, the potter presses the clay outward with the heels of his hands, rolls it back together and folds both ends inward over the centre. In this way the clay is worked repeatedly, much like kneading bread dough. Finally the entire mass is shaped into a thick cylinder-like roll. One prepared clay mass produces six of these tails, each measuring about 16 inches long and 6 inches thick. These rolls are then divided into smaller portions known as lumps. The carefully shaped lumps are the starting material for the actual pottery making process. Once all of the prepared clay has been divided into lumps, the potter can finally begin work at the wheel. If this craft had disappeared completely, we wouldn't even know what we lost. If you want more stories like this, support Unearthed by liking this video and subscribing, and tell us in the comments, what forgotten craft should we uncover next?