Tiny ewer of success!

 The tiny ewer came out of the kiln yesterday and I couldn’t be more pleased. I thin this is one of those objects that will just make me smile for years to come. I love how well the sultanabad pattern I designed came out. It is perfect for the ballooned shape of the jug.

I also love the spout. I was never really happy with the elongated original. It wasn’t quite like the reference pictures and I didn’t like the balance. It was going to be a lot of work to modify once it’s been fired to bisque and I wasn’t confidant I’d be able to maintain the balance of the piece.

Once a bulk of the lip had accidentally chipped off, I sanded it back and cleaned it up with a kitchen scourer. One fresh coat of clear gloss later and lovely! So much happier and so glad an accident made the object even better than I was original planning.

Albarello London delft attempt

I love the Iznik inspired designs used on some London delft earthernware items. The concept of a design and motifs from China, inspiring craftspeople in Turkey whose objects then inspire craftspeople in Renaissance England and then inspire me is just delightful.

I thought I'd try the design below on one of the albarello's I made during Covid lockdown. I used white clay so an white underglaze was overkill. White underglaze would have also made the blue glaze more likely to bleed and introduces problems with glaze thickness. Cobalt blue seemed like the best colour to utilise in this design. Spoiler alert: blue on white glaze is also my favourite pallet by far.

The Iznik inspired design on this jar is delightful. London Delft blue and white jar. 1600-1640. Christies. Auction 2515, lot 68. 

Follow up - hydro abrasion fun

I previously posted two greenware cups which I'd decorated with hydroabrasion designs. I have now full glazed both of these and am moderately pleased with the results.

The first cup was dipped in midnight blue. This glaze is tricky because it's very thick and dries slowly. As it is translucent, it is very difficult to avoid finger prints unless you are using tongs to dip the cup. This only had a single coat of the blue as I was concerned that it'd be too runny and end up flowing down the foot. It has pooled there somewhat but has behaved remarkably well. I am curious if I dipped the rim to bring more colour to that edge, would I see a line?

This second cup was dipped in midight blue. This was then followed up with a aubergine rim. This really displays how runny the blue is as the line of the rim dip isn't smooth with a beautiful organic movement. I quite like this combination even if this isn't a medieval design. I also quite like the effect of the small divots in the flower design. This has created small dark pockets while the main form is outline in the white. This is a really effective three toned colour grouping. I will be trying this again.

Riffing on blue

Four versions of a theme

I recently started working with blue glazes again. I find them so much more visually pleasing and I feel they a much more striking. In an earlier post, I displayed my first Back to Blue cup. Once this was complete and before it was gloss glazed I was so pleased by the balance of the colours I thought I'd continue with that project. I have now produced an additional four cups. I feel they have varying stages of 'medievalness'. By this, I mean they tend to drift from the original source material through the use of colour and the placement of the design elements. I think the smallest cup is now my favourite but this exercise has been a really good exploration of how far I feel it is acceptable to wander with the use of design elements and still present something I'd be happy to call medieval.

First up is a tiny cup with a slight taper. This is half a step away from the original source material. The leaf forms and distribution remain true to the original designs. The main changes are the lack of secondary design elements. If this were more period, the background would be full of smaller interwoven buddy vine and swirl shapes and the spiral fill would be minimal. This is my favourite of the three because it still feels like it could be Kashani.

Three quarters of a step away. I then created a larger cup with better vine branching. There are less leaves in this design as well. I was thinking of continuing the spirals into the lower half and making a semi-matching set between the large and small cups but I wasn't sure. I consulted my brains trust (Brooke in this case) if I should do spirals or the more modern solid blue. As I was torn, I went with her suggestion. This is still half a step away because some of the extant objects have blue backgrounds. Again, for this cup, I have eliminated the secondary design elements. I have also chosen to segregate the dark blue half of the cup which I feel is a more modern aesthetic.

The final cup started out as a very period design - vines inside a lobe shape. I repeated this design three times around the cup because four resulted in skinny slivers and two had too much space between them. If I could have made four work, I might have flipped them in opposite orientations as I've seen on some period items.

I was a bit stuck on the best way to link them together. I decided to continue the solid blue theme and fill the background. I soon realised that this would be a little overwhelming so I added a small leaf cluster in the blue. I also felt that the design was a little too stark but I didn't want to use blue shading as I had on the other cups because I was afraid it's detract from the size of the leaves. Instead, I added three dark blue lobes within the design to link the white section to the blue. I think it' worked reasonably well but the stark divide between the lobe and the rest of the cup is again, another step towards modern. I also thought I'd try to tie the secondary vines into the design again by switching out the spirals for an unplanned viney tangle. As a background pattern its chaotic nature is quite pleasing and really helps the eye skip over those sections. I tied this together with the blue area by filling in the leaf cluster with a similar pattern. This is the most modern of the set of four and the largest

Here is the view of the leaf shape. Note the white froth at the base of the cup? The blue underglaze fills the pores of the clay body. As a result, it won't hold as much clear gloss glaze. The glaze tends to run off or not bond as well as I wish it would. As a result, these solid underglaze areas turn out more matt than glossy. It does create a rather pleasing texture and a nice contrast between the white and the blue areas but I think I'd rather a full gloss. This is a problem for my fully coloured arbarellos as well so I need to find a way to resolving this. I'm not sure if this means dipping the body, waiting days for it to dry fully and then dipping it in clear again. I am worried too much clear gloss will smear my lines. This is an experiment I'll have to undertake with a small cup so it doesn't take me forever and a day to decorate it.

Back to blue

I've spent a lot of time working with green overglaze these last few months. This was partly driven by the need to round out my skills with regards to my 12th night Arts and Sciences entry. While the green has been fun and I've enjoyed the new design elements, I must admit I find blue much more appealing. This piece was thrown during Covid19 lockdown times in my little basement workshop. I used PB103 white clay so I could avoid adding the complication of white underglaze. This piece has been fired to stoneware.

This piece was inspired by my previous arbarello collaboration piece. I rather liked the background fill and the use of white elements to balance the darker blue. I used 'Colbalt blue' underglaze for this one which is a much deeper, and delightfully dark blue. I do prefer the lighter Electric Blue I think but this is still pleasing.

13th century, Kashan, Cristies Auction 6628, lot 73.

Instead of copying a pattern direct, I thought I'd combine multiple design elements and continue my 'balance' project. I was largly inspired by the above asymmetric vine design. The image isn't amazing quality and remains quite fuzzy even when zoomed in which is unfortunate. I took inspiration from the vines as well as the white / black / blue balance. I've tried a number of versions of this which I'll post in future blog updates.

The design is symmetrical with a 1/2 division of the cup. after layering the underglaze, I dipped it in clear glaze. Once dry, I then carefully rubbed glaze with my finger tips to ensure no air bubbles had formed. This seems to have worked really well as this cup has excellent gloss coverage. I am really happy with how this cup turned out!

Slip dots

Squeeze bottle of stained slip became snow-flakey decoration. I’m loving the dots. They flattened during the final glaze and the clear around them is a little thicker but I think it has worked well.

Not medieval shading experiments

I really wasn't sure how this would turn out. This is a rather short cup and I wasn't sure how to decorate it. I was cruising around Pinterest waiting for some inspiration to hit and stumbled across some beautiful mendalas. Eager to try some of the shapes I'd seen, I used multiple shades of blue and blended them into each other. I then went over with some  dots and lines to provide an additional design element. Most of the blue came out darker than I thought it would and the light blue dots are a little thick as they were applied with a paint brush. Still, I'm rather happy with the outcome.

One of my friends said this looked like snow so next time I'll trial some snowflake designs in the blue instead.

Green but not like the others

Wheel cut glass bowl. Persian (Syria? Iran?), 10th Century. Sotheby's - Arts of the Islamic World. 5/10/2011 lot 203

I thought I'd try something a little different. I love the extant article, the way the light shines through the carved design is simply beautiful. I have tried to capture the design for the green-black series but it's not quite as effective.

This is the cup post glazing. The small crack in the rim has been sealed with the glaze. I double dipped this one in the transparent green glaze and you can see it's had quite a runny effect. While it doesn't do my underglazing any favours, the transparent green running off the sea green has created the most delightful sparkles on the inner rim. There's also a pool of transparent green in the center of this cup which is beautiful. Not what I wanted but some nice colour play all the same.

I plan on attempting this design again at least twice more. Once I'll carve to allow the glaze to pool and thicken in areas. The other I'll practice hydro-abrasion on and have more prominent areas raising up out of the glaze. It'll be interesting to see which is the most effective with this glaze combination.

Albarello collab

I’ve been posting this project at some of its stages already. It has now been fired so I thought it was about time I did a write up.

Fired!

Background:

Many years ago I participated in the laurel prize tourney. I don’t recall what I was displaying, I think I was in the middle of the A& S challenge so neck deep in my decorative glazing obsession. The laurel prize tourney helps participants engage with a variety of laurels to receive useful feedback and advice. It’s also open to non-laurels to review so you can inspire and engage with the rest of the Sca as well. Individual laurels will often give various participants small tokens. In this year in particular, Master Alex the Potter presented me with two handthrown bisque fired albarello. At the time I had no way of firing them myself and I wasn’t confident that I could do this limited resource justice.

Now, years later, I’m throwing my own pots. I haven’t yet created an albarello I like but I’m close enough. I can also get anything I like commercially fired to stoneware. Time and beyond to do something with the bisque I’ve had since before I moved to this state (at least 5 years ago). I’ll admit, I was really worried this mystery bisque wouldn’t hold up to the high firing temperature. Especially after the slumping seen in the Olla lid mystery bisque.

The original choice which was closer in shape to the bisque	Extant arbarello from the Louve ref. OA 4091.

On inspiration:

On the right is the original choice. Unfortunately when I sketched it onto the bisque the symbols just didn’t balance right. So I switched to something else. The left is my final choice. I’ve had this image pinned to my ceramic inspiration page for a while. I’ve loved the simplicity of the component elements and the complexity of the background work for sometime. This style really has been a favourite of mine for a while and this seemed like the perfect time to execute it. Part of my decision lay in the colour fastness if black oxide and cobalt blue. Both can withstand high temperature firing with pretty good colour consistency. I couldn’t be sure how other colours, like the super fickle purple, would do so very late period Italian designs are out for now.

Of the two design choices, the second one was more balanced once sketched onto the bisque using 6B pencil.

On execution:

Glazing this took a fair while. I worked the main body in sections with the main design free handed and then double glazed to ensure colour integrity. The background super detailed swirls were a single stroke with a 5zero paint brush trimmed down to have shorter bristles and increase its stiffness. I’m pretty happy with the colour consistency achieved there. I was a little worried they’d end up streaky it grey.

The blue is ‘Cobalt Blue’ from Chrysanthos. It was painted on as a single layer as it was important to me that the black detail come through the blue. I added more blue than was on the original design because I had more foot space and thought the colour balance worked better. I’m not a huge fan of the free blue leaves at the top, I much prefer the blue outlined in black.

I designed the foot pattern myself utilising elements from the extant item. I considered a detailed swirl pattern in the background but decided that it would reduce the impact of the main panels. I really needed more light space to balance the overall look. I think it is important to understand not only the design context but the impact of the piece as a whole. I took for inspiration the bold black line features seen in many items of the time. I’m really pleased with how this came together. Using the lines also let me tie them into the shoulder pattern. Again, I could have overlooked this geometrical change and continued the extant pattern down but it wouldn’t have worked with the shape of the bisque. I did consider a vine design but decided the area would be to thin and the vines would look weird as a result. Plain black bars helps divide the d ensign

Elements without detracting from them.

On the future:

Overall, I’m very pleased with how this piece came out and I’m super relieved it didn’t deform in the kiln! I probably wouldn’t change the rim decoration even though it doesn’t overly appeal to me because it is a direct copy of the extant item. I will be using the other bisque item to trial an Italian or Spanish polychrome design next now I’m more confident in the integrity of the bisque in the high firing temperature.

Buff blue - glaze dipping to understand difference from PB103

Glazing attempt 2 - blue!

My first attempt at glazing was a single session to experiment with colour combinations and basic dip glazing techniques as dip glazing was something I'd never tried before. Those experiments were moderately successful with the blues being my favourites followed by the aubergene over green combination. For medieval ceramics through, the purple colour isn't a common one so I thought I should stick with basic colours to see if using buff clay changes much.

The first experiment was conducted on what could be my favourite little cup shape. It unfortunately developed a small crack in the base and one on the handle due to uneven drying. I hoped a solid glaze could plug any potential gaps and strengthen the cup. I had intended to put a clear glass over the matte blue however the cup slipped while I was dipping it so it absorbed too much water from the glaze and was too damp. I didn't want to add more moisture with a second layer of glaze as I was worried it wouldn't be able to be fired. Still happy with the shape as I love the little thumb divoty thing and the handle is a very pleasing size for me.

The glaze appears to have strengthened the cup and this one it nicely watertight and the handle can hold the weight of the cup full of liquid.

Experiment the second. This smallish milk jug was dipped in titanium white in the base and matte blue on the top. The inside was sealed with a transparent gloss glaze. Blue dots of 28B underglaze was added for visual appeal and to see if the older underglaze could withstand the stoneware temperatures (~1200). I am in love with this glaze blend and plan on creating a whole set of house cups for myself in this pattern.

Experiment is a success with the blue withstanding the higher firing temperatures and the buff clay body is not skewing the shades blue significantly.

Interestingly, the buff clay appears to bloom when proximal to certain types of glaze. There doesn't seem to be a significant colour change on the foot of the milk jug however there is bloom on the foot of the blue cup. The bloom is easier to see on the neck of the quatrefoil cup resulting in a pleasing reddish-brown tone. This has to be a result of a slight degassing from certain glazes interacting with the iron in the clay body as the same glazes on the PB103 do not produce this result.

Blue and White ceramics - China

Blue on White ceramics: the reciprocal influence of Chinese porcelain on European and Middle Eastern ceramics - China

Other essays on the history of BoW in Iraq, Egypt, early Iran, late Iran, Japan, Turkey, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy and England.

China

Tang Dynasty (7th - 10th century)
Like many countries, some of the earliest examples of cobalt glaze in China are dipped earthenware items (1). This later developed into earthenware covered in white slip and painted with blue designs (2). These items were produced during the Tang Dynasty and may have been inspired by simple figurative bowls imported from Iraq.  From the 9th century China started to develop "Porcelaneous ware" the precursor and bridge between earthenware and porcelain. Similar to earthenware, these items utilise a fine white clay, kaolin, which is an alumina-silicate (3). Fired at higher temperatures, the quartz (silica) fuzes creating the product often known as Mingware. Many glazes aren't stable at the higher temperatures required to create Mingware thus the decoration on the porcelaneous items remained simpler while earthenware items produced at the same time could be coated in a riot of colours like this yellow and blue phoenix headed jug (4) or this blue, green and brown box (5). These green, yellow/brown and blues items are often referred to as sancai-ware and would occasionally feature cobalt glaze (6, 7, 8, 9, 10). The sancai-ware became highly developed, with potters incising their designs to prevent the glazes from running together (11). Alongside the sancai-ware, the potters of the Tang Dynasty start to produced painted items such as this bird bowl (12) setting the stage for the development of the finely painted BoW items associated with China.
(As a side note, the Tang Dynasty also produced lovely earthenware of marbled clay, which I'm quite enamored of (13) )

 

Item 11 - An incised sancai-ware tray. China, 8th century. The Met Museum item 1994.605.47

Song Dynasty (10th - 13th century)
The Song Dynasty further developed the Sancai style producing complicated green and yellow motifs on incised earthenware such as Ganwa-ware from Mongolia (14) and Cizhou-ware from northern China (15, 16). These items however, do not seem to feature cobalt as the earlier style did. This was likely due to the difficulty of sourcing the cobalt for the glaze at the time.

In addition to lovely plain white porcelaneous objects, the Song Dynasty also produced distinctive items dipped in a light green / celadon glaze (17). Following the seemingly standard path of pottery development, the Chinese potters also experimented with under-glazing such as this light blue example with purple splashes dated to the 13th century (18).

Ming Dynasty (13th - 17th century)

It is generally accepted that the methods of creating porcelain had been well established by the 14th century in China. Porcelain had been endorsed by the Emperor who theoretically controlled all production and the export of porcelain items. The kilns of Jingdezhen produced all the imperial porcelain however there were private kilns creating imitations concurrently. For a good rundown with comparison images check out the Imperial Palace Museum's website here.

The kilns at Jingdezhen produced items both for export and domestic use. To appeal to the export market, the Chinese artists imitated design motifs from a variety of sources. A 1520's jug (20) is the earliest item identified as being deliberately created for export. It features the classic key design around it's rim seen on earlier porcelain items (21) as well as an upside down copy of the Portaguese arms. This plate from 1580-1600 featuring a Portuguese coat of arms for Captain Don Joao de Almeida (22) exemplifies the early attempts at leveraging the export market. The tiny coat of arms featured is framed by plumes and crested by a very awkward attempt at a helmet suggesting the artists had a weak grasp of the subject matter.


Item 21 - Ming-ware made for export featuring an upside down Portuguese coat of arms.

As trade along the silk road flourished and the European market increased, the export designs become significantly more refined and targeted. For example, this bottle made between 1662-1722 is very Persian with it's use of void space and stylised floral geometric patterns (24). The shape is also reminiscent of Iranian bottles popular at the time.. The imitation wasn't one sided, with the European and Middle Eastern ceramic centers creating their own imitations of Ming-ware. For example, these porcelain bowls created in 1600-1620 (25) spawned Iranian fritware copies (26). in the 16th-17th century, Chinese artists appear to have started adopting the Middle Eastern and European penchant for inscriptions in their work (27)


European countries weren't the only market or stylistic influence on the Chinese export trade. number of Ming-ware items also feature Mongolian style cloud designs which are a dominant feature in Turkey's Iznik design style (15th - 17th century) 28, 29, 30, 31. It seems that the Mongolian / Persian influence was quite extensive. This jar features archers wearing Persian style garments and is decorated with various vegetable motifs as well as images of European houses (32). This 17th century asymmetric dish shows the Chinese artists were also incorporating Japanese styles into their work (33).

Identifiable Chinese Design elements
The number 8 is considered lucky and linked to prosperity and wealth. This may be the reason why there is a distinct subset of Mingware incorporating 8 lobes of panels around the main decorative element (34, 35, 36, 37). The lobes very often feature auspicious symbols like a double gourd, a fan, a drum or a scroll. This subset of Chinese porcelain is occasionally referred to as Kraak after the carrak's of the Portguese traders who brought the goods to Europe. Porcelain is light and significantly stronger than the earthernware available that was available in Europe. This, in addition to it's link to the Chinese emperor, increased it's appeal as a status symbol. A number of renaissance paintings contain a blue and white porcelain bowl or ewer as a background feature. Rarer are those that celebrate the porcelain itself. The bowl featured in Treck Jan Jansz's (38) painting can be identified as Chinese in manufacture due to a combination of it's thinness, the sheen captured by the artist and the decorative lobes in the glazing.

The production and export of porcelain by the Chinese was the most significant factor in perpetuating the blue on white colour scheme as ceramic art became more sophisticated through the Renaissance and the range of colours available increased. Cultures which had well developed ceramic industries either renewed or built thriving local markets for the BoW goods. Chinese Kraak items were imitated by the Dutch (39), the Japanese (40), the Portuguese (41) and the Japanese (42). BY the 17th century, even the Spanish, who had several manufacturing hubs and a number of celebrated artistic trends were producing blue on white items for local consumption.

Item 38 - Detail, Still life with pewter flagon and two ming bowls. Treck Jan Jansz, 1651, National Gallery, NG4562

Additional references:

Valenstein, S.G, 1989. A handbook of Chinese ceramics. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Qasam and the Kashani cobalt

As outlined in previously, Kashan, Iran seems to be the initial production site of Blue on White ceramics. This is due to Kashan's proximity to a source of cobalt and other minerals useful in creating glazes. The Kashani cobalt originates from Qamsar aka Ghamsar which is located in the hills south of Kashan. Ghamsar is located proximal the the boundary between the Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone (1) (associated with the subduction of the Neo-Tethys Ocean) and the Urumieh-Dokhtar Arc. The U-D Arc hosts porphyry copper-gold deposits (2) as well as epithermal lead-zinc deposit (3).

Figure1: Geology of Iran - adapted from Geology of the Sari Gunay Epithermal Gold Deposit (4). The blue star marks the location of Kashan and to the south, Ghamsar (aka Qamsar).

The cobalt in Ghamsar is formed as part of a skarn deposit (5) resulting from the intrusion of a microdiorite into the Qom Formation. For non-geologists, the limestone in the Qom Formation is dissolved by the hot hydro-thermal fluids originating from intrusion of diorite, a volcanic rock. The contact between these two rock types metamorphises and recrystalises becoming the skarn deposit. The mineralology of a skarn is determined by the composition of the hydrothermal fluids and the limestone. The Ghamsar deposit appears to be structurally controlled, with the mineralising fluids travelling through faults. The cobalt is spatially associated with magnetite veins in the faults however the cobalt may precede the magnetite ore. The cobalt (smaltite) likely took the form of a silvery metal and would have been locally processed and washed before transport. Cobalt glaze requires less than 5% cobalt to achieve a rich blue colour. Thus it is a valuable and highly transportable product. Given the comparative weights, the washed cobalt, and other metals, would have been transported to markets in nearby cities.

Summary: Due to the unique geological processes and structures involved, precitipation of cobalt ore is rare and unlikely to be accessible at surface in a form useful for glaze production.

As a side note, the presence of copper-gold in the area would have provided minerals for glaze and lustre while the nearby lead-zinc deposits allowed for the transparent lead glaze that resulted the beautiful underglaze ceramics (6).

Why Kashan rather than Ghamsar?

We can see why ceramics are produced at Kashan instead of Ghamsar, the source of the ore, by consulting a soils map. Figure 2 indicates that the soils around Ghamsar are calcareous lithosols which are calcium rich, and often contain chunks of partly or fully unweathered rock. They are calcareous (calcium rich) as their parent rock is likely the limestones of the Qom Formation. Kashan, on the other hand, has a source of salt marsh soils. Salt marshes are a low energy environment which accumulate sediment over long periods of time. Marsh soils are typically fine grain and well sorted, these appear to be grey and low in organic matter. Small grain clays require less work for the potter to purify and create into fine earthenware. The clay would likely have been dried, ground and sifted before being utilised.

When creating blue glaze, cobalt commonly composes <5% of the overall blend (8). The low concentrations required make transporting the washed cobalt the short distance to the source of clay highly viable.

Figure 2: A map of the soils of Iran indicates which medieval towns would have superior clay. (7)

1: A new tectonic scenario for the Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone (Iran) 2005 A. Ghasemia, C.J. Talbotb Journal of Asian Earth Sciences.

2: Porphyry Copper Deposits of the Urumieh-Dokhtar Magmatic Arc, Iran. 2005. A. Zarasvandi, M. Zentilli, S. Liaghat. PGS Publishing, Linden Park, 2005. pg 441-452

3: The Ay Qalasi deposit: An epithermal Pb-Zn (Ag) mineralisation in the Urumineh-Dokhtar Volcanic Belt of northwestern Iran. DOI: 10.1127/njma/2015/0284

4: Geology of the Sari Gunay Epithermal Gold Deposit 2006 Northwest Iran. by J.P Richards, D. Wilkinson and T. Ulrich. Economic Geology. DOI: 10.2113/ gsecongeo.101.8.1455 . 

5: Ore Mineralization at Qamsar Cobalt Deposit:Skarn and Metasomatism Evidences .  Hadi Mohammaddoost, Majid Ghaderi, Nematollah Rashidnejad-Omran  The 1st International Applied Geological Congress

6: Islamic pottery, a brief history. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

7: Soils of Iran 1961. M.L Dewan, J. Famouri. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. 

8: Ceramic Arts Network, accessed 31/12/2018.

Belated ceramic 48 & 49 - Tiles 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16

The tile project is ongoing! I collected four new tiles this April and I'm so happy with how the design is going. I'm going to start posting my reference chart as well as boast about my project. Forgive the not so amazing picture but it's the best I have.

One of the small 1/4 cross tiles isn't show here as it doesn't have it's matching stars yet. The key (belated) tiles are the three in the bottom left of the image.


Two of the tiles are from one reference panel, the third on the panel is already featured on the right of the middle row.

Lustre tiles. 14th Century. Kashan, Iran. The British Museum. 1888.0109.4

Ceramic 53 - Montjoye jug

I acquired a bisque jug a while back and have been stuck for an appropriate design to place upon it. I trolled the internet for reference images of extant items that had the right shape. Originally I was thinking of converting the central image on the jug (Figure 1) into a household of fighting badgers but in every trial sketch they ended up looking like teddy bears.

Figure 1: Jug, Montelupo, 1480, Tin glazed earthenware painted with metal based colours. V&A, no. 1568-1855

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Inspiration:
So I decided to go looking for more inspiration. I found it. A friend of mine, Montjoye, who I admire quite a bit, posted a flurry of things on her blog. One post caught my eye because it was regarding the recent acquisition of some blue and white ceramic item for her kitchen. Given my enjoyment of blue and white, I decided to make her a blue and white jug because she brews some very tasty stuff.

So, many museum collections later I amassed a number of pinterest images I found inspiring, nothing was a 100% match for the jug shape that I had, but there were quite a few jugs, drug jars and miscellaneous items that were in the ball park. I also had a time frame restriction as Montjoye camps with a group that try to be mid-medieval in every way.

There are a number of drug bottles, jugs and vases that do feature blue and white, but the designs just didn't appeal to me. The key inspiration (figure 2) was chosen due to it's simple 2 colour motif which would convert well to blue, black and white.

Figure 2: Drug bottle, Italy, Tin glazed earthenware, date unknown. V&A no. 629-1902

Timeframe:

The inspiration jug has no date, but appears to date between late 14th century and early 16th century. That is a rather large time frame but I believe it's closer to the 14th century for the following reasons: The late 14th century examples have a similar pallet of colours and a similar consistancy for application (layers can be seen in the green leaves above). The early 16th century example, is much more ornate in it's design with multiple shades of blue, yellows and oranges (i really like the wyvyrn in this one). It also features a neat little twisted spout holder which gives it a cute flare. One final reason I believe it's closer to the 14th century than the 16th is shown in Figure 3. This jug has the right shape however it seems to be one of the earlier examples of the high firing colour pallet. The yellow, blue, green and manganese brown/purple suggest  this jug is the mid point between the early 16th century highly crafted majolica and the reference jug. So I give the jug in Figure 2 a date range of 1400-1450 ish.

Figure 3: Drug jar, Italy. Tin glazed earthenware with high-firing oxides. 1450. V&A no. 1222-1901

Motif:

Many of jugs I examined feature writing around them. The text usually designates what the contents of the drug jar is, for example - SYo DI PAPAVARI = syrup of poppies, SYo DE FARFARE = syrup of coltsfoot (tussilago). I considered translating alcoholic beverage, or spirit of grain or some such into Italian but that would sort of lock down the use of the jar. This was the intention of the original jars as a measure to prevent residue of one drug mixed with another but not required for this project. I could have removed the text, but that would have done away with the key feature of the jar. Instead, I decided upon labeling the jug with her name, Montjoye, as she does with her alcohol bottles..

The next challenge was getting the characters in the text right. I downloaded image after image and copied all the writing forms as Master Piers taught me years ago. I wasn't able to amass an entire alphabet and there was a huge variation in character forms between the jugs I was able to find. So I could either use a mishmash alphabet which spanned about 100 years (badbad), pick one and try and fit the missing letters in, find an extant alphabet from the right time and use that, or come up with something else.

I decided to copy the text form that Montjoye uses on her bottles (and had on her website at the time). I was able to download a copy of a picture of one of her successful brews and figure out the lettering from the computer screen. I'm pretty happy with how the kerning turned out.

I also placed three trefoils on the jug, as they are a key feature of her device. I think the motif came out less crowded than the Italian-ware and strikes me as more of a spanish take on an Italian jug.

All in all, I'm happy with this project and I hope Montjoye gets much use out of it as a jug or a vase or whatever. The best thing about gifting ceramics is if the recipient doesn't like it, they can accidentally smash it and I'd be none the wiser. My general dislike of repetition means they're unlikely to get an exact replacement anyway and I'm always open to suggestions!

Ceramic 47 - Tile 11

This one collected dust for a while. That is to say, the plastic I wrapped it in after it was glazed and dry collected dust as I didn't have an opportunity to drop it off to get glazed for months. This is the start of the top corner. I'm not sure if I'm going to finish the entire square but I do hope to finish at least the top half.

Plate - 14th century Sultanabad

I've been rather quiet these last three months as I've been moving across the country and am still finding my feet in this new city. I have now found a place to rent and my furniture gets delivered in three days! I am enjoying finding all sorts of new things but last weekend I thought I'd try something new and old at the same time. I had passed through a homewares and overpriced duct collectors shop and found the sales lady painting white plates with some sort of commercial poly-paint. I've seen this stuff before, you paint it on, put the item in the oven and ta da - customized item. Unfortunately, the paint doesn't really stand up to wear and tear, the Stormhold Baronial plates haven't really withstood knives, forks and hand washing by people not told about their special needs. This is why I prefer to glaze my plates rather than buy the ceramic paint from spotlight. True, this restricts me in size, shape and I need people to fire it for me but the end product is much more durable. I've decided that finishing the A&S 50 challenge was enjolyable but I'm not done with the ceramic painting yet. So, I need to find someone in my new city who can supply the bisque and fire the finished products for me. Or make arrangements to get the my bisque to Melbourne for firing and collection by a friend.

So last weekend, off I went to All Fired Up in Joondalup. I've mentioned this place on my 'where to make your own ceramics' list for a while now so I thought it was the perfect first candidate for a replacement ceramics facilitator (i only have two candidates). So I saved a number of reference images from the Met Museum on my iPhone and off I rode (image 1). I arrived at noon, spent half an hour browsing their limited stock of bisque before settling down to another project. When I went I had no real plan in mind as I wasn't sure what sort of bisque range they'd have (small). I was there until closing (5pm) and finished the front of a plate and made an attempt at the back.

 

The blackwork outlines complete. I was tempted to finish here because the grey and white looked so lovely and balanced just by themselves but I knew it'd fire to black and throw the look off.

 

The blue is complete. Note the solid look of the blue over the black. The original used transparent glazes in blue and turquoise of the Saltanabad style. This is really hard to replicate using opaque glazes so I aimed for a wash and hoped the fired results would be satisfactory.

 

Finished! Well balanced and really happy with the front.

 The center of the design - surprisingly balanced for a free hand experiment.

Replicate or create original designs?

This is always a question I ask myself when creating something new. Should I replicate an original extant item I'm really taken with, or should I use design elements from a specific time/place and design my own items? I think every SCA artisan asks themselves this same question and I believe the answer comes down to, will the item be fit for purpose? SCA items seem to fit into two categories, 1) cheap make do items for a single or short term use or 2) expensive or hand made items design to hopefully last an SCA lifetime. The items in the second group are not used on a daily basis and are often expected to last for years beyond their more often used modern counterparts. For many people in the SCA, a ceramic item that is fit for use must look medieval. For some people this means old, worn or clearly handmade (see previous rants), others want ceramic items that fit their game, either referencing their personas storyline or featuring their heraldry. The final group of SCA users want items that completely replicate medieval items.

I feel that I make items that generally fit into five categories.
a) appropriation, the grotesques are an example of this. I copied images from manuscripts into a new medium. They are the least medieval ceramic thing I've made (let's not count the escher plate).
b) adaption, I count my early household plates in this category. The elements came from a number of related sources but the combination was created to meet a specific need.
c) insertion, Into this category I fit the Gabs & Stanzi plates. The design and a majority of the plate were period replicas with small elements of heraldric symbols to craft something appropriate for the leaders of my other household.
d) replication, I have replicated the designs on many of my A&S items straight from the originals adapting them only slightly so they'd fit on the bisque available. This Sultanabad item is one such item.
e) creation, the items I'm often most proud of, the Dr Suess bowl and plate fit into this category. These items are inspired by their medieval counterpart but the design is very much original.

 

Extant reference - Bowl, Il-Khanid, Iran, Sultanabad. 14th century. Freer Slacker, S1997.129.