A Potter's Wheel In The Pre-Columbian New World

The demonstration was given by the Wood Memorial high school art teacher Anita Powell. The demonstration was based around throwing a pot on a pottery wheel. The demonstration took place in the high school art department in Wood Memorial middle school.
A potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming the excess body from dried ware and for applying incised decoration or rings of color. Use of the potter's wheel became widespread throughout the Old World but was unknown in the Pre-Columbian New World, where pottery was handmade by methods that included coiling and beating.
A potter's wheel may occasionally be referred to as a "potter's lathe". However, that term
The key with throwing is fairly straightforward- learning the basic steps by repetition...a lot of repetition. A bat is a flat disk that can be attached to the head of the wheel. It is helpful to use bats when you throw so you can easily remove your piece while it is still wet without disfiguring the shape. Scrape any large chunks of clay off your bat with a wooden rib or metal scrapper. It is not ideal to wash bats as some are made out of materials that will warp it they are soaked in water. Attach the bat to the wheel head matching the holes to fit over the bat pins. Spin the wheel and slightly dampen the center of the bat with your
The Egyptians made kilns to place their clay pots in for firing. The kiln was lined with a kind of insulation brick that was made from a mixture of straw and clay which had been dried in the sun. Later, the ancient Egyptians used finer clay with high quartz content for their delicate pottery. They rubbed the pieces with a smooth stone to give the dull sheen or coated them with a fine layer of another color of clay.
Further experimentation leads the Egyptians to coat their clay objects with a bluish-green substance to make them non-porous. This was a glaze composed of quartz, soda, and a mineral containing copper which when fired covered the clay bowls and vases with a glass-like surface.
Ancient Greek vases are highly valued for form and decoration. The graceful lines an perfect balance speak to our desire for beauty. The pottery was decorated with pictures of the daily lives of the people and stories of their gods, goddesses and heroes. On the red figure vases the background was painted black and the figures were left the natural red color of the clay. The color was reversed on the black-figured