Africans have been making pottery in Africa for countless thousands of years, with some of the earliest examples ranging back to the Ancient Egyptians that started to create pottery circa 6000 BC. Many of these practices then made their way south throughout the rest of the continent such as Ethiopia and the Sudan.
For many, the idea of ceramics might mean nothing more than a bowl or coffee cup that they made once in art class, but the histories of the different ceramics and how they came to be used on an everyday basis is exceedingly fascinating. Humans have been making use of ceramics and pottery for thousands of years, and they are a big part of the reason that we have done so well. Pottery allowed us to store our crops for extended periods of time, specifically through the winters, where prior many people would not be able to find enough food.
When we’re deciding on a career to pursue, it usually makes the most sense to follow something that we’re passionate about. This allows us to use our creative skills and designs to earn a bit of money on the side, with the hope of ultimately turning that passion into something that we can live off. Pottery will always be popular in the world, no matter how advanced our manufacturing gets. For those that want to start earning money from the pottery that they make, these are a few helpful tips to get started with.
Pottery is a brilliant hobby that just about anyone in the world can pick and get started on. Spending countless hours learning how to make the perfect bowl, plate, or vase, can eventually lead the artist down the road of selling their pottery. Starting a small pottery business means either taking custom commissions or making home-made creations to sell at a market, which means having to both store the pottery and transport it in a safe way. Due to the nature of ceramics, which are prone to breaking under too much stress, it’s important to learn how to properly store all forms of pottery, and to ensure that there are no breakages after taking the pottery out of storage or the back of a transport van.
Depending on who’s asked, clay can either be a great resource or a sign of a problem. For gardeners, clay signals that their soil isn’t healthy enough to grow any crops, while a pottery lover sees clay as the ultimate tool of creation. Regardless, clay is an interesting natural phenomenon that can be found across the world and is made up of a variety of elements that make it uniquely suited for the creation of pottery. For those that want to know more about clay and how it functions, these are the most important points to remember.
For most artists in the world today, getting a hold of quality clay usually means ordering it from the local artisan shop or even online. And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing it, it is often considered a specialty item and may cost a fair amount, especially considering that clay can be found abundantly in nature. For those that want to use natural clay for their pottery while also saving some money, these are some simple steps to follow in order to do just that.
Of all the different kinds of pottery in the world, there’s none quite as valuable as the vase, an object that has been used for thousands of years. Many of these vases from history have been kept by museums and collectors, always kept on display and out of harm’s way, and their beautiful designs have made them a top prize for the world’s richest. They’re also among the most expensive auction items in the world, accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Humans have been creating ceramics and pottery for countless millennia, with evidence to suggest that we first started around 14000 years ago in ancient China and Africa. Primitive pottery was extremely simple but effective, where the clay containers were used to store food during the colder months. It didn’t take long before people began to refine the process, making the pottery stronger, harder, and even adding decorations to make their creations more visually appealing.
Collectors know that American art pottery created between 1880 and 1920 is of particular interest to buyers and some of these pieces can be extremely valuable.
Golden Joinery, Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery that is hundreds of years old now. Rather than rejoining ceramic shards with a concealed adhesive, however, the Kintsugi technique uses a distinctive lacquer made of tree sap and dusted with powdered gold, silver, or even platinum. Once completed, bewitching seams of colour shine in the now-conspicuous cracks of ceramic wear, giving each repaired piece a one-of-a-kind appearance.