The Alchemy of Pottery
Like the alchemists of medieval times who sought to turn base metals into silver and gold, potters seek to transform clay into vessels of beauty and function. And they do. They dig raw material out of the ground, mix oxides into glazes, and forge their wares with fire.
There’s a fairytale quality to a potter’s life. Watching my son, Josh, work his treadle wheel, keeping it spinning with the beat of his foot while drawing-up beautiful forms from a wet lump of clay almost seems magical, as though he were spinning straw into gold like Rumplestiltskin, the Grimms’ fairytale elf.
When Josh talks about making pots his eyes light-up. He uses words like blunge, slip, and slurry, which conjure images of mystery in me. When he talks about the kiln firings and the crew mates who tend to them with him, I find myself thinking about characters from “The Lord of the Rings,” who forged weapons and rings with fire. The firings often go on all night with the potters taking alternating shifts, the thought of which makes me think of one of Josh’s favorite childhood books, “Where the Wild Things Are,” a tale of a boy’s adventurous ruckus with untamed creatures of the night. 
I’ve seen a few of the kilns that Josh uses, some of which he has helped to build. They remind me of another fairytale, Hansel and Gretel, the story of a boy and girl captured by a witch who kept them in cages, fattened them up with food, and then tried to cook them in her oven.
Recently, while my husband and I were in Asheville visiting Josh for some art events that he was involved in, he gave us a tour of a wood-fired kiln in progress. I especially thought about Hansel and Gretel and was cautious when one of the crew members, wearing a protective mask, opened the kiln door so I could peek inside, into what looked like a big oven.
The pots inside had shape-shifted into ghostly glowing figures that almost looked invisible against the furnace of fire. Once my eyes got adjusted to the sight, I could see the various sizes and shapes of the pots lined up on a rack, so hot that they were white and translucent! 
Making pots is an ancient art that hasn’t changed all that much since prehistoric times. Every firing is a ritual that links the potter with potters from days long past. Every pot in the kiln will go through a transformative creative process. There is no guarantee of how it will turn out. When the kiln cools down and the alchemist potters enter the womb-like kiln, they do so wondering, did their efforts take shape? Did the pots survive their test? Did the magic work? Is it functional? Is it art?
April 22nd, 2006 9:40 am
I haven’t made any pottery in years. I never really had a knack for it as I always ended up with a vase at a 45 degree angle!
Michele sent me this morning.
April 22nd, 2006 9:44 am
what a glorious post!
i agree with you… pottery is such an amazing timeless art. and the words are fabulous, earthy and honest somehow.
though i hated the film ghost, i had friends and once a lover whilst at art school who was a potter and it is incredibly sensual from the beginning of the process right up to the end product.
we love the wild things here and also the night kitchen by sendak too. they were my favourites as a child and the lets adore them now too.
here from michele’s again today*
April 22nd, 2006 10:12 am
You’re exactly right about the connection to alchemy. At the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, there is a big gallery with 17th century Dutch paintings of alchemists–some working in their basements with their poor families running around in squalor.
The chemists, of course, dismiss it all for the most part as a quaint part of there heritage that has nothing to do with real science. But those paintings are not of scientists. They’re of artists. Transformation–their kind–is art. Like the potter’s art!
Great Kiln photo. My friend Gil is a farrier and blacksmith. A potter in metals. His forge is fiendishly beautiful.
April 22nd, 2006 10:30 am
Oh my. Every once in a while, I’ll cruise through the blogosphere and strike gold. Today I think I found that in your poetry and in your stories. Loved your poetry, Colleen, especially “Sweet Labor.” Gardening is a passion of mine and I could just about feel the potatoes myself!
And my deepest sympathies to you in the loss of your brothers.:(
Michele sent me,but I will definitely return on my own. 🙂
April 22nd, 2006 10:56 am
Awesome! Getting back to where we came from is so needed now. I am glad he and his friends are continueing (sp?) this art.
I can do a lot of things, but this would not be one of them. I can’t stand to have my hands dirty. A little OCD for you.
April 22nd, 2006 11:33 am
This is an excellent post. I never thought of pottery this way…I guess I have been lacking the history of it.
Although I do have a masterpiece vase on my mantle at home from this creative nephew.xo
April 22nd, 2006 11:42 am
You said, “When Josh talks about making pots his eyes light-up.”
Yup! It’s just like when you turn words into magic! It is indeed, a kind of alchemy that gets us in touch with our soul.
I think, if I may say, so that I pretty much summed it up when I wrote here
“…clay is just a clump of earth, until an artists hands, mind and imagination molds it.”
April 22nd, 2006 12:42 pm
I think it is more than art, Colleen. And you wrote a wonderful post about pottery, how nice that there are things which remain unchanged despite technological developments…It makes us feel still human.
April 22nd, 2006 1:22 pm
What a awefilled awesome post. I can picture the shop although the closest I’ve come is a glassblowers. I’m reminded of foot pumped sewing machine.
April 22nd, 2006 1:54 pm
OK a question for your son. He uses local clays.
The soil here near the coast is a very dense black gummy clay.
In Oklahoma we had a similar dense red clay.
Is any of this (which is a disaster for gardening) useable in pottery or is it a special type of clay?
And if you use it, do the pots stay black or red or do you add things to make the clay more maleable and/or different colors?
April 22nd, 2006 2:00 pm
You didn’t mention the sensual side to the wheel….remember the movie “Ghost”? I can’t see a photo like the one you have without thinking of that. The thoughts of working with the clay is just so appealing….
April 22nd, 2006 2:02 pm
Srp, I’ll try to track down the answer or send Josh over to answer it. I think what you are describing is clay, but wild clay needs to be made into a “slip,” a watery form and then put through screen. Glazes make different colors and the kiln hardens the pots. That’s the SHORT answer and Josh might correct me. The wild clay he’s been using in NC is blue clay, the same the the Cherokee used.
April 22nd, 2006 3:43 pm
Fascinating!
April 23rd, 2006 12:12 pm
My mother, who died in 1974, created in ceramics and pottery. She loved the firing process. 32 years later I still have some pieces, including an interesting chess set, stemmed grape-decorated wine glasses and of course pottery.
By the way, I just wrote a piece on childhood disillusionnment. If you have an experience to share, please do, either on your blog or mine.
April 23rd, 2006 2:59 pm
When I first moved to NC in 76, my teacher had a pottery wheel in one corner of our open pod building. I loved to work with it. I miss it.
April 23rd, 2006 5:32 pm
It’s all about process, isn’t it, and the beauty of the work. And tools; there’s nothing more wonderful than tools of a trade. Awesome pictures!
April 23rd, 2006 8:35 pm
this is an answer to a question about clay from Srp. the truth is it’s tough to say, although i can make some educated guesses about the qualitites of the clays you have. the most important initial quality of clay is plasticity, or the ability to bend and be manipulated without cracking or breaking apart. it sound like these clays have that quality because you describe them as dense…often less plastic clays are more sandy. the best guage is to roll out a wet coil and bend it so the two ends touch and see if it breaks in the middle. if it doesnt crack much, the chances are good that it’s plastic enough to use. color is another good indicator of quality. generally black clays, especially ones that are gummy, are extreamly high in organic material content, which isnt ideal. they are really plastic on account of all that decomposing stuff, but dont fire well… the gases when that stuff burns out are an issue. red surface clays are very common and can be suitable for making pots with. they tend to be fairly plastic and have a high iron (oxidized) content which contributes to the color. in OK it’s probably an earthenware (low temperature) clay, so you would need to fit your working process to meet it’s capabilities. that kinda the thing with wild clays, a lot of them are suitable to use in some way or another, it’s just all about finding the right methods and such to take advantage of their properties. oh yea, and yes generally they are not good for growing crops in…that how i got all my clay. from a farmer who had a drainage problem. cheers, josh
April 24th, 2006 1:04 pm
This clay in Virginia Beach is black, gummy, dense, sticky; earthworms can bore through it but that’s about it. It won’t break up enough to even mix with top soil, mulch and sand. We had to just dig it out of the flower beds and replace with topsoil. Thanks for the info.
Someday you might need to check out the Oklahoma red clay.
August 6th, 2013 11:20 am
[…] the spring of 2000 when my Asheville potter son, Josh was 20 years old, he came across an old journal he had kept when he was […]