Today’s sherd travels to Kutch, India, to catch a glimpse traditional methods of pottery making, as it was in 1997. Interestingly enough, the author notes that upon her return to Kutch in 2010, many of these century-old traditions had been abandoned in favor of using plastic wares.
A number of times while watching this video, I found myself replaying various segments. You’ll see how the use of the pottery wheel is but only the beginning in the making of a vessel. One thrown, pots are pounded to further thin and expand the walls. Particularly interesting: trapping air inside the vessels to further pop out the belly or shoulder of the form.
“All potters in India make use of their sherds or broken pots…” For those of you who noticed that the brown clay we use is more granular than the buff clay, what you’re experiencing is the addition of grog. In a nutshell, grog is bisque-fired clay that has been ground down to a coarse “sand.” It lends strength to pottery and sculptural forms, making it easier to throw, while reducing shrinkage and “opening” the clay for more even evaporation. I sometimes add extra grog to my clay for those reasons, but also to amplify textural possibilities to the skin of the work. But here, I was excited to see another use for broken bisque/fired works: as insulation and structural support during the firing process.
Tibetan traditions in pottery sometimes make use of sherds as decorative elements in their newly thrown pieces–a physical expression of Buddhist philosophy exemplifying the notion of birth and rebirth, impermanence, and beauty in the imperfect. Here though, in Kutch, the practical and metaphorical dimensions of using that which is broken to create something new, is both lyrical and a model for sustainable living.