Agateware

Karen Ellis created this plate after she did The Colored Clay online class by Curtis Benzle.

The Agateware technique in pottery is popular among potters. The process appears to be simple: mix two different clay colors together and you have a marbled effect that mimic the agate stone.
In the earlier days it was mostly light and dark natural clays that was mixed up, but many potters mix oxides or stains into their clay bodies these days. For anyone that like patterning in clay, the possibilities are endless. ​

This technique is often done in hand building since it is a little harder to prevent overworking and too much blending of the colors on the pottery wheel.  

​​The overall concept of coloring clay is a developed in different parts of the world. Playing with different colored patterns had its origin in glass. In Rome it was a practice in glass blowing, called murrini. In Japan clay which were mixed into color patterns was referred to as nerikomi. These two forms of color patterning was a little more precise than the technique that is claimed to have its origin in England.
​Although it was actually recorded as a technique as far back as the Tang Dynasty in China, it was Wedgewood that brought it back to life in the 18th century. 

This image shows some detail of an Agateware teapot created in Staffordshire 1745-1750. Note the detail despite the very busy clay patterns.

​Other names that this technique goes by with slight differences in the techniques of patterning is nerikomi, neriage and mishima. 

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Detail of a laminated bowl made by Dorothy Feibleman.

​​I discovered colored clay in the early 1990s. After the reprint of The Potters Manual by Kenneth Clark. The original book was printed in 1983. At the time Dorothy Feibleman was probably still a rising ceramic star. 
​I was in awe with a laminated pot she created from patterns laid into a black slab of clay. She pressed the original bowl  into a mold and then laminated detail on the exterior.
​I tried it at that stage, not really understanding what happens when 2, or more kinds of clay are mixed or laminated together and I recall the clay cracking loose from color to color. 

I was so focused on this specific pot that I did not pay attention to the many other artists that was highlighted in the book, coloring or combining different colors of clay. Ann Harris was featured with a coil pot in color variations and burnished. 
Dick Studley was featured with a bowl made from Egyptian paste, a low firing clay body, with a low water tolerance. 
Even Lucy Rie was featured with marbled pots in her very distinctive forms. 
Now that I am looking at the book again, it is interesting to see how Marion Gaunce from the UK shows step by step how she created a little more formal patterned bowl. 
Apparently all different colored clay patterning was popular during those years. Idonia Van der Bilj was a UK potter that rolled motives into slabs of clay and then built various objects. 
Weather all these techniques can be classified as agateware is debatable, especially when colored slips are  marbled into agateware patterns in plates, but then also used in a more formal way to create patterns. 

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​When I wrote the notes in the book that I compiled with articles from Ceramics Monthly, a few artists that was included in the book was Naomi Lindenfeld, Cory Brown (who laminated porcelain on stoneware clay) and Chris Campbell, who is mostly a hand builder and instructor in colored clay. My notes was loosely based on my general knowledge of clay compatibility.
Little did I know that it will circle around in my study field a year later. 

​How I used the awarded fellowship.
 

​I was awarded with a fellowship in 2020 from the Mississippi Arts Commission in cooperation with the Endowment of the Arts. The original plan was to attend The International Academy of Ceramics Conference in Finland. I became a member of AIC- IAC in 2019. When it was canceled because of COVID, the opportunity opened to use the money for self-education/enrichment. I undertook a lengthy educational trip to museums, galleries, botanical gardens, and other theme related places where I could observe, document, learn and absorb information that may take me to the next phase in my creative career.  The result was that I decided to investigate colored clay.  

​As I said earlier, I worked with colored porcelain years ago and I am not sure if it is a direction that I really want to pursue at this stage. There are big shoes to fill, but all paths led to colored clay. Color popped out everywhere as  I was making observations of nature in parks, despite the fact that it was already deep in the winter season. Interestingly enough the Northern parts of Florida, although it shows distinct signs of winter rest, still has its splashes of color, especially in leaves, butterflies, and birds. In the museums that I visited, color popped out everywhere. I assume that it has to do with my personal emotional status. If you ever studied color, you will know it is a very powerful indication of emotional status. 
I also observed some underwater life, however, not enough to really add it to my list of my current observations. My plan is to still visit the new aquarium on the coast of Mississippi as well as the Rocket Space Center in Huntsville Alabama. By then it will be full springtime in Mississippi, so flowers will begin to emerge everywhere. 

The images below was selected randomly from over a 1000 images and video clips that I collected on my trip. 

In my current work, color is always important. After all, I come from a country,  South Africa, where color is around one year long. I described that part of my heritage often before. It is woven into my fiber and will always be part of it. However, the question stands: how do I add these new observations to the repertoire? 

Testing colored clay
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​I mentioned that if I want to pursue colored porcelain, I will have to fill big shoes, or have to find a new place in the sun. At the moment I see the colored clay projects strictly as tests which I am using to expand my personal education and to report about it to fellow potters.   

These videos show some of the tests that I have made. Also the images below are showing how I tested color manipulation

My observations this far is interesting: 

• When light and dark clays are mixed, it is very easy for the dark to overpower the lighter color. 
• Drying stages will reveal color better than when the clay is still wet. 
• It is possible to manipulate pinch pots into twin pots when the original clay ball is divided in 2 exact equal parts. 
• It is very easy to overwork the clay and eliminate the color contrasts. 
• The deeper scraping, the more color reveal..... or eliminate.

Questions on my mind: 

• How can I incorporate color clay into my own work style, without getting to far of from my style. 
• How can I keep the message simple, but intricate at the same time. 
• ​How will I develop a distinct color pattern without stepping into the field of potters like Curtis Benzle, Judith de Vries and Maria ten Kortenaar. 

Some ideas are forming in my mind, so I may come up with a few prototypes. When I do, I will post it here as a follow-up.  

TeachinArt Online classes

Antoinette Badenhorst teaches porcelain classes as well as other pottery classes online with TeachinArt She has 40 years of experience is teaching and mentoring potters of all ages. Antoinette has been an online instructor since 2014 with students in 41 countries. She also teaches hands- on workshops in countries across the globe. Below are a few images from her workshops online or otherwise.  

​​Curtis Benzle has two classes with TeachinArt:
Colored Clay is his charter class.  
All Artists making a living (AAMAL) is a comprehensive study in which Curt goes through the nitty gritty trouble and solutions that artists run into every day. He provides detailed information about art and the law and how to make the law work for you instead of the lawmaker. He address marketing and sales issues in art and how to make it work, even when you are shy to sell your own work or services. Curt goes to the core of what make artists fail or become a success story. Whether you are the most talented or a mediocre artist, without identifying all the ways to "climb the ladder", success will always be one heartbeat away, unless you work to get it. 
With his 50 + years of experience in clay and art in general, many many students learned from him. 

The images below shows some of the art pieces that Curtis did in a production business. 

One of the signature pieces by Curtis Benzle. The image landed on the cover of Ceramics Art and Perception as part of the article  "Porcelain a diverse medium for Modern Times" by Antoinette Badenhorst.