A few Historical facts about potteryI mentioned anthropologists. It is one of their specialty fields to have an interest in clay objects. Did you know that shards can tell us about ancient technology and human behavior? Since clay is preserved by fire, it carries footprints and cultural evidence that cannot easily be distinguished. I came across this you tube video that explains how they translate images and marks from clay into historical facts: The presenter has a lively way in which he explains the importance of pottery shards to read ancient history. It took me years to learn and understand that pottery carried a history that stretched far beyond my imagination. I never realized the importance of clay for anthropological research. If my first studio would have been an archaeological site, they will probably find shards, telling interesting stories of us few women that had so much fun in our garage studio and maybe they would find the first signs of the birth of my passion for clay. It became a lifelong love affair, one that I never would have managed, was it not for my dear husband and his patience with me. (oh he still did not eat his hat as he said he would do if I become a potter!) I also found this beautiful website with information about the Ancestral Pueblo cultures found in the regions where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meets, known as “The Four Corner area” It is believed that the Pueblo people descended from nomadic living styles and gathered here some 12 thousand years ago. Their pottery has a significant influence on American pottery; to this day.
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Malelane was paradise. Our children were young preschoolers; in fact, Tinyke was a 9 month old baby when we moved there. Koos was working at the sugar mill, a booming new industry for a region that previously relied on vegetables for their daily bread. I was raised in Namibia, where we only saw flowing rivers when it rained in the Khomas Hochland Mountain, just so that it will run down in a few hours into dry sandy beds? So in comparison with my childhood home, this was true paradise. It was a luxury to see the Crocodile River constantly running. Drought was not uncommon here, but the vegetation was lusciously green in contrast with the mostly grayish green landscapes where I grew up. Bougainvillea became trees in comparison with the ones growing in Namibia and I never saw bigger banana leaves than the ones in the Lowveld where it grew in plantations. There were crocodiles and hippopotamus in the river and if you watched closely, you could see elephants or buffalo on the other side of the river in the Kruger National Park. Our favorite leisure time was on Sunday afternoons when we took the children to see these animals in and around the river.
First beginner pottery kiln and pottery glazes It took me five months before I had my first kiln. Someone advertised a kiln for R400 (about $40 in current terms) in Nelspruit, a neighboring town. It was time for my next lesson and it was here that my husband showed his weight in gold regarding my pottery escapades! The kiln was a flimsy old top loader, with broken elements and only two settings: on and off. With the help of technicians, Koos hand coiled elements and before long we had a kiln going! By then I collected enough class fees to buy our first glazes. Not knowing any better, I ordered 12 different one-kilogram (2.2 lb.) glazes to dip our pots in. Of course it did not work too well (our pots were too big to dip and we did not know of any other way, so we poured the glaze. We managed though, and before long we had our first finished pieces fired. Our first pots were made and we were very proud of ourselves. As I improved, curiosity sometimes got the best of me and I opened a kiln way too soon, just to end up seeing pots cracking in two right in front of my eyes.
Throwing porcelain dinner sets include the design considerations, throwing and trimming on the wheel, altering processes as well as glazing mixing and firing considerations. Students learn how to make different mug shapes, goblets, tumblers. Antoinette teaches how to make pie dishes, different bowls like cereal and salad bowls, plates, platters and lidded casseroles. She explains how to prevent cracks and hand out many tips and techniques.
Image:Learn how to create fine translucent wine goblets on a pottery wheel.
Preview of some of our virtual and hands - on pottery and porcelain classes with Antoinette1/15/2026 Antoinette Badenhorst presents hands-on as well as virtual pottery classes in stoneware, earthenware and porcelain around the globe. She teaches, virtually, along with other internationally renown artists from TeachinArt (Teach-In-Art) Online school of Art. See her hands-on porcelain classes here. The school was founded in 2014 when Koos and Antoinette Badenhorst began with online pottery instruction. Since then we added many more classes and many more instructors.
With our detailed pottery video lessons, at affordable prices, students follow our workshops from across the world. The motto of our school is "From the artist to the artist". Watch our videos any time of the day, from any technological platform of your choice, from any place in the world. Antoinette has several video clips that are extracts from her online pottery workshops. In this video she show how important the drying phases of the clay is when considering carving into the clay. Translucency in the porcelain clay is the result of fine carving into the clay. Scroll down for more demonstrations. This video of Antoinette was recorded during her hands-on workshop at the Pottery Studio in Bryanston in South Africa. She shows how to throw a big porcelain bowl on the pottery wheel, add more clay to it, cut and carve it and alter it to get translucency. Antoinette's Gallery, hands-on workshops and e-courses
All our e-courses at TeachinArt.com online art school See Antoinette's blog index Note how I start trimming. First the interior and then the exterior wall. It is easier to judge the wall thickness while trimming right side up and if the interior is perfect, the exterior can just follow. I trim the foot with a blunt tool, because the clay is still very soft at this stage (I normally keep my pots under plastic until it releases itself from the bat), but first use a surform blade to take any unevenness out. The softness of the foot allows me to reshape the foot rim. For the walls I use a sharp trimming tool, to prevent that I have to push too hard on the thin rim. I run the wet sponge over the whole piece to create a slip that help me to smooth the surface out with a rubber kidney, but at the same time, the re wetting of the pot will allow me to alter the shape later. Be aware that if the pot is to dry when one add water, it can de-laminate. See Antoinette's work and workshops at PorcelainByAntoinette
See list of e-courses at TeachinArt.com online art school See Antoinette's blog index Throwing porcelain, altering porcelain, pinching porcelain and understanding porcelain are all elements of the "Diva" of clay that are included in the online porcelain classes of Antoinette Badenhorst. Students learn to push their own limits and are challenged to show the translucency in porcelain. Video clips show workshops in Canada, South Africa as well as snippets from porcelain e-courses that Antoinette presented. Antoinette taught classes in Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and France. Her classes in several countries in Europe for 2020/2021 was unfortunately canceled due to COVID.
She is currently continuing to teach online. See her classes at TeachinArt
Clay wedging is explained and demonstrated in one of Antoinette's online classes. Students learn in these porcelain e-courses how to wedge clay, throw on the wheel, trimming techniques, hand building and many more about porcelain, the Diva of clay. This video that shows how Antoinette wedges clay is a snippet from one her e-course "Understanding Porcelain"
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