Greek Ceramic Art

By Angela Liko

What is the ceramic art ? 

The ceramic art or pottery is one of the oldest human inventions, originating before the Neolithic period. It is the process of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are released at high temperatures (600-1600 °C) in a bonfire, pit or kiln which induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing the strength and rigidity of the object to give them a hard, durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain in an inspired verve of shapes, colors, figures. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing.

 In the modern era, new morphologic and technical features have been added to making ceramics. Storage jars, amphoras, craters, jugs, and lekythoi are the most known objects. Although much pottery is purely utilitarian, much can also be regarded as ceramic art. 

Our experience in ceramic crafts

In December 2019 we visited the ceramic workshop, CooCoo creations, where we worked on handmade crafts. Each of us made a ceramic cup or candle holder with some help from 2 professional ceramists, Lambrini Karousou and Vangelis Mertzanis. We used white clay to build the body of the object we chose. It took some time to make the shape as it requires accuracy. When we finished our crafts, they were let out to dry naturally in the air, then embellished on the outside and put in an oven at 1000 degrees.

 During our second meeting we decorated and painted our ceramics. We used special paints for ceramics in different colours and differently shaped tools to decorate them. Our crafts were put again in the oven at 1000 degrees, were covered in special glass film and put again in the oven at 1000 degrees. You can see our work at Coocoo Creations workshop in the following video on you tube: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbIe-UosX4E 

Ceramics

 

 A day with Ceramics

On a sunny morning of 23rd of October, we and our classmates, as a part of the Erasmus+ project, visited both the Acropolis Museum and the DotAhart workshop. Besides from allowing us to develop our skills on the making of all types of ceramics, the information given was very useful and interesting enchancing our knowledge in an interactive way and allowing us to learn a lot more on this crucial part of the Greek culture and history. With that said, we'll now let you taste our experience and share everything we've learnt with you!

Starting with the most common use of ceramics, they were designed for feasts and daily family life, which                    A wide variety of containers found in the Acropolis Museum

required large supplies of
tableware, including transportation and storage vessels for wine andother liquids, jugs, cups for serving and drinking, plates and, finally, bowls for consuming food and holding sauces and condiments.

                                                    Acropolis Museum's jugs and bowls

  The econimic and trading activities of the inhabitants are reflective in the use of marble and lead balance weights and the amphorae, many of which bore stamps on their handles marking their city of provenance.

                                           An example found in the Acropolis Museum

  The clay moulds for making terracotta figurines and the unfinished sculptures point to the existence of pottery and sculpture workshops in the area.

  Kitchens were equipped with all the necessary utensils, vessels, basins, plates, grinders and pestles. The food was cooking on portable blazers and escharae, which were also used for heating the house. 

 Besides from the big diversity of jugs, bowls and plates, there were also made plenty of ceramic sculptures from the past till up to date.

   Clay-made plates and bowls

Sculptures found in both the Acropolis Museum and the DotAhart workshop

    As for the workshop, slides were shown, full of amazing pictures of the history of Ceramics and Sculpting.

The presentation was conducted by a professional of the area

Example of images shown on the presentation

 

    Finally, we tried to make a ceramic bowl by ourselves, guided by an experienced worker. We had a lot of fun making it, you should absolutely give it a try, it is completely worth it!

                             After being taught on how to do it, many students got the chance of trying to sculpt


   Our teachers tried it as well, as even one of them tried to sculpture Marios' (a greek student) nose.


                                                                      A talented teacher

 And, with this, we concluded our experience on working with Ceramics. It was a a really helpful activity and we really hope to have the chance to use the knoiwledge we gained again, someday.