STEVE EMBER: Slip casting is another method. A ceramist pours liquid clay into a hard form or mold. As the clay dries, it takes the shape of the form. This method is useful for making very detailed objects. It is also useful because the mold can be used over and over again to make exact copies of the ceramic form.
There are also many ways to add decoration to ceramics. These methods can be as simple as scratching designs and images into the clay. Or, they can be more complex such as using liquid glazes to change the color or shininess of the clay surface.
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BARBARA KLEIN: Pottery provides important examples of cultural exchange. For example, native traditions of pottery in Mexico changed greatly in the fifteenth century. After the arrival of people from Spain, Mexican ceramists stopped making their own religious figures. They started making Christian religious forms instead. Also, the Spanish introduced materials and methods used in Europe, including the potter's wheel.
Trade exchanges spread ceramics all over the world. As early as the tenth century, the Chinese traded their ceramics throughout the Middle East and southeast Asia. Chinese ceramics later had a great influence on Europe. Europeans started to copy the fine traditions of Japanese and Chinese ceramics as early as the eighteenth century.
STEVE EMBER: Ceramics also demonstrate the depth of human creativity. This art shows the local needs and materials of a group of people. Pottery is often very different from country to country. But it can also be very different within areas of the same country. For example, in Mexico, every area has a different clay tradition. In one part of the state of Oaxaca, potters have been making black clay containers in the same way for centuries.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25