Hippopotamus, Quiet Inspirations, Meadham Kirchhoff

Tuesday - Clay Share

Statuette of a Hippopotamus

 Hippopotamus, Middle Kingdom, 1981–1885 B.C. Egyptian; collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is easy to get a warm and fuzzy feeling when looking at this Hippopotamus sculpture. After reading about it we find out the Hippopotamus was a dangerous animal to the Egyptian people, and was one animal that they kept a keen wary eye out for as they fished the waterways.  This turquoise hippo was found in a tomb with three of its legs broken, to prevent the creature from harming the deceased in the afterlife. The legs were repaired after its discovery as part of a burial tomb.

Egyptian faience is a self glazing ceramic paste that goes back 7,000 years ago. It is primarily silica with fluxes added as soluble salts. As the material drys, the salts collect at the exposed  surface as the water evaporates. Copper is added to the material to obtain the turquoise color. When fired, a glaze develops at the surface where the fluxing salts have become concentrated, and the silica mass becomes fused.  This process is a transitional technology between glass and glazed clay objects.  Essentially it is a glass material worked as a paste rather than as a material in a molten state, and then sintered, rather than fully melted.
Contemporary Egyptian paste formulas have for the most part been adjusted to contain enough clay and other materials to make them more plastic than the original faience formulas, making them easier to work with.
This Egyptian Hippopotamus is in the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Amy Waller Pottery has further information on her blog Amy Waller Pottery. Also there is an interesting article about Faience by K. Kris Hirst.

Hippopotamus, Middle Kingdom, 1981–1885 B.C. Egyptian; collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thursday - Potters Pick
Judith Duff

Quiet Inspiration: Japanese Influence on North Carolina Potters - at the North Carolina Pottery Center, Seagrove, NC

Judith Duff, a potter from Brevard, NC. is the curator for the upcoming "Quiet Inspirations: Japanese Influence on North Carolina Potters" at the North Carolina Pottery Center, in Seagrove, NC. Opening Reception is on Saturday, February 7, 2015 from 12:00—2:00 p.m.

There will be a presentation by Judith Duff at the North Carolina Pottery Center on March 8, 2015 Sunday, 2:00 pm. right after the North Carolina Potters Conference. For more information about the exhibition visit the North Carolina Pottery Center and for more information about the North Carolina  Pottery Conference visit the Randolph Arts Guild. 

Quiet Inspiration: Japanese Influence on North Carolina Potters - at the North Carolina Pottery Center, Seagrove, NC

Playing off the Instrument
Meadham Kirchhoff

Meadham Kirchhoff  - Edward Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff - Teamwork

Break out the under-glaze, over-glaze, and lusters; grab you some bright mason stains, … it's time to compete with confections as rich as these, and shed our self imposed ceramic aesthetic proprieties.

We post our: Clay Share - Tuesday,

Potters Pick - Thursday,

Playing off the Instrument - Sunday

weekly on our Bulldog Pottery Facebook Page