Rachel and Eric on mon 29 sep 97
At 08:42 AM 9/27/97 +0200, you wrote:
>
>Rachel and Eric,
>
>>> (pots are variably burnished, slipped, stained with oak bark dye, jet
>black from smoking in sunken kilns, wildly colored by the play of fire on
>clay, etc.) <<
>
>Could you tell me how the Oak bark dye is made, how they use it and what
>the effect is? It sounds interesting.
>Russel Fouts
>"Mes Potes et Mes Pots"
>Brussels, Belgium
>+32 2 223 02 75
Russel
Two villages, Rio Blanco and Yojuela, quite far removed from each other,
use oak bark dye on their pots here in Oaxaca. The dye is prepared the same
way in each village. Bark is gathered from the oak tree. (They tell me that
not just any type of oak will do, just the type that grows on yonder hill.
As yonder hill is quite a ways off, I have not seen the tree. However, give
me a few months and, as my wife is a botanist, I'll get the scientific name.
In the mean time, her theory is that many types of oak will do as it is the
tannin that creates the stain, so try whatever is handy). Anyway, they
collect the bark, a kilo or so, and place it in a large bowl over a fire
with perhaps 5 liters of water. The process is very much akin to making tea.
The water boils and draws the tannin out of the bark. When the water is dark
like coffee, the dye is ready.
The pots are fired in a simple wood fired stone kilns in Rio Blanco,
and in bonfires in Yojuela. In both villages the pots are pulled from the
kiln/fire when they are done firing but still very hot. This is done with
two long sticks, one with a hook on the end, and a bit of sweat. A pot of
water is kept nearby to douse the sticks when they catch fire.
The stain is applied to the pots as they come out of the kiln. The
potter uses, in one hand, a stick stuck down the throat of the pot to
manuever it. In the other is their "brush" with which they apply the stain.
In Rio Blanco the "brush" is a rag which is dipped into the oak dye and then
dribbled/sloshed over the pot. As the pot is very hot, the liguid bounces
and steams along the surface, leaving a dark stain wherever it makes
contact. The rag seldom touches the pot, just the dripping dye. The result
is a pot that looks as if Jackson Pollack got to it, for it is wildly
stripped and splattered. The color is a brown that varies from light to dark
depending on the thickness of the splatter
In Yojuela the "brush' used actually is a piece of brush(as in
shrub). They select a leafless branch from a certain bush that contains a
multitude of branchlets. The pot is handled in the same way as above, but
the dye is splattered/patted onto the pot more or less evenly with the dyer
rotating the hot pot and spritzing it with his brush. The end result here is
a pot that is a dark, mottled brown/black. It looks as if it has been in a
smoky kitchen with decades of bean juice slopped over the sides.
I asked people in both villages why they stained their pots. I had
some vague theories about the stain on the hot pots tempering them somehow,
or affecting the porosity of the clay. In Rio Blanco they said, "because
that's how my mother did it." In Yojuela they said it was because the people
who bought the pots in the surrounding villages believe that the balcker the
pot, the better fired it is. Kind of like toast.
The stain is just a stain, in no way fired into the pot, and if left
in the sun or rain, it will fade. All the old pots in Rio Blanco and Yojuela
are just plain tan. Their color long ago having silpped away.
Check out the web page, there is an image of each of these pots.
Desde Oaxaca, Eric
Eric Mindling & Rachel Werling
Manos de Oaxaca
AP 1452
Oaxaca, Oax.
CP 68000
M E X I C O
http://www.foothill.net/~mindling/
telefax (951) 3-6776
email: rayeric@antequera.com
Peggy Heer on mon 29 sep 97
Hi Eric and Russel...there was a nice article in a very old Ceramics
Monthly that describes the process you have just posted below. I think they
are absolutly wonderful but if my memory serves it was done in Africa. My
memory is no .....
I will try and find the mag. # and let you know....I have mags back to 1969
so it may take a while. ;>}}}
Please, Eric, keep those stories coming...really enjoying the travel with you.
Russel, did you get my post???
As Always in Clay Peggy
-------------------------------
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>At 08:42 AM 9/27/97 +0200, you wrote:
>>
>>Rachel and Eric,
>>
>>>> (pots are variably burnished, slipped, stained with oak bark dye, jet
>>black from smoking in sunken kilns, wildly colored by the play of fire on
>>clay, etc.) <<
>Russel
> Two villages, Rio Blanco and Yojuela, quite far removed from each other,
>use oak bark dye on their pots here in Oaxaca. The dye is prepared the same
>way in each village. Bark is gathered from the oak tree. (They tell me that
>not just any type of oak will do, just the type that grows on yonder hill.
>As yonder hill is quite a ways off, I have not seen the tree. However, give
>me a few months and, as my wife is a botanist, I'll get the scientific name.
>In the mean time, her theory is that many types of oak will do as it is the
>tannin that creates the stain, so try whatever is handy). Anyway, they
>collect the bark, a kilo or so, and place it in a large bowl over a fire
>with perhaps 5 liters of water. The process is very much akin to making tea.
>The water boils and draws the tannin out of the bark. When the water is dark
>like coffee, the dye is ready.
> The pots are fired in a simple wood fired stone kilns in Rio Blanco,
>and in bonfires in Yojuela. In both villages the pots are pulled from the
>kiln/fire when they are done firing but still very hot. This is done with
>two long sticks, one with a hook on the end, and a bit of sweat. A pot of
>water is kept nearby to douse the sticks when they catch fire.
> The stain is applied to the pots as they come out of the kiln. The
>potter uses, in one hand, a stick stuck down the throat of the pot to
>manuever it. In the other is their "brush" with which they apply the stain.
>In Rio Blanco the "brush" is a rag which is dipped into the oak dye and then
>dribbled/sloshed over the pot. As the pot is very hot, the liguid bounces
>and steams along the surface, leaving a dark stain wherever it makes
>contact. The rag seldom touches the pot, just the dripping dye. The result
>is a pot that looks as if Jackson Pollack got to it, for it is wildly
>stripped and splattered. The color is a brown that varies from light to dark
>depending on the thickness of the splatter
> In Yojuela the "brush' used actually is a piece of brush(as in
>shrub). They select a leafless branch from a certain bush that contains a
>multitude of branchlets. The pot is handled in the same way as above, but
>the dye is splattered/patted onto the pot more or less evenly with the dyer
>rotating the hot pot and spritzing it with his brush. The end result here is
>a pot that is a dark, mottled brown/black. It looks as if it has been in a
>smoky kitchen with decades of bean juice slopped over the sides.
> I asked people in both villages why they stained their pots. I had
>some vague theories about the stain on the hot pots tempering them somehow,
>or affecting the porosity of the clay. In Rio Blanco they said, "because
>that's how my mother did it." In Yojuela they said it was because the people
>who bought the pots in the surrounding villages believe that the balcker the
>pot, the better fired it is. Kind of like toast.
> The stain is just a stain, in no way fired into the pot, and if left
>in the sun or rain, it will fade. All the old pots in Rio Blanco and Yojuela
>are just plain tan. Their color long ago having silpped away.
> Check out the web page, there is an image of each of these pots.
>
> Desde Oaxaca, Eric
>
>Eric Mindling & Rachel Werling
>Manos de Oaxaca
>AP 1452
>Oaxaca, Oax.
>CP 68000
>M E X I C O
>
>http://www.foothill.net/~mindling/
>telefax (951) 3-6776
>email: rayeric@antequera.com
Peggy Heer / Heer Pottery E-Mail p4337@connect.ab.ca
52120 Range Road 223
Sherwood Park, AB. Canada T8C 1A7
Phone (403) 922-6270
http://www.ffa.ucalgary.ca/artists/pheer/
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