John Guerin on sat 19 jul 97
Does anyone know of a commercial supplier for Puki's? I've been making my
own, but it is a very messy and time consuming job. With my Indian Pottery
classes, I go through over a hundred a year. This means that at least twice a
year a spend two or three days with a hundred pounds of pottery plaster
pouring them by hand. I have been unsucessful in locating a commercial
supplier ,and would really appreciate any leads that anyone might have.
Thanks in advance for your help.
By the way, if you are not familiar with the term, a Puki is the Hopi word
for the curved plaster base the most Indian hand-built pottery is shaped on
until it reaches the leather-hard stage and can support it's own weight. I
havn't heard it called by any other name, except in the MARIA Video where she
was demonstrating how to make San Ildefonso Pottery. There, the Pahana (white
man) announcer mistakenly called it a Poki. He probably thought it was a typo
error in the script.
John Guerin
Tucson, AZ
Vince Pitelka on sat 19 jul 97
>Does anyone know of a commercial supplier for Pukis? I've been making my
>own, but it is a very messy and time consuming job.
John -
In my ancient clay classes I use pukis, and my student often want to buy
them, so I have to make lots. In those classes we do not use the wheel at
all, but I do throw the pukis on the wheel and then bisque-fire them. It is
fast and efficient. I just make very bowls, with a fairly sharp edge at the
inside rim, to facilitate maintaining a continuous wall profile where the
vessel wall leaves the puki. Hope this helps.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
Home 615/597-5376, work 615/597-6801, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Elca Branman on sun 20 jul 97
What's a puki? Is it to be used in mixed company ?
Elca Branman
Branman Potters ,Stone Ridge, N.Y.
in the Hudson Valley
elcab1@juno.com
MSPOTTS@aol.com on sun 20 jul 97
In our studio, we just use any bowl that happens to appeal for shape and
size...anything from the kitchen or anywhere else...
We've gotten some 'masterpiece' creations like this...nothing hand made at
all.
T. Edwards
John Guerin on mon 21 jul 97
In a message dated 97-07-20 12:10:14 EDT, you write:
<< What's a puki? Is it to be used in mixed company ?
Elca Branman >>
A puki is the curved base used to hold a hand built pot until it is dry
enough to support it's own weight. Since most indians don't "throw pottery'
on a wheel, they make these curved (bowl shaped) bases out of
plaster-of-paris or pottery plaster. In prehistoric times they used a curved
piece of broken pottery. For a very large pot, they made a shallow, curved
depression in the sand and sprinkled wood ashes in the depression to prevent
the wet clay from sticking to the sand.
John Guerin
Tucson, AZ
Vince Pitelka on mon 21 jul 97
>What's a puki? Is it to be used in mixed company ?
>Elca Branman
Elca -
Definitely not in mixed company!!! A puki is a Precolumbian ceramic marital
aid which, when installed properly, facilitates the act of . . . . .
Aw shucks, I can't pull it off. Seriously, a puki is the bisque-fired
bowl-shaped mold which Southwest Native American potters use in forming
rounded vessels, supporting the outward thrust of the walls where they would
be most likely to colapse without such an aid. They work wonderfully. With
a puki, you can coil a 10"-12" diameter sphere with a small hole in the top
in a continuous operation without having to stop and let the thing stiffen
up before continuing. For a spherical shape, the puki normally supports
approximately the lower third of the form. For a vertical ovoid form it
would obviously be less than a third. If you decide to throw some pukis on
the wheel, make some with a flat in the bottom, and make some with a
continuous rounded bottom. Use any clay, but if it is a gritty clay use a
rib to smooth the inside profile. In my ancient clay workshop last week, I
made a series of long-necked, round-bottom vessels in pukis, and when
leather hard added tripod feet. I love them. They don't have anything to
do with my primary work, but I love them. I'm trying to figure out how to
fit that in. Incidentally, the vessels I made are not at all like Magdelena
Odundo's work, but they were undoubtably influenced by seeing the incredible
exhibition of her work recently at the St.Louis Art Museum. Go see it.
If you look at ancient Peruvian Chavin, Mochica, Paracas, and Nazca pottery
you will see how the area where the puki (or whatever they called it then)
contacted the form was often incorporated into the design. It seems to have
been used throughout the Americas. African, Middle Eastern, and East Asian
handbuilders have also used a similar device. It is one of the many steps
in the early development of ceramics which seems to have been discovered
independently by many cultures through history in geographically isolated
parts of the world, as with corded surfaces, round-bottom cooking vessels,
tripod feet, monochrome and polychrome slip decoration, burnishing, etc. Or
maybe VonDaniken was right in "Chariots of the Gods", and it was the work of
aliens???? Could be . . . .
- Vince
Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
Home 615/597-5376, work 615/597-6801, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Claudia O Driscoll on mon 21 jul 97
John,
I just had a 'throwing' friend make up some nice shaped pukies for me,
and have used the same ones for years. I got the idea from watching
Lucy Lewis work...she used an old broken pot that she had made years
earlier as a puki.
I did not use plaster...just some nice bisqued shapes.
claudia
Ric Swenson on tue 22 jul 97
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>>What's a puki? Is it to be used in mixed company ?
>>Elca Branman
>
>Elca -
>Definitely not in mixed company!!! A puki is a Precolumbian ceramic marital
>aid which, when installed properly, facilitates the act of . . . . .
>
>Aw shucks, I can't pull it off. Seriously, a puki is the bisque-fired
>bowl-shaped mold
snip........
>Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
------------reply------------
Speculate that the origins of the Puki might be found in the "burnt basket
theory" ie. the discovery that clay "gets hard and changes" when fired.
(ie. when a basket for carrying water, which was lined with clay from the
riverbank, to hold the water in the vessel came in contact with the
campfire.) This might explain why some very early examples of clay pots
have a basket like woven texture?
I believe the other theory has to do with campfires made on clay surfaces
tended to change the soft clay to a hard material.
This could be the explaination for how ceramics and metalurgy "began" long
ago.
Just a thought...
Ric
Ric Swenson, Bennington College, Route 67 -A, Bennington, Vermont 05201-6001
802 442-5401 x 262 vox x 237 fax or dedicated fax 802 442-6164
email: rswenson@bennington.edu
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