Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box
    The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box
    The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box
    Ebook107 pages59 minutes

    The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box

    By LJ Gormley and Nat Kemp

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    “What?!” My next door neighbor, who knew I was interested in lost and sometimes weird crafts and trades, had just exhaled a few garbled syllables, totally unintelligible, in my direction. Now my friend is a great lover of jokes and riddles so I thought this was his way of amusing himself, sending me on a wild goose chase after an imaginary activity. “I said, saggar maker’s bottom knocker. I’m serious. It was an actual job.” Just to be on the safe side, I did a quick web search. And sure enough, not only was there (and is there) such a thing as a saggar, but there was also something or someone known as a saggar maker’s bottom knocker. And the route to the saggar bottom knocking starts with ancient China and takes in a few alchemists, white gold, Marco Polo, missionaries, house arrest, and even a wallaby along the way. I had to know more.

    Of course, it is easy to make fun of the job title. It very literally explains the activity, perhaps too literally. Its simplicity conceals the importance of what would on the surface seem to be an inconsequential object, namely a box to hold ceramic ware in kilns, moreover only one part of that box. It also provokes a number of questions. Why not put the saggar and all its constituent parts together at the same time? Why does the saggar need two people to assemble it? Why can’t the saggar maker do all of it? Indeed, why is a saggar necessary at all?

    What I learned is how an art, craft, industry can depend upon not just a simple, purely functional object, but also the bottom of that simple object. Now that does sound like a punch line....

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlack Morning Marsh Press
    Release dateDec 17, 2014
    ISBN9781311775078
    The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box

    Related to The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box

    Related ebooks

    Asian History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Linda Bloomfield Matt Glazes Using Magnesium

      Sep 17, 2021

      Linda Bloomfield is a scientist turned potter. More glaze recipes can be found in her books, Advanced Pottery (2011), Colour in Glazes (A&C Black 2012), The Handbook of Glaze Recipes (Bloomsbury 2014) and Science for Potters (The American Ceramic Soc

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hare's Fur by Trevor Shearston

      Jun 30, 2021

      Hare's Fur by Trevor Shearston
      2 min read

    • Article

      Decorative Relief Tile

      Dec 22, 2020

      Decorative Relief Tile
      5 min read

    • Article

      Design Profile

      Oct 29, 2020

      Design Profile
      4 min read

    • Article

      Special Effect Glazes

      Jun 23, 2020

      Special Effect Glazes
      1 min read

    • Article

      Getting There

      Sep 29, 2023

      We are born. Then we die. Between the gooing and the gloaming, artists are active. I have been involved professionally now for sixty years. What is it like to be here? Before getting to that, let’s go way back and start at the beginning. My early amb

      14 min read

    • Article

      HANDBUILT Ceramics

      Nov 19, 2021

      If you have a news story, product launch or details of some other topical item you’d like our readers to know about, email claycraft.ed@kelsey.co.uk A good introduction to handbuilding, with comprehensive coverage of the materials, tools and techniqu

      1 min read

    • Article

      Art Is A Rollercoaster

      Jan 12, 2024

      Art Is A Rollercoaster
      3 min read

    • Article

      Waiting for Godot

      Jun 1, 2019

      Waiting for Godot
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dig Your Own Clay!

      Sep 16, 2022

      People have been collecting clay for thousands of years out of necessity, and many still do, albeit often as an experiment or from pure curiosity. Wild Clay details how to identify, collect, process, test and fire wild clay for use in ceramics, slips

      1 min read

    • Article

      Chun Glazes In An Electric Kiln

      Oct 20, 2020

      Linda Bloomfield is a scientist turned potter. More glaze recipes can be found in her books, Advanced Pottery (2011), Colour in Glazes (A&C Black 2012), The Handbook of Glaze Recipes (Bloomsbury 2014) and Science for Potters (The American Ceramic Soc

      3 min read

    • Article

      Teapot With Infuser

      May 19, 2023

      Teapot With Infuser
      13 min read

    • Article

      Clay Craft BACK ISSUES

      Jan 21, 2022

      £5.99 PER ISSUE INCLUDING P&P • Thrown bird bath • Garden oya • Pinched dogs • MKM Tools spotlight • Eastcott Studio update • Zinc oxide glazes • Thrown bowl • Pinch/slab olive dish • Slab cracker dish • Wide salad bowl • Using slips • Potfest – owne

      1 min read

    • Article

      Paul Davis Under the Influence

      Dec 25, 2021

      Paul Davis Under the Influence
      11 min read

    • Article

      Neighborhood Of A Glaze

      Nov 1, 2018

      Like a beautiful shell on the beach, a miracle out of the kiln. Is this glaze reproducible? And what will be the effect of small changes in composition or firing? More, is this glaze unique, or does it have exciting relatives? Let me tell you of my a

      8 min read

    • Article

      Contemporary Ceramics And The Past

      Aug 1, 2018

      Contemporary Ceramics And The Past
      7 min read

    • Article

      Metallic Glazes

      Aug 25, 2020

      Linda Bloomfield is a scientist turned potter. More glaze recipes can be found in her books, Advanced Pottery (2011), Colour in Glazes (A&C Black 2012), The Handbook of Glaze Recipes (Bloomsbury 2014) and Science for Potters (The American Ceramic Soc

      3 min read

    • Article

      Underglazes And Stains

      Dec 22, 2020

      Linda Bloomfield is a scientist turned potter. More glaze recipes can be found in her books, Advanced Pottery (2011), Colour in Glazes (A&C Black 2012), The Handbook of Glaze Recipes (Bloomsbury 2014) and Science for Potters (The American Ceramic Soc

      4 min read

    • Article

      Studio David Sequeira

      May 1, 2022

      Studio David Sequeira
      3 min read

    • Article

      Linda Bloomfield

      Oct 15, 2021

      Linda Bloomfield
      3 min read

    • Article

      Drippy And Gloopy Glazes

      Nov 19, 2021

      Linda Bloomfield is a scientist turned potter. More glaze recipes can be found in her books, Advanced Pottery (2011), Colour in Glazes (A&C Black 2012), The Handbook of Glaze Recipes (Bloomsbury 2014) and Science for Potters (The American Ceramic Soc

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker, or The Story of Pottery in a Box - LJ Gormley

      The Saggar Maker’s Bottom Knocker: or the Story of Pottery in a Box

      By LJ Gormley and Nat Kemp

      PUBLISHED BY:

      Black Morning Marsh Press on Smashwords

      As part of the FastTracks to Heritage Craft series

      Copyright 2014 LJ Gormley and Nat Kemp

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

      * * * * *

      Table of Contents

      About the Series

      Foreword

      Image Table

      Introduction

      Pottery, from Pit to Kiln by Way of Saggar

      What is a saggar?

      Into the pit fire

      Glazes

      Kilns and Saggars

      China: the discovery of kaolin clay and the creation of porcelain

      Europe: in search of the magical formula for porcelain

      English Pottery Comes of Age

      The English discover the magical formula and ingredient

      Of clay and coalfields: the rise of English pottery

      Made of sturdy stuff: saggar marl and other clays

      The making of an industry: Josiah Wedgwood

      Assembly line production: such machines of men as cannot err

      Saggars on the Assembly Line

      Preparation of the clay for the saggar

      Making the saggar sides and bottoms

      From Bottom Knocker to Master Potter

      Putting it all together: making the saggar

      Packing the Saggars

      Placing the Saggars

      Does Anyone Still Use Saggars?

      "A Ruined Empire"

      So, no more saggars then?

      Conclusion

      References and Further Reading

      Acknowledgements

      Other Books in the Series

      About the Series

      Have you ever approached the web brimming with enthusiasm for a new hobby or activity only to be overwhelmed by all the information? Maybe so overwhelmed that you put aside your search, and your enthusiasm, for another day, a day in all likelihood that never comes.

      Black Morning Marsh Press is pleased to introduce a new e-book series, FastTracks to Heritage Craft, in which our authors explore lost, or disappearing, trades and tradecraft, drawing together print and digital resources alike to give you a concise consideration of all possible aspects of the subject in an easy-to-read format.

      FastTracks because our readers are reading and learning increasingly while on the go, oftentimes on the train on their way into work

      Each e-book provides an informal introduction to a trade or trade craft, primarily through the eyes of someone approaching the subject for the first time. This fresh approach as well as a list of resources at the end puts the reader onto the fast track to further exploration, knowledge, and experience.

      Back to the Table of Contents

      You probably think of the orchestra as a heterogeneous mass of instruments producing a confused agreeable mass of sound. You do not listen for details because you have never trained your ears to listen to details.

      Arnold Bennett, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

      English writer known for his novels of the Potteries

      In this operation the workman imitates Nature, who to ripen the fruit and bring it to perfection, puts it into a case so that the heat of the sun gets at it little by little, and its action inside is not too much interfered with by the air that comes from outside during the fresh nights.

      Selected Passages from the Letters of Pere D’Entrecolles on the use of saggars for the making of porcelain in China

      Foreword

      What?! My next door neighbor, who knew I was interested in lost and sometimes weird crafts and trades, had just exhaled a few garbled syllables, totally unintelligible, in my direction. Now my friend is a great lover of jokes and riddles so I thought this was his way of amusing himself, sending me on a wild goose chase after an imaginary activity. I said, saggar maker’s bottom knocker. I’m serious. It was an actual job. Just to be on the safe side, I did a quick web search. And sure enough, not only was there (and is there) such a thing as a saggar, but there was also something or someone known as a saggar maker’s bottom knocker. And the route to the saggar bottom knocking starts with ancient China and takes in a few alchemists, Marco Polo, missionaries, house arrest, and even a wallaby along the way. I had to know more.

      Of course, it is easy to make fun of the job title. It very literally explains the activity, perhaps too literally. Its simplicity conceals the importance of what would on the surface seem to be an inconsequential object, namely a box to hold ceramic ware in kilns, moreover only one part of that box. It also provokes a number of questions. Why

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1