Pottery: Guide, History & Inspiration

Why Pottery Matters

As one of the oldest human inventions, pottery has been around since before the Neolithic period, with objects dating as far back to 29,000 BC. While in the past, the pottery industry has served marginal niches, today’s pottery companies are thriving thanks in part to a resurgence in consumer demand for unique, handmade goods over mass-produced items.

With such a bright outlook for the future, pottery is perhaps more popular than it has ever been. However, how pottery reached this point is a story filled with rich history.

Sometime between 6,000 and 4,000 BC, the first potter’s wheel was invented in Mesopotamia. This brought about a revolution in the way ancient people could create items out of clay. No longer were pottery makers restricted to the long process of hand molding clay — they were then able to have more freedom in experimenting with new forms and aesthetics. While pottery had always had intrinsic artistic qualities, when the potter’s wheel arrived, it shifted the process even more. Instead of serving utilitarian purposes, it now served artistic ones. While the earliest types of items found by archaeologists were generally undecorated, unglazed, hand-formed clay vessels, by 6000 BC, places like the Middle East, China and Europe had developed a wide array of design techniques.

From intricate painted designs that told the history of a Pharaoh’s reign to highly polished bowls and plates to elaborate animal figures, ceramists attained remarkable skill and ability that was never seen before, thanks to the invention of the potter’s wheel.

If you want to know more about this unique, ancient practice and how it has evolved into the industry it is today, we’ve developed this guide for you. So, let’s get started – here’s the ultimate guide to the history of pottery!

How has the making of pottery changed in the past 100 years?

Pottery has changed a lot since the early days of hand-formed ceramic bowls and manual wheels. The biggest change within the past 100 years involves the kiln, another required tool of the pottery trade. Since potter’s wheels have been electrified, so too have kilns moved from gas to electric. Even in the past 20 years, innovators have made progress in the kiln industry, developing electronic programmers to control the temperature and power of the kiln.

When it comes to industrial production, fired ceramic ware has moved from jiggering to pressing. Jiggering is the mechanical adaptation of wheel throwing and is used where mass production or duplication of the same shape, like bowls and plates, is required. Pressing, on the other hand, involves setting a ceramic slab against a mold plate to achieve a customized look.

And some of the biggest innovators in today’s pottery industry have taken a technologically focused approach. Most production lines at major manufacturing facilities have been automated to reduce human power while increasing machine automation.

What do you think the greatest advantage is to producing pottery?

Pottery is one of the most durable forms of art, with many fragments found from almost all time periods and civilizations throughout the world. There’s no doubt that ceramic items last much longer than other artifacts that were crafted from less-durable materials. When a person makes a piece of pottery, they’re likely to consider it’s lasting quality and what it means to have something made by their hands be found millenniums later — it’s something that piques the interest of many who learn the practice.

Within the studios of Deneen Pottery,  many resident potters say this is the reason they got into the work in the first place. When asked about the longevity of this unique medium, Texas Teena, art director of Deneen Pottery responded, “I think of that often, especially when I design a ceramic mug that has a historic building on it. There could come a time when the only our mug is the only remaining reproduction of that building.”

What does the future of pottery have in store?

Throughout the development of civilization, people have relied on pottery to improve their way of life. That shouldn’t change all that much in the near future. People will always have the same need for pottery that they’ve always had, whether it’s for utility or artistic functions. From a potters perspective, the need for pottery won’t be satisfied by manufacturers based in the U.S.    Because of steep competition from low-cost imports, many domestic manufacturers are either outsourcing their manufacturing facilities to decrease costs or shutting down.

As for Deneen Pottery, we believe that we have a bright future and confident outlook because our product is more than a simple utilitarian piece. Our work carries aspects of fine art depicting hallmarks of places and events that people want to carry home with them to commemorate a special memory in their life. We’re committed to preserving our customer’s memories for years, centuries, even millenniums (OK, maybe just a few fragments for that last one) to come.