Making Native American Pottery

Locating A Source of Clay

Good deposits of clay usually occur along a stream or river bank. Find a source where the clay is pure and without inclusions or other debris such as grit or sand. Very clean, fine-grained clay has been used by Cherokee potters for pipe making and is sometimes called “pipe clay” while a coarse clay that is light gray, sometimes called “blue clay” or “pot clay” is used for pottery. This clay is coarse because it has a naturally occurring sand grain in it that works well as a tempering agent. The pure clay was found along stream beds while the more coarse clay is often found at slightly higher elevations. Today, road cuts are often a source for good clay
Test the clay to see that it is good quality. Dry clay will shine a little when rubbed with a smooth object. Wet clay is sticky and easily molded into shaps. Dig out several pounds of clay to take back to your work area for testing to insure that it is of sufficient quality to manufacture satisfactory pottery. This was often a family event among Native Americans. Digging sticks or hoes were used to extract large amounts of clay. The clay was packed in sacks or baskets and transported home for future use.
If you do not have access to a clay pit, which were sometimes difficult to find and were often kept secret in ancient times. an excellent quality of clay can be purchased from a local clay company for this same process.
To purchase clay from the Stone Mountain Clay & Glaze Company, click on this link: http://www.stonemountainclay.com/Clays.html. You will want to call (770) 986-9011 and ask for Kaku #251 clay. The clay ships in a 25 pound bag at a cost of $13.25 plus shipping.

Select the Pottery Type You Would Like to Make

For your first pot, it might be best to choose something simple, but that will employ all of the steps in pottery making. A sand-tempered pot with a plain surface and a simple rim might be best. This kind of pot would usually be classified as a Deptford Plain type in central Georgia.
Your choice of pottery type will determine your choice of tempering material.
Your best source for deciding the pottery type to make might be Lloyd Schroder’s Field Guide To Southeastern Indian Pottery (Revised and Expanded).

The clay must then be washed to remove any debris and kneaded repeatedly to achieve the proper consistency and quality, removing any air bubbles before shaping a pot.
Because clay was secured in large amounts and often stored in a pit, it would dry out and then had to be broken apart and crushed before it could be moistened for use. Potters often used a mortar and pestle, wooden club, or a hammer stone for this purpose. After the clay is sufficiently crushed, it should be screened through a piece of window screen to insure that all of the lumps have been removed.

Adding Temper to the Clay

One of the most important parts of the process is to introduce a tempering agent into the clay. The temper helps bind the clay together and deep the finished pot from cracking while being dried and later fired. Temper also helps the pot withstand heat shock when cook on coals. The earliest pottery used plant fiber from palm leaves or Spanish moss, but these fibers burned out during the firing process and nothing was left to add strength to the pot and maintain its shape. This process is still used with tempered clay to make “pinch pots” or small bowls and cups that are made from a ball of clay and fashioned by hand without the use of coils. These early pots not only lost their fiber tempering material during firing, but were made by pressing clay into the desired shape rather than using coils of clay to hold them together. This method would be invented soon after.
Other tempering materials were used in pottery during succeeding archaeological periods and in different locations. One of the next tempering materials to be used in combination with the new coiling method was sand. Sand was a very successful temper material and continued to be used until historic times. Other tempering materials included small, coarse pebble grains called grit. This was widely used in Georgia while people in Alabama, central Tennessee, and Florida used limestone. Many of the people living in what is not North Carolina used crushed quartz, while people living in Mississippi and along the Atlantic coast of Georgia used crushed clay or pottery sherds. Clay that is already tempered with crushed clay (also called grog) can also be purchased from a local clay company. By the Mississippian period, the most widely used tempering material was freshwater clam shells.
Tempering materials were mixed with the clay paste at a varying rate, but most potters agree that a 20% mixture is about right. The exact ratio for your clay and your pot may take a little trial and error. Take several small amounts of clay and mix each with a different amount of tempering material (label them by temper amount and weight), then roll the clay samples into pencil-sized pieces and allow them to dry. The one that dries without breaking or cracking is the correct amount of temper for your clay. (1 part sand to 9 parts clay equals a 10% mixture, etc). The kind and amount of tempering is key to reproducing ancient pottery just as it is in identifying ancient pottery.
To add the temper, select the amount of damp clay you think your pot will take and form it into a ball. Flatten the ball into a pancake, then cut out 1/4 of the pancake and remove it. Take the amount removed and make a damn around the vacant 1/4 cut and put your dry tempering material in the space you have created. This makes a 25% mixture. Other varying amounts can be worked out by cutting out different sized sections of your pancake.
Thoroughly mix the clay and temper together, needing it to be sure the temper is evenly distributed in the clay.

Building The Pot

Building the base or bottom of the pot is an important step. The base will serve as the foundation for the coils that will be built on it, layer-by-layer, later on in the process. The tetrapodal legs should follow the taper of the sides of the vessel and must be level enough to allow the vessel to be stable when sitting on its legs.
The base is often, but not necessarily, made as a one-piece shallow bowl formed from a single lump of clay. The base may also simply begin as part of the succession of coil from its center outward and upward to completion. In this case, modern Native American potters support the base of the pot with cloth to prevent premature drying and to support the vessel after it is made to prevent it from being deformed while handling it. The cloth will also keep the clay from sticking to the working serface. Native Amarican potters sometimes used a basket in which to form their pots. The beginner may want to use a form such as a appropriately shapped bowl over or in which to build coils. If this is used, cover the form vessel with celophane to prevent the clay from sticking to the form.
If podal supports are to be added to the vessel, it would be best to add them at this point. Bases are often recovered as one piece with podal supports attached. If podal supports are not to be added, it will be necessary to support the base as you build the succeeding layers of coil. A small indenture in a layer of sand lined with cloth will offer the needed support while not deforming the form of the base.
If the base is to be rounded or conical, I have found it helpful to support the bottom of the vessel in a container like a bowl or even a sand indention to prevent the base from being deformed while adding support to the vessel walls while being built.
Once the base is formed, it should be allowed to harden, but not allowed to completely dry as it must be molded to adhere to the first layer of coil. The clay we have recommended will remain workable for a day or more, so don’t feel rushed in your work.
Some pottery types such as Watts Bar Cord Marked are believed to have been pressed into the interior of a basket. The addition of heat to the clay would have fired it to some extent and the clay would have retained its vessel form. This discovery may account for the basket-like impressions that later decorated the pottery.

Adding Layers of Tempered Coils

Adding the first coil must be done carefully to insure that the succeeding coils will not separate from the base.
Select a lump of tempered clay and roll it out into an even coil of sufficient length to make a complete layer around the vessel.
Cut one end of the coil squarely while the other end should be cut to a long taper.
Once the coil is made, it must be attached to the top of the base. The tapered end should be attached firmly to the top of the base to begin the coil sequence.
Ancient potters used their fingers, a smoothing stone or trowel to smooth the clay and blend the layers together. Smoothing the layers of coil together seals the pours of the clay, compacting it and adding a layer of satin patina to add to its durability and its ability to hold water.
Once attached, the layer should be allowed to harden slightly before adding the next layer of coil.
The next layer of coil should be simply attached to the squared end of the preceding coil. Do not attach the coil layers to their own end, but rather let the layers spiral to completion, not allowing the coil joints to end at the same point. Rather, stagger the joints in each layer of coil to add strength to the vessel wall.
Smooth each layer together as you add them until you have achieved the desired size of your vessel.
The end of the final layer of coil will be tapered just as the first layer was tempered to create a smooth, flat lip.

Forming The Lips

The lip is also a defining part of the pottery type so refer to the type definition before finishing the lip. This step should serve to level the rim and insure its stability. Many early potters finished their rims by tapping it with a paddle, sometimes leaving markings along the rim. This paddling technique helped level the rim while compounding the clay along an area of the vessel that would receive a lot of ware.
Modern Cherokee potters often use a kitchen knife to trim the excess clay from the lip before finishing its shape.
A simple rim and lip are the best choice for your first pot. Lips on the Deptford type can be easily rounded.
Some pottery types during some periods used scalloped edges or notches in their rim design. Again, be sure to check the details on the type you are making.

Decorating Your Pot

After the vessel walls have been smoothed, you must reference the pottery type you have chosen to duplicate the surface decoration accurately.
Accurate decoration will require the accurate choice and use of tools. Even a plain vessel surface can be plain, plain smoothed, or burnished plain depending on the pottery type chosen. The higher the gloss, the more smoothing required.

3. STAMPING

a.While you might want to make your first attempt at pottery making a plain vessel, your first decorated pot might be cord marked or simple stamped.
b.Making your tools will be covered separately.
c.Most stamps are carved from wood or are fashioned out of a baked clay block.
d.The stamp design is pressed carefully or slapped into the moist clay exterior of the vessel. This paddling process helped to further compress the clay and gave the exterior surface a textured surface that would not slip in the hands when full.
e.Be sure to note the amount of overlapping done by the ancient potters. Some overlapping is purposeful and accurately done while some seems haphazard. Reference the pottery type you have chosen in the Field Guide to Southeastern Indian Pottery (Revised and Expanded) by Lloyd E. Schroder.

4. INCISING

Select your incising tool to reproduce sharp, V-shaped lines or U- shaped lines as required by the pottery type you have chosen.
Carefully study the illustrated patterns before you attempt to reproduce them on your vessel.
Most incised patterns are reproduced in sections around the vessel. If this is the case, you will want to mark those sections using tape or some other method so that your incised lines fit accurately into each section.

5. PUNCTATING

Select the size and type of tool required for each type of punctation pattern. Some decoration patterns require both hollow and solid core, large and small, sharp and dull pointed punctation. Other punctation is done by repeated punctations with a single instrument.
If punctation requires shell, be sure to have the correct shell on hand. You should visit a local shell shop before attempting shell impressions or punctations.

6. NODES

Nodes are small round protrusions that are often added to the exterior of the vessel. These are often added to the exterior of the rim or lip.
Most often nodes are lumps of clay that are added to the vessel, but in some cases, such as O’Neal Plain, the nodes are pushed through from the inner wall of the vessel. The deep indentation left in the inner wall is then filled with additional clay and smoothed.

7. IMPRESSION

As mentioned above, be sure to have the correct shell on hand before attempting shell impressions or scraping.
Fabric Impressed decoration is most often done with a fabric wrapped paddle. The Pee Dee people were one of the few to wrap their vessels in strips of fabric. It is important to have the correct fabric weave before making impressions. One way to achieve this without actually reproducing the weave is to press a sherd of ancient pottery into the face of a clay stamp and letting it harden.

8. EFFIGIES

Effigies are figurines that are added to the lip or body of the vessel.
The women that made ancient pottery concerned themselves with the middle world and day to day life, thus these are the images that appeared as effigies on their vessels. They consisted of animals that were part of their subsistence or with people that held meaning to them.
You might want to see the articles about effigies in the “Artifact Identification” section of our website before you attempt to add them to your pot.

9. APPLIQUE STRIPS

An appliqué strip is a strip of clay that is added to the exterior of the vessel lip, either to thicken the lip or to add as decoration or both.
The Lamar people of the Late Mississippian period had many different means of decorating this strip of clay including finger pinching or reed punctation. They also added appliqué strips along the bottom of the rim section of their vessels to separate different types of decoration techniques. These techniques were continued along the Georgia coast in Irene vessels and throughout central Georgia by the Creek people making Ocmulgee Fields pottery.
The Cherokee people used the appliqué strip in a different way on their Pisgah pottery by thickening the rim and then adding punctated designs along the rim.

10. PAINTING

Each of the decorating techniques has been presented in increasingly difficult levels. Painting, and especially negative painting, is perhaps the most difficult level and probably should not be attempted on a vessel surface without some practice.
Other forms of decoration are done while the clay on the surface of the vessel is still moist, but painting is done after the vessel has been fired.
Remember that the ancient vessels you see have been in an environment that has worn away the layers of paint, perhaps nearly completely removing them. Your paint will be fresh and bright.
Native American painting traditions predate the arrival of European explorers, with different colors holding symbolic meanings. The primary colors used for pottery painting were red, white, and black. The paints were made from natural pigments, including minerals and plant material, mixed with a fish-egg binder.
e.Prepare your paints by mixing finely ground or crushed pigments from plants, minerals and other sources with a beaten egg yolk binder. You can also mix your pigments with melted animal fat, linseed oil or milk as binders. Mix a little water to get the consistency you want for your project. For some pigments, such as dirt or clay, you can use water alone.
f.Red paints come primarily from iron-rich clays or berries. Native Americans also used certain types of beetles to create these paint colors. Naturally formed voids in rocks that filled with iron-rich sediments are often called “paint pots” because the reddish sediments could be mixed with water or other binders to be used for paint. An iron rich sand stone was also often scraped to remove grains for pigment. For deeper colors, you can mash the berries and heat them slightly to release more of the colorful juice.
g.White paint could be mad from limestone, gypsum, chalk, or white kaolin clay and blended with a binder.
h.Black paint could be made from charcoal or soot when combined with a binder. Like other pigment sources, it has to be ground finely to blend smoothly for painting.
i.Once the paint is blended to the right consistency, it needs only to be carefully brushed on to match the ancient patterns.

Drying Your Pot

Ancient potters often air-dried their pots in nets to allow air to flow evenly on all sides. Drying the pots in a cool, perhaps shaded place, allowing the air to circulate on each side of the vessel allowed it to dry slowly and prevented the clay from cracking. The process will take 5 to 6 days, but the pot should be “bone dry” to prevent cracking. Some modern potters dry their pots in the sun to complete the drying process. Most potters will preheat their pots by setting them beside the fire to heat them before firing them. This can be done by heating the pots in an oven over a few hours, slowly increasing the temperature to 500 degrees, then placing them quickly into the fire.
The net drying process also caused the nets to make impressions over the bottom of the pots on Etowah pottery, creating a new type called Etowah Net Impressed. The design was accidental, not purposeful.
Once the vessel is dried completely, it is ready to be fired.

Firing Your Pot

There are a variety of firing techniques that can be employed in firing pottery. The firing process is essential to harden the clay into a durable and usable vessel. If the pot is fired sufficiently, the heat will melt the clay particles together and make the pot waterproof.
Pots that are not completely fired will allow water to seep through the pours of the clay and evaporate. This is not necessarily bad because the seeping water will keep the stored water inside the pot cool.
Modern Cherokee potters preheat their pots by placing them beside the fire before putting them directly into the fire.
Once the pots are placed in the fire, many potters cover them with small strips of oak or poplar bark. This “smoking” of the pottery chemically altered the clay and turned it a dark color. Using the bark rather than the hard wood itself produced a hotter fire with less breakage.
By digging a pit in which to fire the pottery, the vessels are mottled surface that is marked by the effect of the flames. At about 1500 degrees some shrinkage will occurr. When the pot reaches 1600 degrees it is chery red. At 2000 degrees the pot turns orange and the alumo-silicates are fused and the pot is strengthened and the red clays are matured.
While it was still hot, the Cherokee potters invert their pots over a small hole in the ground that is filled with burning corncobs or meal to “smudge” the pot. After about 30 minutes, the pot is smudged black and glistening with a sort of glaze on the inside, adding to their ability to retain water.
Some pottery types were fired in an oxygen-starved atmosphere by placing one pot inside another, thus starving it of the oxygen needed to sustain an open flame. Woodstock pottery was done this way, turning the color of the pottery a dull gray.