More Romanware for the English/Welsh Persona

Brand new and just in time for Caid's Crown, is a "mug" that was based off a form in the book, "Pottery in Roman Brittain, page 52. This tankard or mug, is Severn Valley ware from Kingsholm (Gloucestershire) and was made for Roman kitchenwares during the second and third centuries. Considered "psuedo-samian formed" (another type of ware) and was very regionalized and not very exported since it was mostly made for the Roman armies stationed in that area.

There were earlier forms of Severn Valley ware starting as early and first century when the Romans came. The region from where these potters reached was in the Mendips, south Wales and the Welsh Marches, and as far north as Cheshire.

These pots are normally an orange-red with carved decorations. I doubled and tripled the size of the actual pieces and used my food safe brown-red glaze... and green one. As far as I can tell from my documentation, the originals were NOT glazed, but it was just raw clay that gave it the color and texture.





I think mine is pretty close. I can always get a clay that is exact the same as the one used and glaze clear if requested.

German Sprigged pots

More fun with sprigged pots. I wasn't sure if I had any images up of these types of drinking vessels. I knew I had done these before in the past (very few) but since I just did a few more, I decided to shoot them for the blog. You can really tell the details on the sprig molding and the hand work I did.

These are roughly 16th century, found in the German Stoneware book I have. The brown glaze is more period than the green, but I do them in both glazes for customers. The green you can really see the details way better (and personally, I like it with the drips and sand).

Random Drinking Vessels

Trying to update for all my newer pots that I have been making the past six-ten months. I seem to forget about taking pictures of my work and when I remember, it's too late and it's sold.



English Jug 14th Century




English 14th Century




Gaul 2-5th Century



Gaul 2-5th Century

The Gaul items I find a lot more interesting than the English and German pieces since I see a lot of Greek influence in them (plus they are fairly difficult for earlier pieces). Unless you are a potter, you wouldn't know that it's difficult to to manipulate the clay in several directions from narrow to bulbous and back to narrow again. Also, when you have a narrow base, it makes it difficult to throw that as well, then wide, then narrow, without distortion or collapse. Gravity plays a large part with throwing vessels and these guys have been somewhat tricker than their English or German counterparts.

I think that's why I like them. More of a challenge.

Cooking ware

I made these fancy pipkins (and promptly sold them) all based off period design, however, I made them a little more lighter and "fancier" so, they are a lot more on the modern side in design. They were were fun to make however.






Sort of like a fondue pot, huh?

This one is even more modern (and I still have) plus it has a lid. It was fired in my first firing with the new elements. VERY proud of this one as the glaze really looks great on it.

Bellermine revisited

I haven't done these in awhile. With my newly reformulated glazes (I mix my own glazes and formulate my own stuff by hand) I made a few recently. These pictures were shot at Highland War in August.

More English Jugs

Just a few more jugs...



Biconical jug



English jug which is VERY close to a German one. Remember how I said the English and German pots were very similar?

Animal and Human Faces in English Pottery

Sculpting animals and human faces onto pots has been going on since the dawn of time. It's not surprising to see it on pots from around the world.

Here are some 13th-14th century English examples of jugs that have anthropomorphic and human qualities to them.



Ram's Head jug.

There are holes in the nostrils so that liquid pours out through them. And yes, this is completely historically correct and disgusting at the same time. Think about Gothic gargoyles on Churches and you have the same principle. Jugs with mouths open, pitchers holding water in the form of animals called Aquamaniles, were used throughout the Middle Ages.



Gentleman Jug... heh.

I originally was going to name him man jug, but that sounded wrong. I don't know what he was called. I only have a cut out picture of him. I do believe he might have been a soldier, but this is a guess. There is a lot of clay manipulation on him, both attaching parts and pushing out to sculpt out his chin and cheeks.

These are just my more recent ones.

Raeren & German Pots

The Museum of London has an enormous collection online of their ceramic pieces, which is very cool when one is trying to recreate the past. I used to buy books (well, still do) whenever I could with whatever information (good or bad) on pottery from all time periods. Because the Museum of London has such a wonderful collection, I now am far more picky with what I need to purchase (which helps my wallet, let me tell you).

Between 1200 and 1600 there was a huge boom in Germany and their pottery production. They had come across salt firings, which was a big advancement. Salt fires at medium to high temperatures, and for a Medieval European Society, firing above earthenware temperatures had been a big struggle.

Here are some of my German steins all within the 1300-1600 period. Raeren is technically a small city in Belgium very close to the German border, but it is catagorized under "German" wares, per Museum of London.



Sprig attached jug, thumbed foot.




Raeren (Belgium)stoneware biconical drinking mug with thumbed foot, similar to this one off the Museum of London site.




German "becher" or beaker in English. ;)


German forms are very similar to English of the same time period. Germany exported much of their wares, so personally, I have a feeling the English probably copied the Germans, but I haven't really researched this. It is common practice among potters, metalworkers and even glassblowers to copy (or the polite term, "be inspired by) each other's vessels. There are numerous examples of similar beakers in glass and pottery, Aquamaniles in metal and ceramic, and vice versa. Anything to make a buck, right?

Viking's had to drink too, right?

You knew the Vikings had to drink out of something, right? Well, it's always hard to research this stuff when all the books focus on battles and who is sleeping with whom. Where is the important stuff, like WHAT did they eat or for me, WHAT were they eating out of?

I have a book laying around called "the Vikings," years ago, which had ONE poorly shot picture of these vessels.






Since then, there are other sites and books that I've come across these same vessels. I make these now as cups and as far as I can tell from this website, they assume it was indeed used for cooking/eating/drink.



As far as a lot of my reading went, much of the pottery came from the Rhineland, however. Much of the "Viking" cook wear was made of soapstone or traded because in their areas, clay deposits are rare. We can assume that there were some Viking potters, but like with any nomadic tribe that purposefully plagued a great many lands, they traded a lot. And of course, the Vikings left a trail behind. Much of their pottery is found in the UK.

Modern Fun

I was playing with some period German shapes and some more modern undertones and got this.





Just having fun. :)

We have new pots! German & English!

I've been busy over the past few months. Mostly I have been updating several English and German forms that I have done in the past, but some of these are variations of forms that were used in the 1400-1600.

Also, I've re-calibrated my fake salt glazes and plan to drop my other glaze that I used to use. I will be tweaking this more for color choices, but I think it really has the texture and coverage now.



German jug




German Jug (different glaze)




German Jug




English Jug




English Jug with my Tudor Green glaze





English jug, round belly, with Tudor Green glaze




Germann Beaker with Tudor Green glaze




Gaul 5th -6th Century Drinking vessel with fake salt glaze (like second glaze), thrown porcelain





Gaul 5th-6th Century Drinking vessel with fake salt (first glaze)


Most of my work is done on high fire stoneware. All glazes are created by me, the chemistry by me and calibrations, all mine (no computers and I mix everything by hand). Glazes are fired in an electric kiln, which I fire as well.

All forms are researched by me and are accurate historically to the Museum of London site as well as several books.

More Islamic Wares...

The larger jug was based off a Persian jug that I found at the Metropolitan of Fine Art in New York City.



The design itself is slightly altered, simplified a bit. The carving took me four hours as it was. Scraffitto decoration, black slip brushed onto a whitish clay body, then carved off. It was thrown thin as well. The final piece was given to His Majesty, Edric of Caid just recently.

Mini Pots

I did these minnature pots for a commission. All of these are 1/3 to 1/12 scale pots, made in the same way as I would my full-sized stoneware pottery. They are high-fire, glazed, dry-footed and trimmed off the wheel. These were all just as difficult, if not MORE SO, because of their size.















Adding the handle was incredably difficult and yes, this can hold liquid.

11th Century Persian

This is a scraffito-ware, 11th Century re-created beaker. I did all the carving, which took roughly 3 hours to do. I, of course, threw the piece on the wheel, fired and glazed it as well.





This little "mouse" is actually for the turkish/persian bath. It is a loofah (I can't spell) and the bottom is a bit rougher for exfoliation (arg...spelling...boo). There is a small bead on the inside of the mouse which turns this into a "rattle" as well. So, it may look very simple, this form is pretty tricky to throw, create, decorate and glaze.

Something like this can easily collapse while being decorated in the matter I was doing it, the bead on the inside could stick and not rattle, and the worst thing, in the firing, it could blow up as it is a hollow form. This is the more "period" one by the nose, thought I did do more "English" eyes. I liked these eyes better and I NEVER copy anything exactly because all pieces are MINE and I want to put a part of me as the artist into them. I can copy things, but I won't because I don't feel it is right, even if the artist is dead.




Here is the sillier, cutier one that i gave to Her Majesty, Faizeh. It's a little fatter and I did the nose different.

Cool, huh?

11th Century Persian

This is a scraffito-ware, 11th Century re-created beaker. I did all the carving, which took roughly 3 hours to do. I, of course, threw the piece on the wheel, fired and glazed it as well.





This little "mouse" is actually for the turkish/persian bath. It is a loofah (I can't spell) and the bottom is a bit rougher for exfoliation (arg...spelling...boo). There is a small bead on the inside of the mouse which turns this into a "rattle" as well. So, it may look very simple, this form is pretty tricky to throw, create, decorate and glaze.

Something like this can easily collapse while being decorated in the matter I was doing it, the bead on the inside could stick and not rattle, and the worst thing, in the firing, it could blow up as it is a hollow form. This is the more "period" one by the nose, thought I did do more "English" eyes. I liked these eyes better and I NEVER copy anything exactly because all pieces are MINE and I want to put a part of me as the artist into them. I can copy things, but I won't because I don't feel it is right, even if the artist is dead.




Here is the sillier, cutier one that i gave to Her Majesty, Faizeh. It's a little fatter and I did the nose different.

Cool, huh?