Making

Pottery
at
OLD STURBRIDGE
VILLAGE

Have you ever made a pinch pot or coil pot? Most of us have played or
sculpted with pieces of clay. One of the most popular spots at Old Sturbridge
Village is the pottery shop. There, you can see the potter turn a lump of red
clay into a mug or a vase before your eyes on the pottery wheel.
Archaeologists found small clay sculptures in the Czech Republic from over
30,000 years ago! People also created pinch and coil pots by hand. Pottery
wheels were invented around 2,500 BCE. Early potters turned these wheels
by hand. At the Village, the potters use a foot-powered wheel called a kick
wheel. Moving his foot up and down turns the wheel. Potters use the pressure
of their hands and fingers to build up the sides of the clay vessels.

Potters in the 1830s made useful things from clay. If you stop by the pottery
shop in the Village, it is filled wall-to-wall with pottery pieces. Some of these
items include:
· Bowls
· Pitchers and jugs
· Plates
· Storage jars
· Mugs
· Baking dishes
· Chamber pots

· Flower pots

What is clay, anyway? Clay is a soft, earthy material that forms through
weathering and erosion. It is made of tiny particles of rocks and minerals
and has water trapped inside it. You can often find clay in riverbeds or near
the seashore. Clay is plastic when it is wet, which means it is flexible. Since
you dig clay from the ground, it is also inexpensive and plentiful. The pottery
the potters at OSV makes is called redware. This is because the clay from
this area of New England has lots of iron in it, which turns it a red color as it
dries. Clay from other parts of the world are different colors because of the
minerals in it.
Potters have been important parts of their community for thousands of
years. In the 1830s, being a potter was a part-time job. Many potters were
also farmers who had lots of clay on their farmland. The pottery show at
OSV belonged to a Connecticut named Hervey Brooks. He was a farmer,
too. Potters like Brooks would either dig up the clay themselves or trade
with someone who would dig it for them. In the early 1800s, teenage boys
would learn to become a potter by becoming an apprentice for about seven
years. Apprentices would learn how to make pieces quickly and without
measurements.
The potters sold these items to people in the community or traded for other
goods. Pottery was cheap and not very fancy during this time. These pieces
were plain and simply glazed. A glaze is a powder of red lead, sand, and
water. (Today, we don’t use lead anymore because it is poisonous.) The
potter made the glaze himself. The glaze keeps the pots waterproof because
it turns to a shiny glass in the heat of the kiln. Other powders made different
colored glazes. Some potters used combs to make straight or wavy lines in
the clay for decoration. Others used something called slip, which is watery
clay. They wrote words with the slip on plates and dishes.
The potters at Old Sturbridge Village fire the kiln once a year. It is made of
brick and shaped like a bottle. Using lots of firewood over many hours, they
feed the kiln until it is almost 2,000 degrees! The heat drives out the moisture
in the clay and makes it dry and strong. When full, the kiln can hold more than
500 pieces of pottery. Next time you use a plate for dinner, think about how
long an 1830s potter had to work to produce just one plate!

When you visit the pottery

shop at OSV, you will notice
a small structure outside of
the shop that looks like a well.
This is the pug mill, which is for
processing the fresh clay. The
potter mixed clay and water in
the tub of the mill. His horse
would walk in circles and churn
the mill until the little stones in
the clay dropped to the bottom.
After letting this clay season—
or age—the potter could start
making bowls, mugs, and
more.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.
RI.3.2-3, 7; 4.2-3; 5.2, 8; 6.1, 7
nieonline.com/courantnie Discover New England Living History!