Stoneware pottery has been around in the South since the Southeastern US began to rise out of the huge forests of pine and red clay. Most of the early potter were English and German trained. Most were not overly fond of having to reinvent themselves in this land where none of the traditional materials they used in Europe had really been prospected for here in America. Most folks here were trying to stay warm and dry and keep from starving to death. Someone had to find, tested and validated these materials. We'd still be eating Cheerios out of cupped hands if someone hadn't done the work.
Stoneware is what the name indicates. Clay fired into rock. Stoneware will be here in some form when Gabriel blow he hawn. Red ware, the other pottery medium is softer and more or less useless for storage, but is used for table ware, churns and garden ware. Both Redware and Stoneware are made in the Southern States, but stoneware wins the prize for durability...storage vessels were vital in those days.
So, how did the process come to be a cottage industry in the South? Clay is as prevalent as rock. Erosion of ancient rocks and mountains left long trails of water that contain the fruits of the erosion process. These trails were creeks, streams and rivers. As they tumbled along they deposited mud, silt, and CLAY.
Glazes were another problem. The glaze is what give a pot it's color, protects the surface from abuse, and keeps the contents from a certain amount of spoilage. Most of the glaze materials used in Europe weren't readily available, but were there for the digging...and dig they did.
The German and Moravian potter had brought a salt glaze tradition with them. Simply said, they start firing the pots in the kiln, and toward the upper end of the firing cycle, salt is introduced into the kiln chamber through port. NaCl sodium and chlorine...table salt. The chlorine goes up the chimney as a gas,(just don't take a deep breath) and the sodium adheres to the pot...a beautiful gray green surface. It isn't a very hard glaze, but it did the job.
Folks in the South had more uses for salt than using it to glaze pots...curing meat. Our northern neighbors had more access to salt that we had in the South... but we didn't have to shovel snow!
Providence provided...a Jesuit priest came into South Carolina, and announced he'd been to China and seen potters there use a glaze made from wood ashes mixed with water and "other ingredients" . Those are always a potters secret...sorta like magic potions. No Yankee ingenuity required; the Southern potters had an abundance of ashes, clay and "fines" or fine silica found in streams and ditches to stir up together and dip the pot in. A hard, simple to make, beautiful glaze was the result.
The glaze makers rule of thumb the FAG code. F for Feldspar, found as one of the three ingredients of granite, pretty common in the US. A for alumina, found in clay, and G, for a glass maker, something like silica from a road ditch, or ground up glass. Add a little water, cook it to about 2000 degrees. 2000 degrees! How do you get that kind of heat?
A KILN!
A kiln is a confined space into which heat is introduced, and a chimney to let the excess gases out. By introducing a constant supply of fuel, a much higher temperature can be achieved over a period of time than with an unconfined fire. Most kilns are sprung arch, dome, catenary arch, or a combination of both.
My cousin Lynne is what I call an architectural archaeologist. She and her husband are scholars of Roman building techniques. Twas the Romans who developed concrete...game changer!
Cousin Lynne, and her husband answered some interesting, age old questions in there 30 yrs. of study and hands on sleuthing. One visit to Athens, Ga, I took her to see Bobby Ferguson's updraft pottery kiln in Gillsville, Ga. that I have helped fire many times. It was in an area of the property known for copperheads. It had not been fired in 5 years, Undeterred, Lynne got a flashlight, a stick to get the spider webs out of the way, and crawled in. She came out with soot and a grin on her face. She's a trooper!
She later sent this amazing picture of an arch she and a class built in her office. The walls of the room are the buttress, and the thickness in the middle is what looks to be a . 4 inch fire brick where cousin Lynne is perched atop the arch.
It was the simple arch that allowed the Southern potter/farmer to build big inefficient "ground hog" kilns. They were much less sophisticated than the one Lynne built, but you can get an idea as to how strong a supported "sprung " arch can be. The potter found a bank, dug into it for the buttress, laid the brick against it and started an arch using a wooden arch form, which could be burned out, or removed in other ways.
This particular kiln, a ground hog kiln, is fired with gas, converted from wood some 15 years ago. his buttress was 4 telephone poles with log chain and turn buckle from his a log truck to "spring" or tighten the arch.
Jerry's dad would lay the arch, then gather pieces of broken bricks and pieces of rock driven into the cracks of the arch to "spring'' the arch on more than one kiln. He used Jerry and his brother, two small boys, to crawl up atop the arch to do that job! Sound dangerous to me!
The Southern Stoneware potter was now in business. He found fine grained stoneware "ball clay" in creek banks and marshes. Native easy to find glaze materials, a kiln in which to fire the pots. He had his neighbors had serviceable vessels: churns, pitchers, bowls and jars to store meat, jelly, and fruits. Oh, of course, a leakproof vessel to store a refreshing drink called "moonshine".
Here's a parting shot of Jerry Brown's mule, Blue, grinding clay with Jerry supervising the operation at his pottery in Hamilton. Alabama. Mule power was essential to the early Southern potters. Blue has been photographed more than any mule in Alabama, I'd say.
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