 |
| This pot looks like it was thrown in sections on the pottery wheel and then assembled. You don't see wheel thrown work very often. Notice the difference in profile from the hand built pots. |
The potters wheel was never used in Mexico The wheel was an invention that came from Asia and is still not part of the Mexican pottery tradition. They hand build the original pot using a shaped, rounded sling to start the pot off. That is why the bottoms of their pots are rounded and often displayed with a pot ring to help support it. A mold would be made of the original, and then many reproductions would be made from that. Often the pots would be burnished for shine and decorated with colored slips. A wood fired kiln would leave flashes on the pots from the trail of the flame. Low fired, because of the difficulty of getting a really hot firing from wood, they are fragile and easily broken. There are many master potters in Mexico and their art is an inspiration to us all....
