Terra i Foc

The potter’s aim was to produce utilitarian pieces used in every home. He followed the designs demanded in the area and applied himself to making them as well as he could. They were anonymous, and known by the place they came from: Quart ceramics, Verdú, La Bisbal, Breda, Miravet…

In the past, potters made pieces for very specific functions: funnels, chestnut roasters, animal drinkers, bed warmers, hand warmers for market sellers to place under their skirts, smokers for removing beehives, or chafing dishes to keep food warm.

The earthenware pitcher (càntir) is an example of anonymous, perfect design. It serves as a water container while keeping water cool, and provides a hygienic, practical way for anyone to drink. Nobody contaminates the water and no glasses are needed. Pottery was a vital resource for many communities for centuries.

At the end of the 20th century, with the arrival of plastic, pottery became dispensable. Washbowls, draining racks, mató moulds, animal feeders, drinkers, containers of all kinds were made of plastic — cheaper, lighter, and unbreakable. Pots and casseroles became metal, plates became glass (Duralex).

This led ceramists to begin designing other kinds of pieces, perhaps less utilitarian and more decorative. Design mattered more, and pieces began to be signed: Llorenç Artigues, Jordi Aguadé, Francesc Albors, the Serra family, Emilia Xargay, and even Joan Miró and Picasso. The way of working clay changed greatly in a short time.

The potter needed considerable space for production. To store and prepare the clay chunks that arrived from construction excavations and transform them into the clay needed for the wheel and the estec. The basins for drying it. The barrers for drying the pieces once made, an enormous kiln for firing them, ample space for storing the wood for firing and another place for the shop where they sold them.

Normally, workshops were located in rural areas or away from houses, since the kilns gave off a lot of smoke and could disturb neighbours. It took about a month of work to fill the kiln and 3 to 5 days to fire a batch.

The ceramist was a craftsperson who did not need as much space. They bought clay ready to use and, since it arrived wrapped in plastic, could stack a lot in a small space. The workspace varied according to the procedures they used. In principle they had the wheel and the estec like the potters, but they needed many tables for the slip-casting process. Like the potter, the ceramist also needed barrers for drying pieces and shelves.

The ceramist’s kiln was electric — no need for wood storage — and much smaller. It could also run on diesel or gas, with sizes ranging from 40 cm³ usable for the smallest to 1 m³ for the largest. They were also cleaner. At first they only had a temperature reader supplemented by Seguer cones, and later they came with an automatic pyrometer that regulated temperature according to a programmed curve. They were lined with refractory blanket or refractory bricks.

Before letting the sludge into the basin, it was swept clean and a layer of ash from the kiln, passed through a sieve, was spread on the bottom so the clay would not stick. Once the sludge entered the basin, the water that overflowed through holes at different heights drained into the sewer.

When no water remained on top of the clay, it was marked with a reed tipped with a metal rod, making a grid that, as it dried further, separated into squares along the lines. The soft clay slabs were stacked, soft side against the drier top, covered with borrasses and hosed down when needed.

All pieces were made on the wheel or with the estec. The botxes —the thrown part of the pitchers— and the trimming, which was done by hand. Guarnir means adding the handle, spout and rim of the pitchers, that is, finishing the pieces after the main part was thrown on the wheel.

The potter needed few materials. The clay, which he made himself. The moulds for making pieces with the estec with their corresponding templates, and the wood. Galena for glazing, and the ball mill for grinding the galena, which was mixed with starch to give it adhesion. The firing materials: tarros, planos, pixulins, borregos, fòtils and rodells. Llemutja and engalba for covering the supports.

The machines: the clay mixer; the pugmill; the crusher; the rollers and the pot-making machine; the estec; and the kick wheel.

To prepare the clay, the pugmill has an intake mouth with two cylinders that feed the clay inside, where the auger carries it to the outlet, to which different dies can be attached — usually round for making cylinders, but they can also be rectangular, square, solid or hollow. Once the clay came out of the pugmill, it moved along wooden rollers that allowed a good length of the chosen form to be produced. At the arch visible at the outlet there is a wire for cutting the emerging clay.

The kiln was very large, Arabic-style masonry, with vaulted ceilings and external rings if necessary. The temperature was determined by the colour of the fire. Pyrometers did not exist. Firing was a matter of experience passed down from fathers to sons.

The estec, or mechanical mould-throwing, consisted of a wheel that, instead of a bat, had a metal mould-holder attached to the rotating shaft. The mould-holder carried a standard interchangeable plaster mould depending on the piece to be made. The outside of the plaster mould matched the inside shape of the holder, and the inside was the external profile of what would become the clay piece, at the centre of which a ball of clay of calculated size or weight was placed. The inside shape of the piece was given by a steel or wooden template, also interchangeable, which was half of the internal profile, attached to a lever that descended through the centre of the mould until almost touching it. It had a stop set at the desired thickness to obtain the required wall thickness. The clay rose up along the wall from the original position of the clay ball, thanks to a wooden piece attached to the template, held by an arm clamped to the estec table, descending to the stop with the help of a wet sponge. The moulds used were single-piece and had draft.

The ceramist needed red clay like the potter, but bought it packaged; the slab clay also came packaged; stoneware materials were bought in powder form and porcelain was bought liquid, in drums. Few people made stoneware in artisan workshops in 1970, until the paste was packaged and commercialised.

At the ceramist’s workshop, only stoneware was prepared — weighing the elements of the chosen formula and mixing them with water in an elevated 500-litre tank, inside of which there was a large wall-mounted agitator. The clay became liquid and thick, ready for slip casting. It came out through a tap at the bottom of the tank that connected to the slip-casting hose. If it was to be used for the wheel or the estec, it was passed through the filter press until it reached the desired consistency. Red clay and slab clay were bought packaged, and liquid porcelain in drums.

The process of making pieces on the wheel was the same in the workshop as in the traditional pottery, except that the ceramist’s wheels were more modern, all electric with gears to regulate speed.

The ceramist used the following machines: the wall agitator, the filter press for making stoneware, the mechanical rotary press and the pneumatic press. The slab roller, first manual then mechanical. The wheels: first kick wheels and then mechanical wheels. The same mechanical wheels were used for the estec, with their corresponding moulds and templates.

The pugmills: one for red clay, another for slab clay, and for stoneware the stainless steel pugmill. The compressor for the spray gun and the booth with extractor. The materials for stoneware formulas: colouring oxides and enrichments, in powder form. A scale, balance scales and precision scales. Also commercial glazes in powder form. They needed brushes, plastic buckets for dipping pieces, sieves for straining glazes.

For firing, they had differentiated material depending on whether the batch was high or low temperature. Grooved steatite shelves for low-temperature firing, up to 1000°C, and cordierite, thicker and ungrooved, for high-temperature, up to 1300°C. The posts were made of carborundum in various sizes according to the high-temperature pieces. Stilts and cylindrical spurs, also in different sizes, to separate shelves.

Slip casting was the most commonly used procedure in the workshop. It consisted of fitting the three parts of the plaster mould — the base and the two sides — closing them so the joints matched and securing them with a wide elastic band around the outside. Then they were filled with barbotine or liquid clay to the very top, all the moulds arranged on laminated tables. The plaster absorbed the water from the clay, which thickened against the mould wall. When it was thick enough, the mould was turned over to pour out the excess clay and left to drain on the table sheets. Under the table there was a semi-rigid plastic sheet, inclined toward the end of the table, which collected the excess clay into a bucket.

Before removing the finished pieces from the mould, the necks were taken off — the top part of the piece that would not be part of it, but which left the edge perfectly finished. It also served to check whether the clay thickness was correct while the mould was still full. The necks were removed with a gesture, first inward and then upward. They came off immediately.

The pieces were taken out of the moulds when they had enough consistency and placed on boards on the barrers to dry. Once dry, the pieces had to be fettled, that is, removing the seam marks left by the mould joints. This was done with a falzilla, a kind of knife, or with sandpaper, and then finished with a damp sponge.