Face Jugs, a student assignment

Original Post Fall 2007 - Here is a piece that I would never have made if not for an assignment/demonstration in my ceramics 1 class - Face Jugs. Built using a variety of soft stoneware slabs, 1 wrapped around a piece of pvc pipe as an armature. The entire piece is constructed from slabs, coils and a press molded spout from an old gas can. After the 1 hour demo I was planning to destroy what I had started, however, a student said that I should finish the piece and complete the assignment myself. So I spent another 2 hours over then next day - this is what I ended up with. No sketches, no research, just spontaneity. While this piece will certainly not win an award in the next Whitney Biennial, I enjoyed making the piece, as most of my work is tight and refined. It was actually fun to let loose and make something “silly.” The pictures of the piece are leather hard to finished. It is sprayed with porcelain slip and 2 Soda flashing slips, fired to Cone 10, in the Cross-draft Soda Kiln.

Some History - North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have a long tradition of making ceramic bottles and jugs with faces on them, face jugs or “ugly jugs.” Often times these images/forms reference religious imagery (specifically “devilish” imagery to ward off evil spirits), and are fired in low tech salt or wood kilns or are sometimes pit fired.

The tradition of pottery with faces dates back to Egyptian times and appears in many other cultures throughout the ages. Research has shown that both white and black potters created these vessels - not just the slave potters. The vessels sold well because there was a need to store moonshine in a container that didn't look like every other jug in the house pantry. Children were strongly warned against touching that jug or "the boogie man would get ya!" Consequently the jugs were made as mean looking and ugly as possible, and generally the faces were crudely fashioned. After the Civil War, pottery production in South Carolina declined. Itinerant potters, who hired out their skills, moved on following the westward expansion of our country and the tradition of "ugly jug" making continued in North Carolina and Georgia with some generations of potter families who farmed and threw pots to make a living...

ART 3061 Ceramics 1 - Assignment 3 Summary: Face Jugs

Create 2 handbuilt forms. Scale: minimum 10” - 24” tall

- These forms will incorporate a narrow neck, a strap handle and bottle-like main body.

- Emphasis should be placed on image, and content...DRAWINGS!!! RESEARCH!!!

- Use a digital camera to document your facial expressions, source material.

- Use any and all techniques: slab, coil, pinch,...or a combination of these techniques.

- Combine Stoneware& Porcelain for varied effects.

- Remember, these must be signed and have a finished foot.

Links:

http://gallery.mac.com/schmidty55#100047

http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/facevess.htm

http://www.claytonbailey.com/jugheads.htm