African Pottery Forming: Essay Questions

To help synthesize your newly acquired knowledge of African pottery making, select any three of the following questions to answer. Keep the length of each answer between one paragraph and one page.

1.  Briefly describe the major stages of pottery making including mining the clay, forming the pot, firing, and decorating.

2.  Choose one of the three pottery forming techniques described in these pages and briefly describe the technique in your own words.

3.  Describe some of the natural materials that are used during different stages of the pottery making process in Africa.

4. Pottery is subject to cracking or breaking at various stages in the pottery making process (especially during firing). Describe several things potters do during different stages of the process to reduce the likelihood of breakage or cracking.

5.  Describe a couple of ways in which African pottery making is different from pottery making in the West.

6.  In one paragraph, describe what you learned from these World Wide Web pages about Africa and/or pottery making that you did not previously know.