Slide 8: Pre-Firing Decoration

Pre-firing decoration, which survives the heat of the firing, is generally permanent and will survive handling and extensive use of the pot. In contrast, post-firing decoration, such as painting or colored washes, never becomes an integral part of the pot and will eventually wear off the surface. Pre-firing decoration is applied at different stages in the drying process, after the completion of the basic shape of the pot and before the firing. Simple decorations include ones incised into the damp clay with a sharp blade or comb-like tool, impressed with a stamp made for example from split seed pods or shells, or rolled with a roulette made from a dried corn cob from which the kernels have been removed. Pictured here is the most complex type of decoration: modeled clay decoration applied to the surface of the basic pot. This type of decoration must be applied while the pot is still fairly wet if the added clay is to adhere firmly to the walls of the pot.

Supplementary Information on Additive Decoration

Additive decoration ranges from simple utilitarian handles and spouts, functional knobs and spikes of clay that aid the cooling of the contents of the pot through increased evaporation, added bands and thick coils of clay that may structurally strengthen the pottery, to the most elaborate constructions in clay, used as prestige items in the household or as ritual pottery in ceremonies.

Decoration intended merely to increase the market value of a basically utilitarian pot will rarely obscure the basic shape of the piece. With more elaborate ritual pottery, the basic shape may become obscured. However, the more the shape of the pot is hidden by increasingly thick layers of added clay, the more difficult it becomes to fire the work without breaking it. Pottery with walls of uneven thickness will expand unevenly when heated in any type of kiln, causing the pot to crack. Thus, very decorative ritual pottery is fired at low temperatures, just high enough to dehydrate the outer surfaces of the walls. Often the interior of thicker areas will barely be fired at all. Such pottery is far more fragile than the cooking pots and water jars that make up the bulk of the African potter's production.

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