1. POTTERY
Brief background
Types and Materials
Techniques/Processes
Forms
Semiotic Reading

2. BRIEF BACKGROUND
• Pottery are functional and decorative objects
made from clay and fired at high
temperatures.
• Ceramics (from Greek “kermamikos”, potter) is
also a term used, although ceramics has a
wider application and includes objects for
industrial use
• Pottery is divided into three types:
Earthware/Terracotta, Stoneware, and
Porcelainware.

3. TYPES & MATERIALS
• EARTHENWARE
• STONEWARE
• PORCELAINWARE

4. TYPES & MATERIALS
EARTHENWARE- formed when surface shales and clay
are fired at low temperature between 1840 F to 2030 F.

5. TYPES & MATERIALS
STONEWARE- made from fine clay fired at higher
temperature from 2130 F to 2300 F

6. TYPES & MATERIALS
PORCELAINWARE- made from a mixture of kaolin
and feldspar and fired at very high temparature.

7. PROCESSES
• Preparing the material
• Working with clay
• Drying, firing, cooling
• Decorating, glazing

8. PREPARING THE MATERIAL
1. Quarrying clay

9. PREPARING THE MATERIAL
2. Cleaning/separating from the sediments

10. PREPARING THE MATERIAL
3. Drying to a doughlike consistency

11. PREPARING THE MATERIAL
4. Mixing in proper proportions

12. PREPARING THE MATERIAL
5. Kneading

13. WORKING WITH CLAY
1. Slab making

14. WORKING WITH CLAY
2. Coiling

15. WORKING WITH CLAY
3. Turn modelling or throwing

16. WORKING WITH CLAY
4. Hand modelling or anvil-and-paddle method

17. WORKING WITH CLAY
5. Cradling

18. WORKING WITH CLAY
6. Molding

19. DRYING

20. FIRING & COOLING
Bisque – fired pieces
- Can be the final stage or
can be further decorated

21. DECORATING/ GLAZING

22. FINISHED PRODUCT

23. DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES
• Modeling
• Incisions
• Impressions
• Carvings
• Paintings

24. DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES
• Incisions

25. DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES
• Impressions

26. DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES
• Carvings

27. DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES
• Paintings

28. DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES
• Modelling

29. FORMS

30. The Manunggul Jar

31. Ancient Jar
Wild-boar vessel from Casiguran, Sorsogon

32. Ethnic Masterpieces
Four-breasted jar from
Calapan, Mindoro

33. Pots of the North
Ilocano burnay Kalinga lidded jar

34. The Ethnic Tradition
Pottery associated with objects for daily use

35. Palayok

36. Banga

37. Tapayan

38. Tapayan

39. Most notable traditions that
represent Philippine pottery
• Sa-hyunh Kalanay pottery tradition
• Novaliches tradition
• Bau-Malay pottery tradition

40. Sa-hyunh Kalanay pottery tradition
 From the Kalanay cave site in northwest Masbate and other potteries in
the Philippines with the same characteristics as those from the original
site.
 Subdivisions:
 Kalanay pottery complex
 Tabon pottery complex
 Bagupanto pottery complex
 Asin pottery complex

41. Sa-hyunh Kalanay pottery tradition

42. *Kalanay pottery complex
 Generally have plain surfaces and
round bodies with plain, flared rims.
 Incisions are in a horizontal series of
diagonal-line combinations
bounded by straight or wavy lines.
 Cord-marked pottery is absent.
 Found in Cotabato and Batangas.

43. *Tabon pottery complex
 From various cave sites in western Palawan
 Distinct for its cord-marked pottery in the earlier cave sites and for its
simplicity in later sites.
 Dates back to 2000 B.C.

44. *Bagupanto pottery complex
Often classified with the
Kalanay complex as 17 of its
vessels were unearthed at the
Kalanay cave site
Generally have superior
quality, material, and artistry
Incisions are rare.

45. *Asin pottery complex
Distinguished by freehand-painted patterns,
which include horizontal series or curvilinear
scrolls
Found in the Asin cave sites in Davao del Sur

46. Novaliches tradition
Named after a
Novaliches cave
site north of
Manila
Its remnants are
also found in
northwest
Palawan and the
Calamianes
Islands
Dates from 250
B.C. to the fourth
century

47. Bau-Malay pottery tradition
• Geometric pottery of south China
• Named after a cave site in Salawak, Malaysia
• In the Philippines, it is found in the coastal sites in Mindanao,
Bohol, northern Palawan, and the Calamianes islands.
• Dates back to the 10th century

48. Bau-Malay pottery tradition

49. Unclassified pottery
• Ritual vessel from Cagayan
• Polished ritual vessels of Leta-leta
• Earthenware from Ngipe’t Duldug
• Two others from Palawan cave sites
• Others

50. Tradeware
– stoneware and porcelain from pre-colonial trade
with China and other Southeast Asian countries

51. Celadon (Sung and Yuan dynasty)

52. Blue-and-white porcelain (Ming
dynasty)

53. Others
• Blanc de chine ware
• Plain brown ware
• Monochrome ware (oxblood)

54. Thai or Siamese pottery
Thai celadon is slightly
heavier and often less
glossier (than Chinese
celadon)

55. Siamese and Anamese Pottery

56. Studio Pottery
– hand-made, usually one-of-a-kind pieces
by ceramic artists

57. Ceramic artists and their works
Tessie San Juan and
Jon Pettyjohn

58. Ceramic artists and their works
• Lanelle
Abueva-
Fernando
• Nelfa
Querubin

59. Ceramic artists and their works
The Jaime and
Anne de
Guzman family

60. Ceramic artists and their works
Ugu Bigyan Fidel Go

61. SEMIOTIC READING
• Art and Power
• Art and Gender
• Art and Faith

62. Art and Power

63. Imported Ceramics
• In the Philippines, these generally symbolize
power and markers of elite status.
• It has been known that these were prestigious
because these were made of non-local
materials and/or unsual materials like gold,
jade and other precious stones

64. Lavish grave furniture
• For nobles and powerful people- The dead
bodies were buried along with various
articles of everyday use such as eating
utensils and weapons, and also with their
servants and domestic animals.

65. Terracotta Army
• The sole purpose of this immense
undertaking was to create a subterranean
army that would protect and support his
leadership in the after-life; reflecting the First
Emperor’s power, his much documented
obsession with immortality and the wider
cultural belief that you continued on the same
path in death as in life.

67. Art and Gender

68. Design
• Maitum burial jar • Four-breasted jar

69. Models of social organisation for the
production of pottery
(Rice 1981; Peacock 1982; van der Leeuw 1984;
Arnold 1991)

70. Based on patterns of increasing specialization in the
production of ceramics
1. Household production where each household produces its own pottery on an occasional, usually
seasonal basis.
2. Household industry where pottery continues to be a part-time activity depending on other factors such
as harvesting or weather limitations.
3. Individual workshop where potters are specialists although they may combine the activity with small-
scale agricultural work.
4. Nucleated workshops where potters are specialists and live or work in a particular area of the
community.
5. The manufactory where production is organised by an owner who has invested in equipment and pays
wages to specialist artisans.
6. The ceramic factory which appears in the post-industrial period and involves investment in powered
equipment to mass produce objects and market them effectively over a wide area.
7. Peacock has two further categories: estate production and military production where ceamics could be
mainly produced for a large organisation for its own consumption such as a military camp or a large
estate (Peacock 1982: 11).

71. Based on ecological factors
1. Land availability
2. Climate
3. Resources
4. Others

72. Among Ethnolinguistic Groups in the
Philippines

73. Pottery production
Some of the people who produce their own
pottery include the:
Kankanaey
Itneg
Maranao
Badjao
Etc.

74. Gender roles and significance
Among the Maranao, Badjao, Itneg, and other
groups of people, women usually do the
potting.
Among the Kankanaey, men engage in pottery.

75. Art and Faith

76. ART AND FAITH
• Native vision of the afterlife
• -belief in both the existence of the soul and
life after death
Burial jars
-related to the tradition of “grave
furniture”

78. Manunggul Jar (8th century BCE)
• found in a cave in the island of Palawan
• suggests the belief among early Filipinos in an
afterlife across a mythical body of water
• the designs were painted in red for emphasis and to
provide variation from the jar’s predominantly brown
color
Red – considered
as a sacred color
- Used
on special
burial jars

79. Talismans
• Celadons- considered as greater
talismans than local ware
- believed to change hue when
poisoned food was put on
them