More art fun as our Year 6 class enjoyed a visit to the local pottery museum, Moorcroft, as part of their Clay topic.
With Stoke-on-Trent being known as the Potteries for its world renowned ceramics, Moorcroft Museum and Visitor Heritage Centre is said to be the jewel on the crown with its 100 year+ of art history and design.
The visit to Moorcroft gave the students a great insight into how clay is made and how this is then transformed into the end product of ceramics; by taking mixtures of clay, earthen elements, powders and water to shaping them into the desired forms. Once the ceramic has been shaped, it is fired in a high temperature oven known as a kiln, and children observed this process with Moorcroft’s bottle kiln. Once cooled, ceramics are often covered in decorative and waterproof paint-like substances known as glazes.
Interestingly, the re-discovery of tin glazes for use in ceramics was by Islamic Potters in the 9th Century! Muslim potters first used it in an attempt to imitate the texture of Chinese wares from the Far East, but soon it changed to the characteristic Middle Eastern decoration we see today.
We were very fortunate to be welcomed by such wonderful workers at Moorcroft who demonstrated each process in great depth.
