Slipware is

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, which is a mixture of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

s and other minerals such as

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical f ...

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) felds ...

and

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

. The slip placed onto a wet or leather-hard clay body surface by a variety of techniques including dipping, painting, piping or splashing. Slipware is the pottery on which slip has been applied either for glazing or decoration. Slip is liquified clay or clay slurry, with no fixed ratio of water and clay, which is used either for joining pottery pieces together by

slip casting Slip casting, or slipcasting, is a ceramic forming technique for pottery and other ceramics, especially for shapes not easily made on a wheel. In this method, a liquid clay body slip (usually mixed in a blunger) is poured into plaster mou ...

with mould, glazing or decorating the pottery by painting or dipping the pottery with slip.What is slip in pottery
thepotterywheel.com, accessed 10 July 2021. Principal techniques include slip painting, where the slip is treated like paint and used to create a design with brushes or other implements, and slip trailing, where the slip, usually rather thick, is dripped, piped or trailed onto the body, typically from some device like the

piping bag A pastry bag (or piping bag in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth) is an often Cone (geometry), cone- or triangular-shaped bag made from cloth, paper bag, paper, plastic bag, plastic, or the intestinal lining of a lamb, that is Hand-held, ...

used to decorate cakes. The French term for slip is

barbotine Barbotine is the French for ceramic slip, or a mixture of clay and water used for moulding or decorating pottery. In English the term is used for three different techniques of decorating pottery, though in all cases mainly for historical works. ...

, and this term may be used for both techniques, but usually from different periods. Often only pottery where the slip creates patterns or images will be described as slipware, as opposed to the many types where a plain slip is applied to the whole body, for example most fine wares in Ancient Roman pottery, such as African red slip ware (note: "slip ware" not "slipware"). Decorative slips may be a different colour than the underlying clay body or offer other decorative qualities. Selectively applying layers of colored slips can create the effect of a painted ceramic, such as in the

black-figure Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are ...

red-figure pottery Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 520 BCE and remained in use until the late 3rd century BCE. It replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure va ...

styles of

Ancient Greek pottery Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

. Slip decoration is an ancient technique in Chinese pottery also, used to cover whole vessels over 4,000 years ago.

History

Many prehistoric and historic cultures used slip as the primary decorating material on their ware, especially in early periods. These include most prehistoric cultures of the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and much later

Islamic pottery Medieval Islamic pottery occupied a geographical position between Chinese ceramics, the unchallenged leaders of Eurasian production, and the pottery of the Byzantine Empire and Europe. For most of the period it can fairly be said to have been b ...

, cultures in many areas of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, most pottery-making cultures in the Americas, early Japanese (and later

Onta ware , also spelled ''Onda'', is a type of Japanese pottery produced in and around the village of Onta in Ōita Prefecture, Japan. History The production dates back to the early 18th century CE. Onta ware is closely associated with Mingei folk ar ...

) and much

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

n pottery. Much Mycenean ware,

and Ancient Roman pottery used slip, as did pre-industrialized potters in many areas of Europe, including

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

, most notably

Thomas Toft Thomas Toft (died November 1698) was an English potter working in the Staffordshire Potteries during the 17th century. He and his family are known for large earthenware plates heavily decorated by slip-trailing, often in several colours. Work ...

in the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ...

. Later potters mostly combined or replaced the use of slip with

ceramic glaze Ceramic glaze is an impervious layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fused to a pottery body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding ...

s and pigments offering a tougher finish and a wider range of colours. But a variety of slipware techniques were revived by various

studio pottery Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves.Emmanuel Cooper, ...

movements from the 19th century on. In England

Bernard Leach Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery". Biography Early years (Japan) Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née ...

and in America Mary Louise McLaughlin were among the leaders of these revivals.

Techniques

A coating of white or coloured slip (sometimes called by the French term engobe in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

) can be applied to the whole body of the article, or just one part, such as outside or inside of a cup or jug, to improve its appearance, to give a smoother surface to a rough body, mask an inferior colour or for decorative effect. Slip can also be applied by painting techniques, in isolation or in several layers and colours.

Sgraffito ''Sgraffito'' (; plural: ''sgraffiti'') is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface, or in pottery, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive lay ...

(or "sgraffiato") involves scratching through a layer of coloured slip to reveal a different colour or the base body underneath. Several layers of slip and/or sgraffito can be done while the pot is still in an unfired state. One colour of slip can be fired, before a second is applied, and prior to the scratching or incising decoration. This is particularly useful if the base body is not of the desired colour or texture. Chinese pottery also used techniques where patterns, images or calligraphy were created as part-dried slip was cut away to reveal a lower layer of slip or the main clay body in a contrasting colour. The latter of these is called the "cut-glaze" technique.Vainker, 116-117 Slipware may be carved or burnished to change the surface appearance of the ware. Specialized slip recipes may be applied to biscuit ware and then refired.

Examples

An example of slipware artifact is the

Harvest jug A Harvest jug is a type of jug made from slipware, with decoration carved through stained clay layers. They are named for their use to carry ale or cider at harvest time. The technique for carving the decoration is known as , from the Italian for ...

Gallery

File:Roman pottery barbotine cup (cropped).JPG, Simple slip-trailing in thick blobs, Roman Egypt, 0-200 AD File:Bowl with strutting bird, Sultanabad ware, Iran, Ilkhanid period, first half of 14th century, earthenware with gray englobe and underglaze painting in blue, black, white slip - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC04054.JPG, Bowl with strutting bird, Sultanabad ware, Iran, Ilkhanid period, first half of 14th century, earthenware with gray englobe and underglaze painting in blue, black, white slip File:Korean punch'ong ware pear-shaped wine bottle, Choson dynasty, second half of 15th century, stoneware with glaze and white slip decoration, HAA.JPG, Korean ''punch'ong'' ware pear-shaped wine bottle, Choson dynasty, second half of 15th century, stoneware with glaze and white slip decoration File:Mug LACMA M.89.124.jpg, English Slipware mug, ca. 1740 File:Ashiwi Polychrome Water Jar, 1700-1750,03.325.4739.jpg, ''Ashiwi'' slip-painted jar, She-we-na Zuni

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

, 1700-1750 File:Sugar bowl with combed, slip-marbled decoration, China, c. 1795, porcelain - Concord Museum - Concord, MA - DSC05753.JPG, Sugar bowl with combed, slip-marbled decoration, China, c. 1795, porcelain File:Tile, late 19th-early 20th century, X1047.7.jpg, Tile, Hopi Pueblo, late 19th-early 20th century File:Thrown, Slip Trailed Bowl by Takeshi Yasuda (YORYM-2004.1.1534).JPG, Modern slip-trailed bowl by Takeshi Yasuda File:Werra Ware - Glaisher Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, England.jpg, A fine

Werra The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the ...

ware slip-decorated dish dated 1590. (Germany)

Notes

References

* Eden, Victoria and Michael. (1999) ''Slipware, Contemporary Approaches.'' A & C Black, University of Pennsylvania Press, G & B Arts International. * Hamer, Frank and Janet. (1991) ''The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques.'' A & C Black, 3rd ed. . *Osborne, Harold (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts'', 1975, OUP, *Vainker, S.J., ''Chinese Pottery and Porcelain'', 1991, British Museum Press, 9780714114705 * Wondrausch, Mary. (2001) 986''Mary Wondrausch on Slipware.'' A&C Black, 2nd ed.

External links

{{Pottery Types of pottery decoration