Same as Last Time, but Different . . .

Well, I guess I just wasn't quite ready to leave the early Jomon yet. When I got to the pottery studio today, my mind remained stuck on round- and pointed-bottomed pots. I had made one of the two, and it turned out decently . . . But what about the other? After all, of the two types, the cone shape is less familiar to me; maybe I had been taking the easy way out by avoiding it.

So, I sat down and tried to figure out how to make a vessel with a pointed base. As it turned out, I had little trouble coiling a cone-shape at first - in fact, it seemed easier to me that trying to make a flattish base and then building up from there.

The main problem came as the pot grew. I hesitated to rest my pot on the table without first turning it upside down, because I didn't want it to fall over sideways. But for me, adding coils to the walls is generally a two-handed process, so I struggled to hold the pot up with one hand and blend with the other. From my research I have gathered that some archaeologists believe that the pointed pots were basically dug into the dirt/ashes of a cooking fire, which heated them and kept them stable. Perhaps they were built also partially submerged in dirt or sand? -My only other strong guess is that the original Jomon potters were just that much better than me, and could blend coils easily with one hand. :~) This gets back to tool use as well - perhaps they had a tool that made it easier to blend, or a partial stand/mold of some kind.

It must be admitted that I ran into one other problem with my new pot: the walls, predictably, were soon too stretched for their own good. Because my time at the pottery studio was winding down and, well, because I was curious, I did something that seemed a little like breaking the rules: in sewing terms, I put darts into the walls of the pot. In a few places roughly equidistant around the rim, I folded the extra material into itself and smoothed it together so that I ended up with a smaller circumference. Since I know that it is dangerous to fire a pot with uneven walls, I did my very best to work out all the traces of the deed (perhaps a little bit of guilt helped in that too?).

When I was done, I reassured myself with the thought that not everyone making pots during the early Jomon period was an expert - if you think about it, some of them at least must have been making it up as they went along, at the beginning. So maybe it's not so unlikely that I am the only person ever to get a little crafty, or a little impatient, with my clay vessel . . . And along that line, maybe soon I'll be joining the ranks of those whose pots did not survive the firing process.