English: Title: Bulletin

Identifier: bulletin43fiel Year: 1966-1972 (1960s) Authors: Field Museum of Natural History Subjects: Natural history; Science Publisher: [Chicago] : The Museum Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Text Appearing Before Image: new students or they may start a new worksfiop elsewhere. There are now Abuja- trained potters at centers in Kampala, Uganda and Jos. Nigeria. The products of the Abuja Pottery Training Center are an example of an evolving African art. The traditional terracotta pottery used in villages is evolving into ceramic ware made to be used in cities. The traditional pots were, and still are, used in African homes for cooking over an open fire; for storing water, food, and fuel; for carrying liquids and food; and in shrines to hold ritual liquids used in ceremonies. The contemporary pots—both those made on a wheel and those built by hand, bisque-fired, glazed, and again fired—are sold to upper-class Nigerians and Europeans in Nigeria and Europe as tableware and decorative pieces. The products made at The walerpot now in its final shape, Mrs. Kwali roils a carved wooden tool called a roulette over the side of the pot. She uses another roulette, of twisted cotton, to impress decoration on the shoulder of the pot. The twisted cotton roulettes are made by women: the wooden roulettes, carved with a pattern of simple notches, are made by men and sold to the potters. Potters use several roulettes, each with a different design, f^any African pots are rouletted all over. The potters say rouletting is for decoration, but Cardew and other scholars have noted that the process consolidates the surface, strengthens the pot, and assists in cooling any liquid contents by increasing the surface area through which evaporation may take place. Rouletting also gives a pot a non-slippery surface which is useful when a woman with wet hands tries to lift a pot full of food or water. In the audience are Ruth Duckworth, a famous Chicago potter, and a photographer from the Chicago Daily Detender- Abuja are glazed stoneware oil jars, traditional waterpots, flowerpots, ashtrays, casseroles, tumblers, bowls, mugs, plates, teapots, coffeepots, and cups and saucers. There are plans to sell Abuja pottery in Chicago also. As much as one admires traditional African pottery, one must recognize the validity of an art form that is evolving to meet new needs, whether the evolution be technological (use of the wheel, stoneware clays, and glazes), economic (exportation of African pottery to other countries), or social (the emergence of a new social class with different ceramic needs). Africa is changing, just as most parts of the world are changing. Some people lament the changes but still admire what Michael Cardew has achieved, because at Abuja the traditional high level of craftsmanship and design has been continued and adapted to other clays and techniques. Ladi Kwali's traditional waterpot constructed here at Field f^useum was made with stoneware clay donated by the A.R.T. Studios in Skokie. Illinois and fired at the Art Institute of Chicago by the Evanston potter James Lorio. But its shape and designs are the same as her pots made at Kwali—the native animals, the chameleons, lizards, snakes, scorpions, birds, fish, and crocodiles. It is now a part of the African collections at Field tVIuseum. The United States tour of Ladi Kwali, Michael Cardew, and Kofi Athey was cooperatively sponsored through the African Craftsmen in America, the American Crafts Council, and the World Crafts Council as an experiment in international understanding between peoples. Its success will enable other African craftsmen to come to the United States. FURTHER READING Michael Cardew. Pioneer Pollery. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1969. Michael Cardew. "Ladi Kwali, vol. 32, no. 2. p. 34, 1972. Cralt Horizons, Charles Counts. "Michael Cardew," Cratt Horizons, vol. 32, no. 1, p. 22. 1971. Alhaji Hassam and Mallam Shuaibu Na'ibl (translation by Frank Heath). The Chronicle ot Abuja. Lagos: African Universities Ltd.. 1962. (Available at Norltnwestern University Library.) Mrs. Maude Wahlman is Consultant in Atrican Ethnology at Field Museum. The finished pot shows the same animal designs that Ladi Kwali has always put on her traditional pots—crocodiles, lizards, snakes, chameleons, birds, fish, and scorpions. At the Abuja Training Center the large waterpots that fvlrs. Kwali makes of stoneware clay are bisque-fired, then painted over with a mixture of kaolin and feldspar. This is rubbed off with a wet sponge, leaving white slip lodging in the incised designs. The pot is then dipped in a special glaze which when fired is transparent rather than opaque. After firing, the designs appear as if inlaid in white and the background is a deep green or gray. Photos by Fred Huysmans and Hilda f^cElroy.

Text Appearing After Image: 14 September 1972

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