November 4, 2009
You Say Neriage, I Say Nerikomi…No Matter What You Call it, Mixing Colored Clays Makes for Gorgeous Pottery Surfaces
 Using two clays of contrasting color to throw or handbuild pottery can lead to some very beautiful surfaces. Colored clays can be wedged together to the point at which they are marbled and then thrown on the pottery wheel or handbuilt into various forms. Or they can be stacked and sliced through the cross section to reveal a pattern, which can then be used as an applied, laminated decoration. These techniques have several different names depending on where they come from: in England they are often referred to as “agateware;” in Italy they’re often referred to as “millefiori,” from a decorative glass-forming process meaning “a thousand flowers.” In Japan, the words “neriage,” “nerikomi,” and “zougan” are all used for specific colored clay processes and there is some confusion as to which is which. Today Robin Hopper explains the distinction between the two, as it was explained to him by Thomas Hoadley, a long time colored clay aficionado. He also explains how to create a lovely fluted marble-rimmed bowl like the one shown at left.- Jennifer Harnetty, editor. |
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In Japan the words neriage (pronounced nair-ee-ah-gee), nerikomi and zougan refer to different ways the colored clays are used. Always interested in why things are called what they are and the confusion surrounding names, I asked Thomas Hoadley, a long-time artist working with colored clays, about the Japanese names. Hoadley told me, “When I became aware that colored clay work would be my primary life’s work, I figured I should get to the bottom of the nerikomi/neriage question. I had been told that even in Japan the terms are mixed up. I spoke to a Japanese woman who lives here, and she explained that neri is a root word meaning “to mix” and age is a root word meaning to “pull up.”  This refers to the pulling up action in throwing clay on a wheel, hence neriage refers to wheel work with colored clays. Komi means “to press into,” as in pressing clay slabs into a mold. Nerikomi thus means hand-building with colored clay, which in Japan I guess usually meant mold work. It has been expanded to include other methods of hand-building.” See an article on Nerikomi by Faith Rahill in the Ceramic Arts Daily Features Archive.Neriage and nerikomi both use either naturally occurring colored clays or light-colored clays that are specifically stained to satisfy the artist’s color requirement. Neriage, or agateware, is done by laminating different colored clays together and throwing them on a wheel to develop a swirling and spiraling blend of the clays. |
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For more ideas for the pottery wheel, be sure to download your copy of Three Great Pottery Wheel Throwing Techniques: Tips on Throwing Complex Pottery Forms Using Basic Throwing Skills, which is free to Ceramic Arts Daily subscribers. |
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| Objects made this way can be left with the swirl pattern, or altered by
various forms of cutting the surface, with fluting and faceting. Balls
of laminated clays are best left covered in a plastic sheet so
amelioration can take place. Cutting across the grain of laminated clays will expose an infinite variety of random patterns. The type of pattern can be controlled both by the thickness of the layers and by how the laminations are placed when thrown on the wheel. If they are vertical to the wheelhead, they likely will produce fine, lacy patterns. If they are placed horizontally, much bolder patterns can be expected. If placed diagonally, a combination of both bold and lacy patterns might be expected. |
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| The Two-Part Fluted Neriage-Rimmed Bowl A chance happening while on a country walk [was the inspiration for the bowl shown at the top of the page]. I was walking around a local lagoon, the wind was blowing ripples across the open water, and there were tree branch reflections in the ripples, giving an agitated appearance. I immediately wondered how I might achieve such an image in clay, and the nearest thing that I could think of was fluted agateware, but I didn’t want the whole object to be agatized, just the wide, flat outer rim of the plate or bowl. So I decided to make it in two parts. The final form of the bowl is similar to the shapes of some decorated baskets and woven spruce root hats of the indigenous Haida nation of the Canadian Pacific Northwest. The patterns of the fluted agateware often suggest the patterns found on feathers, hence the name “Wide Feather Basket Bowl.”  The central porcelain bowl has no color in the clay. I threw it relatively thickly and left it to stiffen to leather-hard. Then I used colored clays to make a thrown cylindrical collar with no base that was the width of the bowl. This was inverted on the lower part, carefully joined, and, with the wheel going very slowly, pulled out almost horizontally. When it had stiffened, I trimmed the piece on a chuck made to fit the inside of the bowl. After trimming, when the colored clay section also had stiffened, I fluted it with wire-ended tools. When the piece was bone dry, I sanded off all the rough edges and bisque fired it. I glazed only in the center and fired in oxidation to cone 8. After firing, wet and dry silicon carbide paper was used to carefully sand the whole of the unglazed areas until they were as smooth as an eggshell. |
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This post was excerpted from Making Marks: Discovering the Ceramic Surface, which is available in the Ceramic Arts Daily Bookstore. Order online and get free shipping! (U.S. orders only) |
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Tags: agateware, Faceting, Fluting, neriage, Nerikomi, Wheel Throwing Techniques
Michael | November 4th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Can someone explain how to make the colored clays?
debra | November 4th, 2009 at 9:53 am
wedge stains or oxides into the clay
Ed | November 4th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Michael, use Mason stains. These are available at most pottery supply stores or online. (Do not confuse with cement stains :-)
Barbara | November 4th, 2009 at 9:58 am
There was an excellent Potter’s Council workshop at Mother’s Earth Clay in Sunnyvale one year. You might contact the council and see if they have the lecture notes from that session Barb
Barbara | November 4th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Second thought just click on the link to the Faith Rahill article. That is exactly who I followed. It works.
Brenda | November 4th, 2009 at 10:01 am
I enjoyed the article.I had forgot about this and it reminds me to try it again. Nice to have the old brain jogged a little ever once in a while. I also liked his way of seperating the mixed part of the bowl.
BRENDA BAKER
potterybybrenbab.com
Robin | November 4th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Michael, there are complete instructions on making colored clays on page 130 of my book “Making Marks”. There is also a related section on colored clays in program 3 of the “Making Marks” Video series which is also handled through Ceramic Arts Daily.
Ann E. | November 4th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
when I’ve tried this, my laminations sometimes separate during the drying stage. Even after rolling gently with a rolling pin to remove air bubbles. Is there a way to prevent this?
Robin | November 4th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Ann, you can put a thin layer of contrasting slip between the layers of clay. Susy Siegele and Mike Haley of Arkansas often use a black slip, which gives a nice thin black line between the colored clays. See MM page 129. It is a little more difficult to work with but the results are well worth it.
Robin H
Robin | November 4th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Forgot to say that I don’t wedge the colored clays together as it
“muddies” up the result. The different clays are sliced, slapped
together hard and made into a ball for throwing. I usually leave them
covered in plastic for a few days so that the different clays bond
themselves together. Any air bubbles, and there are usually some, can
be popped with a pin tool. Robin H.
Michael | November 4th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Robin,
thanks for that tip. I have just gotten your video, and I am eager to look at it.
Genez | November 4th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
If you feel the need to wedge anyway, Just give the clay three or four pushes. This will give the colors a marble effect while still keeping each color separated.
After you throw and achieve the desired shape, be sure to scrape the excess moisture off with a metal rib. This will let the beautiful marble pattern show through.
Sandra | November 4th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Susy Siegele gave a demo at the Texas Clayfest and mentioned that they used oxides rather than Mason Stains to prevent cracking (Due to the need for high amount of stain needed vs. oxides)
Linda | November 5th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Years ago I used a porcelain (Heilos from Highwater) and a rust colored clay can’t remember it’s names(got it from Laguna) but they had the same % shrinkage. First I wedged them seperately then cut them into slabs and threw them really hard one on top to the other and I wedged them together a bit and then threw them and used them to hand build some things. I got great results. I had no idea what I was doing or that it even had a name,just thought it might look good and it did. So play, you never know what you’ll get. But do check that the shrinkage is pretty mush the same. Linda F.
Linda | November 5th, 2009 at 10:23 am
OOPS!! forgot to tell you that after the pots dry use a dry green scrubby on the dry pot and all the mucky mess of the rust clay will come off the porcelain and you will have the two very distinctive colors. Have fun!!!! Linda F.