At the moment I am studying the Terra Sig technique. Making time for your personal ceramics projects is important, at least for me.
The last months I have been working hard to give an advice on a local (pottery) clay, on a survey among the readers of my newsletter and following a branding course. All worth my time and effort.
However instructive this was, sometimes I encounter a technique that I want to investigate further. Ceramics is a field where many techniques play a role. I always like to read about all kinds of methods. But to “really” get to know a technique I have to put theory into practice.
What is Terra Sig?
Terra Sigillata is a ceramic finish from classical antiquity and is known under various names. Nowadays, ceramists usually call it “Terra Sig” or “Sig” for short.
The history and rediscovery of Terra Sigillata is fascinating, but also confusing. The translation alone is confusing. In older texts it is mostly translated as “sealed earth”, nowadays as “stamped pottery”.
More confusing because the term is also used for a type of earthenware that was produced in the Roman Empire. But the “Terra Sig technique” arose far ahead of the Roman Empire, in Egypt and Greece among others. With the introduction of (lead) glazes, the technique got lost in time from about 400 BCE.
It was not until the middle of the last century that the method was rediscovered. Pete Pinell (University Nebraska-LINCOLN) has held a very informative lecture on this subject during NCECA 2018.
Oh, did I mention that Terra Sigillata is also the name of “medicinal clay” from the Greek Island of Lemnos? Well Terra Sig is confusingly versatile…
The Terra Sig Technique
Today, ceramic artists mean with “Terra Sig” a ceramic finish of very fine slip. It “seals” the clay with a matte gloss, but does not make it waterproof. The end result looks like clay that has been polished, as for example Pre-Columbian ceramics, but the mat gloss it is obtained in a very different manner.
Traditionally, the slip is applied to bone dry clay and fired at earthenware temperatures (1000 to 1100 oC). Nowadays it is also fired on stoneware (above 1200 oC, cone 6-8) temperature, whether or not supported with glazes, washes or pigments.
Burnishing the clay, after Terra Sig is applied, to increase the shine is also done nowadays. A fusion of techniques from different cultures separated by oceans and millennia: we live in interesting times (another reason why Terra Sig is sometimes confused with burnished ceramics and vice versa):-)
What am I going to do with it?
Terra Sig is not only interesting. The best thing about it is that you can develop it yourself. That is the only way to make a technique “your own”. And also the best way.
I have now made and fired the first test tiles. Very promising! What I’m going to do with it? I do not know yet. I still have to explore all the possibilities and impossibilities. And that doesn’t work on test tiles, but only on new work. So I’m going straight back to my wheel…
Read More about Terra Sig
Interested in the technical aspects of “Terra Sig”?
Recently a book of Rhonda Willers “Terra Sigillata: Contemporary techniques” has been published. This describes extensive the technical aspects of Terra Sig and the contemporary ceramic artists that work with it. Also a chapter with the historical context, a must read!
In Anton Reijnders book “The Ceramic Process”, chapter 10, the making of the Terra Sig slip and all the factors that affect it, is clearly described. It lacks a historical overview, but that is more then compensated by all the other technical information this book contains.
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