Magan’s ideal pottery apron
During the workday, an apron assists a potter as more than a catch-all layer. Multiple pockets adorn a potter’s apron, containing many clay-covered treasures, ready to hold tools with blunt and sharp edges. The front panels serve to catch splatters and clean tools. They are also used like pot holders to protect hands from sharp edges when carrying heavy buckets, and to insulate against high temperatures when a potter eagerly removes the first pot from their kiln. Potters who work with atmospheric firings, heating their pots in wood or raku kilns, may also want a second apron made of wool. A wool apron is more fire retardant than cotton, and provides an extra layer of warmth during the long nights of a wood firing.
There are more textile items in a potter’s life than a set of clothes and apron. Aside from the expected cleaning tools, there are chamois (or shammies)—made of a fine combination of loose hairs and absorbent cloth used to clean joins on pots. An auxiliary tool, Batt Mates are an absorbent cloth placed between the batt and the throwing-wheel head. The cloth expands when moistened to prevent batts from wobbling during throwing. Kiln gloves are essentially giant oven mitts made to withstand temperatures over 538 °C (1000 °F). The most important and unacknowledged collaboration between textile and ceramic technology would be Kaowool, a fibre spun from molten kaolin clay. This thick cloth is used to line furnaces and kilns. Kaowool works with insulation brick (called softbrick or F26 firebrick) to enable potters to fire their work safely and efficiently.
Kiln gloves, oversized for safety
Batt mates
Kaowool
The structure of chamois fabric
I continue to wear my pottery apron while working in my dye kitchen, because the virtues that my pottery apron possesses are useful to me in the dye kitchen. Every industry is multi-disciplinary, relying on others to help their own technology improve. How would a different weave, material, or weight change the applications of your tools? Is what you are familiar with the best design for your purpose? Do other crafts involve tools that would improve your practice? Consider how textiles have impacted or improved your craft, your studio, and your kitchen.
Potters are notoriously messy, so an apron will swiftly become covered in clay. Clay clogs the pipes of your washing machine and is expensive to repair. Most potters soak their clay covered clothes in a bucket, using agitation to loosen the clay before washing, or simply hanging the garment to dry.
All illustrations by Magan Wilson.
Featured image by rose mantara from Pixabay.
