Pottery on earth arose even before our era in those places where there were plastic red and white clays. “It’s not the gods who burn the pots,” said the ancient Greeks and were right, going from simple to very complex forms.
The emergence of fishing near Ryazan
Vyatichi in the days of Kievan Rus discovered clay suitable for making dishes in those places where the city of Skopin would later grow near Ryazan. But in large quantities it began to be produced from the middle of the 17th century.
Products intended for peasants. It was dishes, and tiles, and even pipes for stoves. Much later, about 250 years later, artels appeared, in which they made laconic products, and products of very intricate forms: kumgans, ferments, candlesticks. So the Skopinsky Ceramic Plant grew and developed. Skopinskaya ceramics was shown at an exhibition in Paris in 1900. The characteristic fantasy forms of candlesticks and vessels decorated with stucco molding were presented there. And the irrigation was brown, yellow, green and silver.
What the plant is famous for
From 1914 to 1920, in the dashing years of the war, production stopped, but it reopened in the mid-30s, when the Skopinsky factory of art products was formed. It was created when approximately fifty pottery workshops, which were interconnected by the Keramik artel, were united. The Skopinsky factory of artistic ceramics also produces flowerpots, candlesticks, cacti and flower pots with trays for draining water. Their volume can reach up to 50 liters.
Skopinskaya ceramics is characterized by an unusually wide assortment, which includes floor and table vases, pencil boxes, piggy banks, dishes for the microwave, tiles and much more.
Production
Dry clay mixes well with water. Then it mixes very carefully and crumpled. After this, clay dough can take any form. For pottery production, “fatty” clays are used, which have high plasticity. They are shiny and slippery to the touch. It is from such clays that Skopinskaya ceramics are made, which should take the form that the master on the pottery wheel wants to give her .
The originality of the plan and the skill of embodiment can be a wonderful souvenir to those who are looking for a unique gift. And if casting is used, then the mass is bred to a more liquid state and poured into plaster molds. Then, before firing, the products are dried at room temperature and only then sent to the kiln for firing. Skopinsky Ceramics Plant uses only environmentally friendly raw materials.
Technology
All manufacturing processes are very laborious. First, a mold is made on the potter's wheel, then fairy-tale figures are molded, they are glued to the mold with liquid clay, and all the seams are smoothed with a wet cloth. Then Skopinskaya ceramics is processed with scallops or sticks to make arcs, circles, spirals and other geometric ornaments. After that, the product is sent to the oven and fired at t 600 0 C and cool it.
Paints
Then the product is covered with glaze and fired again at t 1200 0 C. Its colors may be different. They depend on metal oxides that are added to the glaze. Ryazan masters achieved that Skopinskaya ceramics, its coloring began to play in various shades. For coloring in yellow color, which is ideally combined with the natural brown shade of burnt clay, iron oxide is used (in the past it was simply frayed mill scale). Copper is used to produce red, chromium oxide for grass green, and cobalt oxide for blue.
This process is laborious and often done manually. Since Skopinskaya ceramics are often used for food purposes, lead is not used in production, and absolutely all products are certified.
Products
All Skopinskaya art ceramics produced by the plant can be divided into two large groups:
- Products intended for food purposes.
- Decorative items.
And also otherwise all this can be classified into the following categories:
- Mass production.
- Products from fireclay.
- Copyright works.
A large creative team of artists works on the creation of new forms, whose ideas are embodied by experienced masterly masters. Indeed, original product designs cannot be completed without knowing the properties of the material. Well, for example, a watch is built into a hut, on the roof of which there is not only a pipe, but also a kitten sitting next to each other, there is a colorful owner and mistress on each side of the house, and behind them there is a fence with pots put on pegs. Or you can consider the honey cake. This is a patterned barrel of brown color, to which greenish leaves have stuck. And next to it there is a burly mistress with red beads, with a scarf on her head, her hands are resting on her hips. She extols her honey. These products will add warmth and a truly folk Russian flavor to the kitchen. The charming pencil box is made in the shape of a mug, the surface of which imitates a tree bark. Mushrooms with eyes grow from its base, they are eaten, and they look. Everything is like in a proverb.
The photo above is one example of a funny everyday scene.
The plant also produces small architectural forms from fireclay. Fireclay is a type of ceramic, most often light beige. It is not coated with glaze, and its surface is rough to the touch. Vases, flower pots, decorative boots, swans - this is an incomplete list of fireclay items. They are installed on personal plots, using as a decorative design element. They unusually organically fit into the natural background, located on lawns or near tree trunks. But since they do not like low temperatures, they are cleaned for the winter.
Uncolored products are also offered to customers. Therefore, having bought it, you can fully realize your creative abilities by independently painting an acquired cock, for example, which will later serve as a candlestick.
The best examples of Skopinski products found their place in museums. At art exhibitions, they receive diplomas and letters of appreciation. The products of Skopinsky masters, highly artistic and extraordinary, can serve as a wonderful gift.