* PRESENTS *

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PRESENTS
venetiancat.com

• Julia Passamonti-Colamartino
• aka Iulia Cassia Vegetia
• Legio III Cyrenaica
• Maker of Amphorae

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ANATOMY OF AN AMPHORA

• Construction of a Dressel 1C
• Wine Amphora

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The Plan

• The finished piece will be roughly half-scale, or
  about 19 inches
• (48 cm)
• The amphora will be watertight and fully usable.
  It will hold 64 ounces (1.5 liters) of liquid.

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Archeological Information Dressel 1C

• ORIGIN Middle Tyrrhenian coast of Italy.
• DIMENSIONS 100 to 120cm high, 30cm wide.
• DIFFUSION diffused in large amounts in Western
  Mediterranean, Middle and Northern Europe from
  the second half of II to the end of I Century
  B.C.
• CONTENT wine.

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Some TOOLS of the TRADE
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Part I The BODY Step I

• The base is made first, and may be wheel-thrown
  (shown here) or hand built.
• The piece is allowed to firm up before adding
  coils.
• The bottom of the base is made wide on the
  outside for support, and will be trimmed later.

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Step II

• The first coil is made and ready . I use an
  extruder to save time and labor, but they can
  also be rolled out by hand.
• Each coil is about one quarter inch (4 mm ) in
  diameter and about 3 feet (1M) long.

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Step III

• The base is then scored or incised with a
  needle tool.
• Scoring allows for better adhesion of the coil to
  the clay base.

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Step IV

• Slip-a mixture of the clay body and water which
  is about the consistency of peanut butter, is
  applied to the incised base. This very important
  ingredient acts as a sort of glue.
• The coil is also scored the same as the base, and
  slip is applied to it as well. Here, the coil is
  spiraled in a clockwise direction. It can be
  spiraled counterclockwise as well.

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Step V

• A wooden thumb tool (or the fingers) is used to
  smooth each coil spiral after it is applied.
• The vessel is smoothed both on the outside and
  the inside. This assures a stronger and more even
  clay wall.

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Step VI a

• The outside is made as smooth and as even as
  possible with the aid of a rib, shown here.
• Ribs come in many shapes and sizes as well as
  many different materials. This one is my
  favorite. It is made of a soft gel-like rubber.
  The ancients used wood and bone, and may have
  used flexible wood or pieces of cartilage.

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Step VI b

• The coils are further smoothed with a rib as the
  vessel is turning on the wheel.
• The vessel is now ready for the addition of the
  next coil.

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Step VIII

• Repeating steps III through VII, the next coil
  is applied, and then smoothed using a thumb tool
  and/or fingers, and a rib.

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Step IX

• Continuing steps III through VII, build the
  vessel up as much as you can without the piece
  becoming soft and wobbly.
• When this happens, be sure to smooth the coils
  and STOP.
• Allow the vessel to firm up. It is important
  that the clay be firm enough (this state is
  called leather hard) to withstand the weight of
  the subsequent layers of coil spirals, or your
  vessel will soon look like an avalanche or melted
  volcano!

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Keep building, adding coils, smoothing.you can
still see the coil spirals and finger marks on
the inside.
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Build to about 13 (30cm)

• Paying close attention to a photograph of the
  original amphora, the coils are brought in to
  form the shoulder of the vessel.
• The piece is allowed to firm up so that it will
  withstand the weight of the neck without
  collapsing.

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Part II-The NECK Step I

• The neck is thrown separately on the wheel.
• The ancients often combined hand-built and
  wheel-thrown sections.
• A wooden chisel tool is used to shape the lip.

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Step IIVarious tools are used in shaping and
smoothing
Elephant ear sponge for smoothing
Sponge on a stick
Wet chamois for a smooth lip
Rib
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Part III Connecting the NECK to the BODYStep I

• The neck has been allowed to firm up to the
  leather hard state
• The diameter of the body opening is measured
  using calipers
• This measurement is than marked on the neck.

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Step II

• The neck is cut off the bat (blue disc) using a
  needle tool (lower right).
• The bas is hollowed and thinned from the inside
  using a fettling knife and needle tool.
• It is important that the neck be leather hard to
  do this, or it will distort.

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Step III The neck is connected to the body
3
1
The edge is scored using a needle tool.
The neck is placed on the body and lined up.
4
2
Clay is added and smoothed into the seam.
The body is scored also, and slip is applied to
BOTH edges to insure a strong bond.
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The vessel is now ready to receive handles.
After smoothing, the seam is invisible.
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Part IVHANDLES Step I

• A piece of clay is rolled into a fat coil.
• While holding over a bucket of water with one
  hand (here, my left) it is wet, pulled and
  squeezed repeatedly.
• Doing this will compress the clay and elongate
  the piece.
• This method is called handle pulling.

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Step IIThe clay is pulled until it becomes a
long strap.
1
3 The strap is cut from the upper coil mass and
allowed to firm slightly
4 The 2 handles are then cut from the single
strap, bent, and allowed to firm to the leather
hard state.
2 The clay is stretched and compressed into a
long, thin strap.
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Step IIIUsing the scoring and slip technique,
(as when the coil spirals were added) the handles
are applied.
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PART V Final Trimming

• This is a separate support called a bottle
  chuck which had been specially made to receive
  the amphora.
• It is shown here held in place by a Giffen
  Grip, which fits right over the wheel head. It
  has been allowed to become leather hard and
  will eventually be fired with the amphora. It
  can then be used over and over again.

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The amphora is placed upside down in the chuck,
and soft clay balls are added to hold it in place.
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Using a trimming tool, the excess clay is trimmed
away.
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The vessel is allowed to dry slowly and
thoroughly before it is fired.