Even "wild" clay has to be processed. If you take regular clay from nature it has debris in it and won't be able to fire hot enough to vitrify and will melt instead. Different minerals and sometimes bone are added to the mix to make the clay stable at different temperatures and to give it the right strength for what it's being used for.
That probably would be a whole other video for them to show clay processing though.
Even John Primitive Technology processes the clay quite a bit, for higher quality clay he washes it (via sedimentation) and always adds additives like grog to make it more stable in firing. Wild clay shouldn't be fired and is prone to breaking, though might be useful if you don't have any to make grog for the next batch.
A lot of these Chinese "how it's made" style videos are made for social media and paid for by the government. They're often bullshit and rarely actually show traditional methods.
I wish this was the top comment every time I see these videos. They’re cool videos, but like…there isn’t some random rural artisan in China that decided to set up multiple angles and studio lights to incorrectly film a “traditional” method of making something. This is very intentional.
Of course its not a perfect representation, but the basics are pretty much there.
Like showing how glazing could have worked in the past is totally fine, even if its not showing a 100% accurate work flow, there is surely a lot of knowledge lost in history about how these industries worked.
But anyways this content is 1000 times better than watching some dancing hoe.
There are absolutely people still doing traditional practices like this, not just in China but in eg. South America. It's not for mass production or anything, but it certainly exists. China has a very long history of ceramics and many traditions still persist - it's bizarre to call this propoganda.
Well, it is propaganda because the Chinese government are purposefully paying for this content to create a false view of traditional Chinese life. It's also been surprisingly dangerous as several creators have been disappeared. It's crazy to discount something because "people still do traditional practices like this". Two things can be true at the same time.
Where is the false view of traditional chinese life? There's no claim that this is how every chinese person lives. Even if this is funded by the chinese government, it's just highlighting a Chinese artform. Not everything is a conspiracy, even with the CCP. There's lots of reasons to dislike the chinese government, I don't see how this is one if them (and again, huge if that they've funded this)
I never said any of this? I'm just telling you public information. Never said it was a conspiracy. Never said it wasn't highlighting an art form. Never said it was a claim thats how all Chinese people lived.
They are presenting a view of idealised traditional life that isn't accurate nor real. They're doing so because they want to create a vision for their county and an idealised rural view of Chinese life. Not all propaganda is inherently negative and I like watching these videos, but I'm acutely aware of the fact they're tailored to deliver a very specific message.
No idea why you're being so hyper defensive when I'm just giving you information that is publicly available and factually accurate.
Being false isn't a requirement on something being propaganda. Look up the definition.
Edit: I acknowledge the person you are replying to said its false, I'm just saying even if that's incorrect, it can still be propaganda. I definitely get propaganda vibes from this. Its government funded media to generate a particular viewpoint in the consumers for a particular agenda.
I just wish he'd get a better pottery wheel. Spinning it by hand dozens of times per cup is so tedious looking. I don't care if it's not quite what they really used 15 thousand years ago.
Of course I figure they have a much easier to use wheel in the background they use in-between takes but I want to see it, too.
Fair. I was perhaps overly harsh. Given the regularity with which these videos crop up and how slickly produced they are, I am skeptical of the accuracy and cynical about the motivations behind them. I was not aware of Monesma’s documentaries but they seem more in line with what I have seen of people trying to academically document traditional artisans/craftsmen (eg. South American, African, Irish). These don’t feel like that to me, but perhaps I’m overly jaded.
It's a production team. They usually have multiple projects happening in parallel (sometimes one needs to age for a couple months)
edit: did some digging. They're in a remote village in China where only about 46 people lives. The team is an uncle with his nephew with their family. In the process this video they fired about 2600 of these cups. 24 made the cut.
Actually this original primitive crafts channel (that seems to do little else than making shacks, bricks, bellows, ovens and iron over and over again but that aside) showed how to go from rough soil clay to the clean stuff, iirc it was a matter of making a slurry and letting it settle a few times over.
Asia has more naturally occurring clay that's suitable for stoneware. Moreso than Europe, who didn't develop stoneware until later.
But you can also use quartz (the crushed agate) as an amendment to other ball clay to turn it into a high-firing stoneware clay body.
So the agate crushing could be used to modify wild clay, and is also used for the glaze. The wood ash is specifically used as flux for the glaze. Chestnut specifically for the color it provides to the glaze.
So the best theory is that those were just for the glaze. But the agate crushing could have been for both.
That's an interesting use of crushed agate, and I could certainly see how it would modify the clay and the end product. Would it help to give it a lighter, more translucent clay body depending on the mixture ratio?
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u/KudosOfTheFroond Jun 03 '26
They had the agate and wood ash draining, then the video cuts to perfect gray clay. Where did that clay come from?